Luis Severino was warned.
With a runner on first base and Bryce Harper approaching the plate in the sixth inning, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner approached the mound.
“Be careful,” Hefner told Severino, meaning: Do not give him anything to hit.
Severino lived on the corners and just off the plate with four pitches before he reached two strikes and unleashed the third-fastest pitch of his 2024 season: a 99-mph fastball down the heart of the plate that Harper sent into orbit for a two-run home run.
Two innings later Sunday in Philadelphia, the bases were empty with one out for Harper.
Edwin Diaz was more careful than Severino, throwing four straight balls.
Harper reached, hustled to third on a Nick Castellanos single and came around to score on Bryson Stott’s go-ahead triple.
“I went lazy to him instead of attacking him,” Diaz said of his Harper at-bat, tinged with regret. “Tried to make pitches [for] him to chase.”
Through two games of a knotted NLDS, whether the Mets challenge the Phillies’ best hitter or avoid him, Harper has found a way to do damage.
It is not a surprise that one of the best players in the game — and in October, with a career 1.024 OPS in the postseason — is proving difficult to handle, but the Mets probably will have to unearth a way to solve Harper if they want to reach the NLCS.
In Games 1 and 2 against Severino, Diaz, Kodai Senga, David Peterson and Phil Maton, Harper stepped to the plate nine times and reached six.
He has demolished a home run, smacked a double and walked four times.
Sometimes the Mets have clearly pitched around him; sometimes they have hoped Harper would get himself out (chasing three balls out of the strike zone in a battle with Peterson); sometimes they have challenged him and lost.
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Some superstars, like Yankees Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, are on-base machines because of a disciplined batting eye.
Harper is different, a free-swinger who will expand the strike zone — and sometimes blast would-be balls.
“He can hit anything anywhere for power,” Mets lefty Danny Young said. “He’s always got a plan, and obviously super talented, one of the best players in the game. You kind of just do your best to execute and manage him, honestly.”
Young has faced Harper four times — three this season — and held Harper to 1-for-4 with three strikeouts.
It is possible that lefty bats like Harper’s and Kyle Schwarber’s force Young into his postseason debut.
The southpaw was strong for the Mets for the majority of the season and held opposing lefties to a .527 OPS, but he tumbled in September and fell down the bullpen depth chart.
Young — and perhaps David Peterson, who has pitched twice in relief in bulkier spots — are the lone southpaw options out of the Mets bullpen.
Whoever is on the mound will face a unique challenge: a throwback slugger who will hunt mistakes but also hunt anything within his bat’s reach.
“He’s Bryce Harper,” manager Carlos Mendoza said during a workout day at Citi Field on Monday. “He’s a really good player and really good hitter. He’s ready always for that first pitch. He’s going to attack.
“And if you make a mistake, he’s going to make you pay — and not only in the zone, but if you close him off in the zone, he’s still going to find a way to put barrel [on the ball].”
