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Luis Severino liked the Mets’ chances of catching the Braves for the NL’s third wild-card spot previously, but acknowledged his team’s odds may have received a bounce Monday.
Austin Riley became the latest Braves starter lost to the injured list.
The All-Star third baseman sustained a fractured right hand after he was hit by a pitch and will miss 6-8 weeks — which encompasses the remainder of the regular season — according to the team.
“That’s real bad news for the Braves,” Severino, the Mets ace, said before his team faced the Orioles at Citi Field. “Thinking as a player I don’t want things like that. They have a good team and they had a good team last year, too. We are really close in the race with the Braves. Hopefully now we can get those two games they are in front of us and try to get that last spot for the wild card.”
Riley joined last year’s National League MVP, Ronald Acuna Jr., as out for the season with the Braves.
Another key component of the Braves lineup, Ozzie Albies, won’t return before late September as he waits for a fractured wrist to mend.
“I have been through that with the Yankees,” Severino said. “It’s one of those years nothing comes your way. You think, ‘We’re going to get better, we are waiting for this guy,’ and then somebody else goes down. You get bad breaks some years.”
Another team the Mets are chasing in the NL wild-card race, the Diamondbacks, lost MVP candidate Ketel Marte to the IL on Monday with an ankle sprain (Severino was unaware of that as he spoke to The Post).
“How about San Diego?” Severino said jokingly, referring to the third team the Mets are chasing for the NL wild card. “Nothing on San Diego?”
Marte’s IL stint ensures he will be absent from the lineup when the Mets begin a series in Arizona next week.
Severino, who was a guest Monday on “The Show” with Post baseball columnists Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman, said he views the upcoming 10-game road trip as one that might define the team’s season.
The Mets will play the Padres, D’backs and White Sox on the three-city trip.
“Our season is there,” Severino said. “We play four with San Diego and three with Arizona. If we win those two series I think we have a good shot to make the playoffs. We can make a statement that we are a good team. If we beat those teams in a series I know it will mean a lot to the guys in here.”
But the Mets, who began play only 15-14 since the All-Star break, are first dealing with an Orioles team that is battling the Yankees for first place in the AL East.
Severino was asked if it was realistic to think the Mets, who rallied over the final six weeks before the All-Star break to surge into postseason contention, had another run in them.
“I am hoping,” he said. “We did it before and we can do it again. We just need to be on the same page. I feel at the beginning we were pitching good and not hitting and then we were hitting and not pitching good, and then the bullpen was a strength and then it was not a strength. If we can get it all together — we don’t have to do it for the whole 30-something games, but if we do it 20-something out of the 30-something that would be amazing.”
