Yankees fans having flashbacks after all-too-familiar Luis Severino playoff start for Mets

The good news for the New York Mets? They toppled the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series on Tuesday. The bad news? They accomplished the goal in spite of former Yankees starting pitcher Luis Severino.

Yankees fans are sitting at home, waiting for their ALDS opponent to be determined in the Kansas City Royals-Baltimore Orioles series, so this had little effect on them. But if they tuned in for the first few innings of the Mets-Brewers games, they might've experienced some PTSD.

Severino put up a classic choke-esque outing, which Yankees fans are far too familiar with from his stint with the team from 2017-2023. In his postseason career with the Yanks, the veteran right-hander was 1-4 with a 5.15 ERA and 1.51 WHIP in in 43 2/3 innings. He reportedly forgot the start time for one of those outings, too. All-around nightmare for someone who was once viewed as a "cornerstone" player.

Though he's experienced a bounce-back in Queens this year, pitching to a 3.91 ERA and 1.24 WHIP in 31 starts (the most he's made since 2018!), Severino did not understand the assignment for his final two games of the season.

First, he got rocked by the Braves a week ago, allowing four earned runs in four innings in the series opener before the next two games got postponed (the Mets lost that one). Then, on Tuesday, the right-hander ended up going a solid six innings, but he allowed four earned runs on eight hits and two walks — all of which came through the first four innings.

Long story short, this could've been a lot worse had the Brewers not made the bizarre decision to take out Freddy Peralta after the fourth inning. The Mets capitalized and scored five runs in the fifth, which essentially ended the affair. They won 8-4 and took Game 1.

Somehow, this is being branded as a successful outing for Severino because he gutted through the fifth and sixth innings to retire six straight batters, but that was a result of manager Carlos Mendoza pushing his starter so he didn't have to burn the bullpen early in the series.

The difference here was the offense. The Mets came through and beat down the Brewers in relentless fashion when their window of opportunity opened. The Yankees did that once for Sevy during his rookie season when he blew up during the AL Wild Card Game against the Minnesota Twins, but could never consistently bail him out or come through in big moments from that point forward.

Tip of the cap to the Mets for fighting and succeeding, but you've been warned for future Sevy postseason starts. They're always more difficult than they need to be, and it takes a lot of maneuvering to finish the job.