Road warrior: Severino lowers away ERA to MLB-best 0.93 in strong start vs. Royals

KANSAS CITY -- Home has been anywhere but Sutter Health Park for Luis Severino this season. Despite making just his second start at Kauffman Stadium since 2018 on Friday, Severino couldn’t have looked more comfortable more than 1,400 miles from his home park.

The Athletics' ace continued his unconventional trend with 7 2/3 dominant frames in the A’s 6-4 win against the Royals in the series opener. Severino dropped his road ERA to an MLB-best 0.93 by allowing just one run on six hits -- tossing at least six innings on the road for the fifth time in as many outings.

“It’s tough to explain, the road split, but just in terms of how [Severino] went out tonight -- we needed that performance from him,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “After getting out of that first-inning jam, he just seemed to settle in and really pound the strike zone. … Again, run prevention is a combination of our defense and our pitching. Tonight, we got excellent pitching, thus the result was there.”

It’s nothing new for Severino, who entered with a 7.10 ERA at home and a 0.87 mark on the road, with the 6.23 difference the largest gap between home and road splits in the Major Leagues. The Rockies’ Chase Dollander (5.08; 9.58 home, 4.50 road) is the next closest -- over a run apart from Severino. The only other pitchers with a difference of greater than 3.60 are the Orioles’ Cade Povich (4.49; 7.59 home, 3.10 away) and Mariners’ Emerson Hancock (4.42; 7.54 home, 3.31 road).

Severino came just four outs shy of a complete game on 104 pitches.

“I felt great,” Severino said. “I told Kotsay that I could go 100 more pitches if they need me to. I felt great and like I was in control.”

Severino said he relied on his changeup (14%) more than normal after he and catcher Austin Wynns, who hit his first homer with the Athletics in the second inning, noticed Royals batters looking for inside pitches with two strikes.

After Salvador Perez got to Severino with an RBI double in the first inning, the 31-year-old righty faced just three batters over the minimum before Maikel Garcia’s two-out double in the eighth forced him out of the game.

“ … I think for me, as a pitcher, I had to go out there and bring a statement to the team for them to know that when I’m here, I’m going to go out there and compete and work,” Severino said. “If I have to go out there and throw 130 pitches for my team, I will do it.”

That attitude, combined with six runs of support by the sixth inning, was more than enough for Severino to settle in comfortably.

“If we can go up there and put up runs for him, we’re going to put ourselves in a good spot to win,” said Jacob Wilson, who had two hits after missing the past two games with left hamstring tightness. “[Severino] is a competitor. He goes out there each and every time he’s on the mound and we have full faith in him. … When he’s on, you can see the competitive switch turn on in him, it’s pretty fun to play behind him and watch him do his thing.”

Severino also praised the offense, which entered Friday’s victory with the third best OPS (.739) in the American League. Max Muncy (two-run single) and Luis Urías (solo homer) also provided crucial runs that eventually loomed large after the Royals scratched across three runs on Mason Miller’s first outing in five days.

The length Severino provided with his start allowed the A’s to stay away from a bullpen with an MLB-worst 6.11 ERA, aiding the end of the 14-game road losing streak -- which dated to May 13 against the Dodgers.

The A’s have still lost 28 of their past 35 games, but Severino’s road brilliance could be the start of a new, positive, stretch.

“If you have a good game like we did tonight, I think that you can kind of awaken your team,” Wilson said. “Get the faith back a little bit knowing that everybody here is pretty good, everyone here is a big leaguer. When we go out there and play our game, I think we can hang, if not beat any team in this league, and you saw it here tonight.”