Last season, the Mets’ bullpen proved to be a thorn in the team’s side for most of the season, but by adding an established veteran like Dellin Betances in the offseason and with the hopes Edwin Diaz could bounce back to his usual self, expectations were high for the bullpen heading into the 2020 season.
But on Friday night in Atlanta, the bullpen wasn’t able to hold on to an 8-2 lead, and later a 10-6 lead, resulting in the most gut-wrenching loss of the young season, as the Braves rallied for an improbable 11-10 win.
“We’ve had a few tough losses already in the young season and tonight was, I want to say, the toughest one,” said Luis Rojas afterwards. “Up four in the eighth and you have Dellin and (Seth) Lugo come in and close it up, and you don’t exactly get what you expect to get from those two guys."
The box score wasn’t pretty, as all four Mets relievers – Paul Sewald, Chasen Shreve, Betances, and Lugo -- allowed at least one earned run behind Rick Porcello, who was charged with four runs (three earned) of his own in four-plus innings of work.
But even after seeing an 8-2 lead shrink, the Mets still held a four-run lead going into the eighth, with some of their biggest bullpen names ready to try to close things down.
But Betanes struggled mightily, allowing a pair of singles and a pair of walks to go along with a wild pitch.
After Betances recorded just one out, Rojas turned to Lugo with two runners on and a 10-8 lead. Lugo walked Marcell Ozuna to load the bases, and a couple of batters later, former Met Travis d’Arnaud emptied them with a double to right-center, giving the Braves an 11-10 lead.
“We’ve got to get ahead of guys better, including myself. We’re putting ourselves in a hole, falling behind in counts,” said Lugo. “We’ve got to eliminate the leadoff walks. Tonight, I walked the go-ahead run, and that’s just not acceptable.
“I’ve got to tip my hat to [d’Arnaud]. He stayed with his approach and drove the ball the other way. I was kind of banking on him trying to pull and lift right there, and I chose wrong.”
Mets pitchers walked seven batters on Friday, and almost every one seemed to come back to hurt them. From Rojas’ vantage point in the dugout, it was this constant falling behind in the count that ultimately cost his bullpen the most.
"First thing I want to say is the command," said Rojas. "We’ve got to do a better job of commanding our pitches and not falling behind or walking batters.
“Pitchers are going to make mistakes, batters are going to make mistakes when they’re at-bat, it’s something that’s going to happen, but from our standpoint, we need to work and get back on track. This is a really good bullpen. I keep saying it. There’s so much depth and these guys have so much experience closing games and pitching games. … We need to work, talk, regroup, and make sure we’re executing the pitches we didn’t execute tonight.”
With the loss, the Mets fell to 3-5 in the short 60-game season. But despite Friday’s brutal loss, Rojas and the members of the bullpen know that the group is still talented enough to turn things around.
“Our task right now is to get things right. We know how good we are in the bullpen,” said Rojas. “We know how good of hitters we are. We showed it today even though we had the situations with runners in scoring position where we hadn’t delivered. This is the same talks that should get us right back on track and show out on the field the team we are competing and getting wins.”
“I think we’re holding up well. I think we’re out there focused and going over hitters throughout the game,” said Lugo. “I think things will turn around, because we’re not letting that affect our morale out there. I think we can bounce back fast.”