‘It's not a secret’ solving Mets' bullpen issue the ‘priority right now’

It was no secret before the game and it was no secret after the game: Getting the Mets’ bullpen on track remains a huge concern for manager Carlos Mendoza.

“That’s the priority right now, it’s not a secret,” the skipper said before Monday night’s game in Washington. “Especially getting the last three outs.”

With his team ahead by three runs entering the bottom of the ninth inning, Mendoza’s pregame words may have been ringing in his ear.

Adam Ottavino, who got the call to nail down the ninth inning after pitching a scoreless eighth inning on Sunday, put the first two batters on base with five straight out of the zone for a walk and hit by pitch. Suddenly there was a feeling of deja vu for the Mets.

After a mound visit, Ottavino got Nick Senzel to fly out down the line in right. But Jesse Winker’s single cut the lead to two and an Ildemaro Vargas single loaded the bases.

“We saw a really good Ottavino [Sunday] and then today he didn’t have it,” the manager said. “He’s a solid guy there, he’ll continue to grind through it. I’m not worried about Otto at all.”

Mendoza called for Jake Diekman, the left-hander who blew the save in Sunday’s loss, and the Nationals countered by pinch-hitting for lefty Joey Gallo with Joey Meneses, something the manager expected.

The manager said he got Diekman up “pretty quick as the inning was unfolding. We knew that Meneses was ready at some point for Diekman, but got to a point where I needed to make a move.”

Diekman fell behind 3-0 but got the Meneses to hit a deep fly ball to center to trade a run for a big second out. But the tying run was now 90 feet away. The lefty made short work of Drew Millas, with three straight fastballs, the last of which went right over the middle for a called strike three.

“It was good to see him bounce back, especially after the outing yesterday,” Mendoza said. “Coming in with the bases loaded, got behind 3-0, but he’s been in this league for a long time. He was able to slow the game down, and just think small, one pitch at a time, got back in the count… got the sac fly there and then kind of back on track.

“And then just stay on the attack for the last out of the game. So helluva a job.”

Before the ninth, the bullpen delivered nine big outs, from Adrain Houser and Drew Smith, making his return from the IL.

“For [Houser] to just keep us in the game, it was two solid innings,” Mendoza said. “Staying on the attack, make pitches.”

After working around two singles in the sixth, Houser issued back-to-back one-out walks in the eighth. And the free pass has been a killer for the bullpen this year as Mets relievers have issued 111 walks, third-most in the big leagues.

But Smith, making his first appearance since April 23, needed just 10 pitches to get out of the jam.

Part of the challenge for the first-year skipper has been a squeeze from both ends, dealing with “a combination of both” Edwin Diaz’s unavailability to close and starting pitchers not getting consistent length. Tylor Megill went just five innings Monday after Jose Quintana went four on Sunday.

“When you have Diaz back there it’s a different ballgame, especially when he’s right. And he went through a stretch where he was struggling before he went on the IL,” Mendoza said. “But not getting length out of the starter makes it a little bit of a challenge, as well.”

With Diaz still working his way back to full health and the ‘pen still finding consistency, the plan is to “continue to mix and match.”

“We got a lot of veteran guys there, they’ve done it, they’ve had success, and I’m pretty sure and I’m pretty confident they will get the job done here pretty soon,” Mendoza said before the game. “It’s just one of those stretches where it’s hard for those guys, they’re human.

“But they will continue to get the ball and I’m pretty confident they will continue to get the job done.”

It was shaky Monday night in the nation’s capital, but in the end the bullpen did its job.