Mets' bullpen unable to stop Astros' surge in eighth and ninth

Saturday marked the fourth game the Mets were without Edwin Diaz, who is serving a 10-game suspension because of foreign substances found on his pitching hand last Sunday night against the Cubs. It was the first time during that span that the team truly felt the effects of being without its closer.

The Mets entered the eighth inning with a two-run lead, and it’s unlikely that Diaz would have been called upon to begin that frame. But after Jake Diekman walked the first two batters in the eighth, that’s when Diaz could have been brought in to get the Mets out of trouble. Instead, Diekman and Reed Garrett walked four batters in the inning and Garrett allowed a two-out, two-run single to rightfield by Alex Bregman that gave the Astros a one-run lead in Houston’s 9-6 victory at Citi Field.

“Four walks in that eighth inning, they are going to make you pay eventually,” manager Carlos Mendoza said, “especially when you are facing a team like that.”

The Astros added two runs in the ninth on a two-out, two-run double by Mauricio Dubon on an 0-and-2 pitch from Danny Young. Diekman, Garrett and Young allowed five runs in the final two innings after Tylor Megill gave up four runs in 5 1⁄3 innings and Ty Adcock tossed 1 2⁄3 innings of scoreless relief.

After the game, the Mets sent Megill to Triple-A Syracuse so they can call up a fresh bullpen arm for Sunday’s series finale, MLB.com reported.

Mendoza said the need to rely on relievers in different spots is “a part of where we’re at right now.”

“They came through [Friday], that wasn’t the case today, but we’ll continue to piece it together here,” he said. “Mixing and matching and guys are going to have to get big outs for us as we go through this stretch when we are playing a man short.”

The Mets are playing one pitcher short because MLB rules do not allow a replacement player on the 26-man roster when a player is serving a foreign-substance suspension. Megill threw 101 pitches as Mendoza tried to preserve the bullpen.

“Whenever your name is called, it’s one of those [things] where you’re doing everything you can to get the job done, and I feel like we’ve done a great job and that’s really all we’re doing,” Garrett said. “Whenever the phone rings, whoever’s name is called, we’re taking the ball and we’re going.”

But he failed on Saturday.

“I got to a point where I was competing with everything I got out there and it just didn’t go my way,” he said. “I thought I did a good job of getting ahead of guys, but I couldn’t put them away. Sometimes that’s how it is. It stinks.”

The Mets (41-41) fell back to .500 after Friday’s win gave them their first winning record since May 2. The Astros improved to 41-41 one day after having their seven-game winning streak snapped by the Mets.

After walking two, Diekman recorded a strikeout and groundout to put runners on second and third. With Diaz suspended, Mendoza had to turn to Garrett. He allowed the first run to score on a wild pitch in between two walks and gave up two more runs on Bregman’s single.

The Mets, who are 16-5 in their last 21 games, were in complete control early on. After Jake Meyers’ home run gave the Astros a 1-0 lead in the top of the second, the Mets answered with five runs in the bottom of the inning.

Pete Alonso capped the inning with a two-out, two-run single to centerfield, driving in Harrison Bader and Brandon Nimmo. Nimmo had an RBI double and Bader had an RBI single earlier in the inning, with all three hits coming on the first pitch of the at-bats against Framber Valdez.

Mark Vientos hit a first-pitch home run in the third to give the Mets a 6-1 lead. The Astros answered with three runs in the fourth to make it 6-4 before Houston’s game-defining eighth.

Notes & quotes: The Mets’ uniforms had a new look Saturday for reasons beyond being their City Connect uniforms. They included uniform patches to honor Willie Mays and Jerry Grote, and those patches will remain on their uniforms the rest of the season.

Mays, who had his No. 24 retired by the Mets in August 2022, died June 18. The Mets wore a circular patch with his number on their right sleeve.

Grote, who was a catcher for the Mets for 12 years, including in their 1969 World Series championship year, died in April, and the Mets added a No. 15 patch on their left sleeve. The left sleeve also includes a patch for former Mets player, coach and manager Bud Harrelson, who died in January.