Mets' mix-and-match bullpen does the job in win over Red Sox to extend streak to 7
Alex Young of the Mets reacts after the fifth inning against the Red Sox at Citi Field on Wednesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
In the middle innings of another tight, important game, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza had a problem: How was his team supposed to get the final 15 outs?
Tylor Megill, spot starter, lasted only four-plus innings. The lineup came out hot, via Jesse Winker’s grand slam in the first, then stopped scoring most of the rest of the way. The night wasn’t quite half over and the Mets were barely hanging on.
Mendoza found an answer with a playoffs-esque approach to the bullpen: mix and match and a little bit of magic to finish off an 8-3 win and a series sweep of the Red Sox on Wednesday. The Mets (76-64) have won seven consecutive games, the longest active streak in the majors, and remain a half-game back of the last National League wild-card spot.
“It was a really good preview for how a must-win game can be,” said Phil Maton, who recorded the last out of the eighth inning. “I think we managed it really well and we pitched through it pretty well too.”
Mendoza turned to Alex Young for three outs, Huascar Brazoban for four, Danny Young for four and Maton for one. And after the Mets blew it open with a four-run bottom of the eighth — the Red Sox relievers issuing three consecutive bases-loaded walks — they stuck with Edwin Diaz for the last three outs.
Put another way: The Mets deployed a midseason waiver claim, a minor trade-deadline addition, an offseason minor-league signing, a cash-or-player-to-be-named trade acquisition and the bona fide closer.
It was a testament to a bullpen rebuilt on the fly during this back-from-the-brink season — a specialty of David Stearns’ Brewers that has become extremely relevant in his first season as the Mets’ president of baseball operations.
“Amazing” is how Mendoza described the organization-wide effort that yielded all of the above. From the pro scouting and analytics groups that identify which arms are worth bringing in to pitching coach Jermey Hefner and the game-planning/strategy staff that helps decide when to use which guy — to cite a few pieces of the formula — a lot goes into it.
“David Stearns and his group, they never stop,” Mendoza said. “And we knew coming into the year that to get through 162-plus [games], you’re going to need a lot of people. And we’ve seen that. And that was the message in spring training. Guys who felt like at the time that they didn’t have a chance, the message always was ‘Be ready, because your name will be called.’”
In most every instance of a reliever joining the roster, Mendoza has stressed: He trusts the newbie. He will ask him to get big outs in stressful spots. He has to.
“Mendy told me third day I was here, way back in maybe May, we were going out to stretch and he says, hey, I’ll use you whenever. Just so you know, I’ll use you whenever,” Danny Young said. “And he’s shown that over the year. It kind of simplifies it. You know where your matchups are and where you line up. You can be prepared for that whether it’s the fourth, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth. Obviously, Sugar is throwing the ninth. That’s pretty clear. But anywhere before that, you prepare for that situation.”
Mendoza made mid-inning pitching changes in each of the fifth through eighth frames. Boston (70-70) helped out by grounding into inning-ending double plays in the fifth, sixth and seventh. Maton gave up hard back-to-back singles before getting Masataka Yoshida to line out softly to shortstop, leaving the would-be tying run at third base in the eighth.
As Red Sox righthander Tanner Houck (five innings, four runs) suppressed the Mets’ attempts to expand their lead, Mendoza got proactive with his pitchers.
The variables lined up: The Mets had an unreliable starter in Megill, a reasonably rested group of relievers and a day off Thursday. If he needed a lot, he could ask for a lot.
“I had an idea going in,” Mendoza said. “I was going to let the game play out and make adjustments accordingly, but I knew coming in that I was going to be very, very aggressive with what I had available.”
What he had available got it done.
“Hell of a job,” he said. “Solid. All of those guys.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
