LOS ANGELES — If you ask Mets manager Carlos Mendoza or anyone associated with his team, the bullpen was stellar.
“They did a hell of a job,” Mendoza said after New York’s 7-3 victory in Game 2 of the NLCS.
“They did an outstanding job,” said shortstop Francisco Lindor. “They executed their pitches.”
“I’ve got the utmost confidence in the boys back there, and they come in and shut the door and limit the damage,” said Mets starter Sean Manaea, who exited with the bases loaded after five-plus innings.
Such is the nature of the postseason and the good feelings of winning a National League Championship game on the road. If you win, it was good, regardless of the nail-biting process the compliments omit.
Traffic on a Monday afternoon in Los Angeles is nothing new. The Mets, however, found themselves in a bumper-to-bumper situation over the final 12 outs.
And make no mistake — the relievers did the job over four scoreless innings. In a vacuum, that’s as good as it gets, particularly against an elite Dodgers offense. But it required some expert navigation, as those four scoreless innings also came with seven base runners.
This group flew home to New York feeling deservedly elated — home-field advantage now on their side, and three wins away from a World Series berth. But Monday’s win continued to expose a budding concern for these Mets. While their bullpen has been a big part of this magical run, it has also been very shaky.
Phil Maton has a 2.75 WHIP in four postseason games. José Buttó started the postseason in a leverage role but a 7.71 ERA has left him on the outside looking in. Ryne Stanek has stepped it up in the playoffs but held a 6.06 ERA after getting traded to New York. And the closer, Edwin Díaz, has allowed six walks and three hits in 4 2/3 postseason innings.
If the Mets are going to make a World Series run, these are the guys they need to do it with. And right now, even the strongest of leads feel tenuous.
“As soon as I give up the base hit, the walk, I said I would throw my fastball right in the middle, try to get a double play,” Diaz said of his up-and-down four-out save. “I ended up striking out the other three hitters, but I was trying to make pitches and get them out.”
On Monday, the Mets got up 6-0 early on the back of a leadoff Lindor homer and a second-inning grand slam from Mark Vientos. It wasn’t easy, however. And the chaos that followed somehow always resulted in an exhale. Maton said as the tension rose amid his outing, he tried to stay focused on the scouting reports. Remember the hitters’ heat maps. Avoid thinking about the actual scenario and its implications.
“If you get caught up with what could go wrong,” he said, “it’s usually gonna go wrong.”
Maton induced an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded after that six-run lead had been cut in half in the sixth. Stanek left Shohei Ohtani stranded at first in the seventh, making quick work of the heart of the order.
In the eighth, Díaz got a flyout to strand two inherited runners. Then he made a mess in the ninth, putting the first two on for the second consecutive ninth inning. But, once again, he didn’t pay the price.
“It was how I envisioned it going in the game today,” Mendoza said of navigating the final innings. “It doesn’t always work out that way. I’m just glad they came out big time today and especially for Díaz, the last four outs.”
So often teams that reach this point in the postseason have an established pecking order — cultivated over months of regular-season baseball. The Dodgers have Blake Treinan, Evan Phillips and Michael Kopech. The Guardians have four lock-down relievers, all with sub-two ERAs.
The Mets don’t have that. They’re mixing and matching on the fly. Roles elevating and plummeting as the games increase in importance.
Perhaps their two most reliable relievers were starters all season. David Peterson has a 2.08 over 8 2/3 innings this postseason, even closing out the wild-card clincher. Tylor Megill was elite over his final six starts of the regular season and remains a relief option.
They’ll be relied upon with the Mets opting to play a reliever short in the NLCS. With Jeff McNeil healthy, they chose to keep infielder Luisangel Acuña on the roster, with righty Adam Ottavino on the taxi squad.
The Mets have reached this point on the back of late-inning comebacks, elite starting pitching and even the power of a playoff pumpkin.
The bullpen has been good enough to keep the magic going, even if it hasn’t been a foundational piece of this journey the last two weeks. And, on Monday, that’s exactly what they were again. Good enough, just barely.
“It’s kind of life in the bullpen,” said a smiling Stanek of the heart-pounding final four innings. “It’s just kind of what happens.”
(Top photo of Edwin Díaz: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
