Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

Due to the injuries to the New York Mets starting rotation over the last few weeks, Luis Rojas has had to rely on his bullpen more than ever. In fact, last night was the fourth time in this young season where the Mets had to go to a bullpen game, without a traditional starting pitcher.

Seven Mets took the mound last night, but for the third time in four chances, the team prevailed in a bullpen game, beating the Atlanta Braves 4-3.

It all began with Miguel Castro, who struck out Ronald Acuña Jr. to open the game. Castro needed just 11 pitches to get through his one inning, but was replaced by  Tommy Hunter in the second inning.

Hunter put together another outstanding outing for the Mets, and even contributed offensively, recording his first big league hit at 34 years old, scoring a run as well. On the mound, Hunter threw two scoreless innings, allowing no hits, one walk, and four strikeouts. Hunter owns a 0.00 ERA in four appearances for the Mets on the year.

Robert Gsellman came in to start the fourth, and had yet another subpar outing for the Mets. The right-hander went two innings, and allowed one earned run on two hits and one walk.

Trevor May made an earlier appearance than normal for the Mets, entering in the sixth inning, where he ran into a bit of trouble. For the fourth-straight outing, May allowed an extra-base hit, giving up a home run to Freddie Freeman. All told, the homer was the only run May allowed, striking out two in his inning of work.

Aaron Loup had a stellar seventh inning, and has been dominant all year long for the Mets. Loup struck out two batters in his first inning of work, but at the end of the day he did give up a double to Ehire Adrianza to start the eighth inning.

Adrianza ended up scoring off of a bloop single by Marcell Ozuna in the bottom of the eighth inning, against Jeurys Familia. Familia still looked good overall, as he got Freeman to hit into a double play and struck out Ozzie Albies on three pitches to end the inning after Ozuna’s RBI hit.

After Tomas Nido gave the Mets a late lead with a home run in the top half of the ninth inning, Edwin Díaz was brought in for the save chance. Diaz was pitching for the third-consecutive day, which hasn’t been a great recipe for success in the past.

Diaz prevailed this time however, picking up his seventh save of the year, as he struck out two in a perfect ninth inning. With this save, Díaz now has 148 on his career which is the second-most all-time for a Puerto Rican player in MLB history.

“This team is really really special, we’re a family. This is really a different team, as special as any team I’ve been on, and I feel we can do a lot of special things going forward.” Edwin Díaz said after the game.

The New York Mets have been a special team this year, in large part due to the success of their bullpen.