Another day, another loss for the Mets and their troubled bullpen.
The Mets led Saturday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates going into the ninth inning, but suffered blows in the ninth and tenth innings to pave the way to the Bucs eventual win.
“They’re baseball players. They’re human beings. They know times are tough,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “But that’s where you’ve got to learn how to play at this level. You’ve got to learn how to deal with those things and get through them and get ready for the next day. If you let it linger and let it linger, you’re not going to have much success here. You’ve got to get through it.”
After Zack Wheeler turned in six innings and a quality start, Neil Ramirez, Jerry Blevins and Fernando Salas combined to pitch the seventh and eighth innings respectively before Addison Reed blew his second save of the year in the ninth.
John Jaso knotted up the game in the ninth inning for Pittsburgh against Reed and would eventually seal the deal for the Pirates in the tenth inning with a single off Josh Edgin.
The runs were attributed to Tyler Pill, who started off the tenth and registered a loss in his first big league start.
“This is unacceptable,” Reed said. “This is not how I’m expecting to throw the ball. This is not what I’m getting paid for.”
The bullpen, which has been misused, mistreated and unreliable in 2017 came back to bite the Mets yet again on Saturday night and even still, it’s just as heartbreaking.
Still, players are trying to remain positive.
“There’s still a lot of baseball left, but we need to turn it around, now, because everything happens so fast,” Jose Reyes said. “We just need to put a streak together. I think if we do that, we’ll be fine.”
However, should they turn their fortunes around, it is going to have to start today. Sunday.
