Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports

The Mets are in a stretch where they just won’t have a normal game.

Continuing their trend of eccentric, volatile games, the Mets lost 4-3 to the Cincinnati Reds as the bullpen had to take on the bulk of the work for the third straight game.

Robert Stock started the game for the Mets. He let a couple base runners on in the first after Jonathan India went deep with a solo dinger to open the inning, but he was touching 99 miles per hour in the frame. Then he hit.

Stock hustled on a ground ball that ended up as the third out in the top of the second, and barely made it to the mound the next inning after pulling a hamstring while running the ball out.

That meant the bullpen, for the third straight night, would have to carry the Mets through the game. They answered the call. This time around, though, it was all guys who were pitching in Triple-A a month ago. What comes next will be a description of hot potato among the bullpen arms.

Stephen Nogosek allowed back-to-back home runs to Joey Votto and Aristides Aquino in the third inning, but other than that, he struck out five over three innings. Yennsy Diaz had a scoreless appearance – an inning this time – for the second night in a row.

Right-hander Geoff Hartlieb, called up an hour before the game Tuesday in place of José Peraza, also threw 1.1 innings. Hartlieb then tossed the potato to Aaron Loup, who worked the bases full after Votto singled and Aquino walked. (India was on base already from a Hartlieb walk.)

Loup allowed a sac fly to Tyler Naquin next, but the Reds ran themselves out of more potential runs later in the inning on the play when Aquino ventured off first base for some reason and got tagged out in no man’s land.

Drew Smith took the last inning the Mets needed pitched and threw a scoreless frame, thanks in part to some solid defense (and, once again, poor base running).

While Nogosek pitched in the third inning, Gary Cohen started a sentence on the SNY broadcast with, “Whether he pitches more innings, or implodes at some point,” then talked about how impressed he was with Nogosek on a short call.

That pinpoints the Mets the last three games, just hoping you’d get a couple good innings from the next reliever up. If he implodes, you understand, given the situation they were put in, but the fact none of guys did – in any of the last three games – was incredible for the team.

The Mets have gotten just five innings from their starters the last three days between Walker’s third of an inning Sunday, Eickhoff’s 3.2 innings Monday and Stock’s inning Tuesday. The bullpen, in turn, took on 23 innings the last three games, which is the most the Mets’ bullpen has thrown in a game since 1982, per the SNY broadcast. They allowed just five earned runs in that span, including three in seven innings on Tuesday.

Amidst the patchwork pitching, the Mets pushed just three runs across the plate against left-hander Wade Miley & Co. after scoring seven runs or more (including 15 on Monday night) in each of their last three games.

Pete Alonso got the scoring started for the second game in a row with a homer in the first. No one was on this time, but it was his 19th on the year and 88th in just his 300th game. Only Ryan Howard (91) has more through as many games.

The Mets got a gift later in the game on a Pete Alonso dribbler. Joey Votto dropped an easy throw at first from Brad Brach, who relieved Miley, and Jonathan Villar scored from second, bringing the score to 3-2.

The sac fly play from the Reds happened the next half inning, then the Mets came back within a run when Guillorme poked a double to left. The ball was kicked around in the corner by Winker, and James McCann was able to come around and score from first.

They fell short against Amir Garrett in the ninth, despite a leadoff four pitch walk to Dominic Smith. Despite his struggles on the season, Garrett has recorded six outs – four of them strikeouts – over the past two nights.

The Mets will wrap up the series with the Reds on Wednesday afternoon with a 12:35 p.m. start time.

Marcus Stroman, one of the Mets’ lone healthy starters, will begin the game for them. The righty has been one of the Mets’ most consistent pitchers this year, but he’s hit a recent rough patch with a 5.00 ERA over his last four starts (18 innings).

He hasn’t pitched more than five innings in a month, and Wednesday would be a great day – for the bullpen’s sake, with an off day Thursday – for Stroman to break that streak.

He’ll look to get back on track against Jeff Hoffman, the Reds’ starter who’s returning from the injured list after sitting out two months with a shoulder injury. Before his IL stint, Hoffman had a 4.61 ERA in 10 starts (41 innings).

By my count, the Mets had three hard-hit balls die at the warning track Tuesday night in Great American Ballpark – an oddity at that field. It’ll be 85 degrees and sunny on Wednesday afternoon, so perhaps the ball will be cranking out of there once again.