PEN WASTE IS SYN-FUL
Struggling relievers spoil solid Noah start
ST. LOUIS — The good news is Noah Syndergaard found himself Thursday. The bad news is that the Mets bullpen has lost it again. After the big right-hander threw seven-plus dominant innings, the Mets bullpen twice blew a lead Thursday.
Syndergaard felt like he hit his stride with his delivery. After two days of pitching drama with Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler struggling in their starts and Matt Harvey obviously not happy with his transition to the bullpen, the Mets needed a strong, commanding pitching performance.
Syndergaard obliged with his best start of the season, holding the Cardinals to two runs, one earned, on six hits. He did not walk a batter and he struck out seven.
And then the bullpen faltered. It’s the third start by one of the Mets two aces in which the bullpen has failed them. Jacob deGrom had to watch the bullpen blow it in his last two starts, though he hasn’t lost faith in the relievers.
Thursday, Syndergaard was just as understanding.
“In terms of individual stats, don’t care what my win-loss record is,” Syndergaard said. “Tomorrow is a new day and we have to go out there and take on the Padres.”
But the Mets, built around strong starting pitching, have to be concerned about losing those starts.
It was the second walk-off loss for the Mets on this road trip and after starting the season 12-1, they have lost seven of their last 11 games. After being the cornerstone to the hot start to this season, the bullpen has floundered lately.
The Mets dropped to 2-4 on this road trip, which correlates to pitching problems. During that span, the bullpen has allowed 15 earned runs over 25.2 innings pitched (a 5.26 ERA). They walked 14 in that period as well.
Mets manager Mickey Callaway, however, gave his relievers a vote of confidence after the game.
“I think they have done a great job this year. There are going to be ups and downs,” Callaway said. “That’s how baseball goes. We’ll continue to pitch them and have faith in them.”
Already, however, there has been enough of a concern at least about the walks that there seems to be some repositioning of the Mets’ relievers in the bullpen. After he walked two and allowed two runs in his last appearance on Saturday in Atlanta, Callaway skipped over AJ Ramos in the eighth when the Mets were clinging to their one-run lead and Syndergaard got into trouble.
Instead, he went to Robert Gsellman, who was coming off two scoreless appearances. He gave up an RBI-single that sent the game into extra innings.
“We had him up and I liked the matchup,” Callaway said.
Jeurys Familia, coming off his ninth save of the season, entered in the 10th and again gave away a one-run lead. It was the third save that Familia has blown in his last five appearances. The closer, who declined to talk to reporters after the game because of a “family issue,” had some help blowing this one though, when Juan Lagares, a defensive replacement, had trouble tracking a line drive to center that went over his head.
Paul Sewald, who had been stellar pitching two scoreless in Tuesday night’s win, gave up the game-winner in the bottom of the 13th. He got in trouble by issuing a one-out walk to Jose Martinez.
“The problem is that I walked Martinez and gave up a hit to Ozuna to put them in that position,” Sewald said.
Martinez scored on Dexter Fowler’s walk-off single. After starting the season 11-1 with the bullpen being a key to their success, they have hit quite a few snags. But Syndergaard wasn’t worrying about it too much. He was finally happy that his delivery felt good and was optimistic about what lies ahead. “We’re still very confident in this clubhouse,” Syndergaard said. “We have a lot of veteran leadership.”
Leadership is good and starting pitching like Syndergaard gave them Thursday is great. But what the Mets really need right now is to find a consistent bullpen.