WASHINGTON — The Mets’ bullpen has been dominant over the last month, protecting leads for four innings or more as the starting rotation has struggled to go deep into games in the first month of the season. But the relief corps might be starting to show some cracks.
The Mets watched the Washington Nationals erase a seven-run lead in the third game of a four-game set Sunday at Nationals Park. Jose Butto couldn’t hold the inherited runners on base, and then gave up three of his own in the bottom of the seventh before Ryne Stanek blew his second save of the series.
The Nationals walked off for the second time in three days, handing the Mets an 8-7 loss.
Through three games in Washington, the Mets’ bullpen has blown two saves, been credited with two losses, allowed an eight-run comeback effort and lost left-hander A.J. Minter to a lat strain.
The starting rotation has been excellent, and Tylor Megill was as well against Washington on Sunday, but they’ve thrown only 138 1/3 innings, ranked 20th in the league. It could be causing a domino effect on the bullpen.
The Mets jumped out to a 5-0 start in the top of the first and were up by as much as 7-1 in the fifth. Left-hander Mitchell Parker, who started his sophomore campaign with five straight quality starts, was throttled by the Mets lineup right from the start.
Megill limited the Nats to three runs on three hits, with two of them coming in the sixth inning. Crews homered in the second inning to make it 6-1. It snapped a streak of 14 games without a Mets starting pitcher allowing a home run.
He was replaced by Butto with one out and two on in the bottom of the seventh. Up 7-1, Butto struck out Crews for the second out, before allowing two straight singles and a three-run homer to catcher Riley Adams to cut the Mets’ lead to 7-6.
The Mets went quietly in the eighth and the Nats loaded the bases on Huascar Brazobán in the bottom of the inning. The right-hander got out of the jam to keep the one-run lead intact.
Stanek (0-2) gave up a leadoff double to Alex Call in the bottom of the ninth. Jacob Young pinch-ran for him, getting to third on a ground-ball before scoring easily on a pinch-hit single by Keibert Ruiz.
James Wood then walked to put two on. Pete Alonso overthrew Stanek while trying to cover first base on a ground-ball by Luis Garcia Jr., allowing the walk-off run to come home.
A lack of command by Parker led to a leadoff single and two straight walks to load the bases with none out. Mark Vientos hit a fly ball to right field to score Francisco Lindor and Parker then walked Starling Marte. Another fly ball, this one by Brandon Nimmo, scored Juan Soto to make it 2-0.
All told, the Mets scored five runs on three hits, three walks and an error in the first inning alone. The Mets batted around before Parker finally induced a pop-up from Lindor, the leadoff hitter.
Parker lasted five innings, and allowed seven runs on seven hits, walking five and striking out none. It was a mistake-filled five-innings for the Nat that featured a collision between two Washington defenders in the outfield and two fly balls missed in foul territory.
But those mistakes mattered less after the Nats got to the Mets’ bullpen.
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