Jeurys Familia walked the tightrope again on Monday. This time, he survived.
The struggling right-hander entered to open the eighth inning of what turned into a 5-4 loss to the Reds, with the small Citi Field crowd already on edge due to his presence in a tie game.
Familia has been wildly disappointing since rejoining the Mets as a free agent in the offseason. He entered Monday’s game in an eight-game funk during which he’d allowed nine runs — eight earned — along with 11 hits and eight walks in eight innings.
He had also struck out six and allowed a pair of homers and wasn’t used in the eighth inning of Sunday’s win over Milwaukee, although Mickey Callaway said going with Seth Lugo in that situation was a matter of “circumstance,’’ since he wanted to get Lugo work and Familia pitched — poorly — on Saturday.
Familia found himself in trouble against the Reds when he issued a leadoff walk to Scott Schebler, drawing boos from what was left of the Mets fans in the stands. He then drilled Jose Iglesias on the first pitch of the next at-bat and while Iglesias stayed on the ground in pain, pitching coach Dave Eiland paid Familia a visit.
Tucker Barnhart followed with a sacrifice bunt to move the runners to second and third before the Mets opted to walk pinch-hitter Derek Dietrich intentionally to load the bases with one out.
Seemingly on the verge of disaster, Familia instead got a good result- with some luck and good defense behind him, as Jose Peraza hit a hard grounder to third that Todd Frazier turned into an inning-ending double play.
“We saw the walk, saw the hit batsman, but Familia needed that,’’ Callaway said of the end result. “He needed a hard-hit ball to go at somebody and something good to happen.”
The escape routine allowed the Mets to keep the game tied after the offense overcame an early four-run deficit created when Zack Wheeler stumbled in the second, giving up all four of Cincinnati’s runs.
Wheeler recovered to pitch six innings without being scored upon again and Lugo tossed a scoreless seventh before Callaway went to Familia.
Familia’s poor start to the season has shaken Callaway’s confidence to the point the manager acknowledged before Monday’s game that he could begin using closer Edwin Diaz for more than just three outs in an appearance.
Monday marked just the third time in his last nine outings Familia didn’t give up a run. And even then, it didn’t end well, as Diaz faltered in the ninth by giving up a two-out, go-ahead homer to Jesse Winker.
And despite the end result for Familia, it was hardly an encouraging outing.
“He has walked guys to start an inning, but then it’s the slow rollers getting through that are unlucky,’’ Callaway said. “That’s part of what’s been going on with him. He’s gonna be able to use that. He got through an inning and didn’t give up a run. It didn’t look great, but it’s about time somebody hit a ground ball at somebody.’’
