Once Noah Sydnergaard gave up four runs through the first five innings Friday night, Mickey Callaway looked to his bullpen to give his team some life as they trailed the Dodgers.
The relievers didn’t give the manager much relief.
The Mets’ beleaguered bullpen gave up five hits (including a home run) and five earned runs in a 9-2 loss to open a three-game series at Citi Field.
“We’ve been better,” Callaway said of his bullpen following the defeat.
It was a decent start for the pen when Jeurys Familia came in to begin the sixth and prompted three-straight groundouts for a quick inning. He carried it over into the seventh inning, getting Will Smith to line out to center field to record the first out before he struck out Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw in five pitches. But a single from Joc Pederson prompted Callaway to call for Luis Avilan.
Avilan walked Max Muncy before giving up an RBI double to pinch-hitter Chris Taylor, which pushed Los Angeles’ lead to 6-1. Cody Bellinger kept the rally going with a sharp single to left field that brought Taylor home. Avilan then struck out Corey Seager to end the inning.
The Mets, who got one run back in the bottom of the seventh on an Amed Rosario RBI single, replaced Avilan with Walker Lockett on the mound to start the eighth. A.J. Pollock lined out on the first pitch Lockett threw, but Gavin Lux singled on a 2-1 pitch. Smith lined out again before Edwin Rios, who was pinch-hitting for Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly, blasted a two-run homer to left to put the game out of reach.
Lockett threw an 87.2-mph changeup to Pederson before he grounded out to Rosario to end the eighth inning.
Tomas Nido replaced Wilson Ramos at catcher to start the ninth and Lockett retired the first two batters. But when Bellinger hit a soft grounder to Lockett, the righty pitcher nonchalantly threw to first, and the Dodger was called safe by first-base umpire Ben May.
The Mets challenged the play at first, but it was upheld. Seager popped out to Todd Frazier at third to allow the Mets to escape the top of the ninth.
“I thought Familia threw just about as well as he’s thrown in a long time, he did a great job,” Callaway said. “Obviously, Avilan took quite a few pitches to get one out, so that was kind of tough. And then Lockett gave up the two-run homer to the lefty, that was kind of looming on the bench. That was tough for him, but he came back and threw a scoreless ninth.”
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