New York Mets bullpen falters once again vs Pittsburgh Pirates

The New York Mets bullpen came up short again, costing them yet another game, this time against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The New York Mets bullpen has been brutal in recent weeks. They have blown a number of leads, costing the team wins. It happened once again on Saturday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Mets had control of the game throughout. They were finding some success against Pirates ace Gerrit Cole. Cole lasted only five innings, needing 98 pitches to even get that far. The Mets constantly had base runners, as Cole was not on top of his game.

The Mets offense did its part. They managed to get 10 hits and work one walk against Cole, striking out only three times. They scored four runs against Cole, staking Zack Wheeler to a lead before he even took the mound.

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Wheeler had an okay start for the Mets. He was able to give them six innings, allowing three runs over that time. He got hit a little bit as well, giving up seven base hits and two walks to go with five strikeouts.

Wheeler and the Mets offense were able to give the bullpen a lead to work with, but it didn’t matter. One it became a bullpen game the Pirates had the edge and took full advantage.

Neil Ramirez, Jerry Blevins, and Fernando Salas were able to keep the Pirates off the board for two innings. But, in the ninth inning, Addison Reed blew the save. John Jaso had a RBI single to tie the game up at four runs to force extra innings.

The game did not last long into extra innings as the Pirates picked up the victory in the 10th inning. Tyler Pill was called on to make his MLB debut and it didn’t go well. Pill would eventually be charged with the loss.

Pill got Gregory Polanco out to begin the inning but then gave up a single to David Freese. He then hit Andrew McCutchen with a pitch before walking Francisco Cervelli. Gift Ngoepe flew out to right field after that.

With two outs, Terry Collins decided to go with Josh Edgin against the left-handed Jaso. It would not pay off as Jaso hit a single into right field, scoring Freese and ending the game.

The Mets bullpen is atrocious right now. Without Jeurys Familia closing games there just isn’t many guys for Collins to trust. Until they can fix that problem the team is going to struggle to win games.

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The Mets are currently 9.5 games behind the Washington Nationals in the NL East and 8.5 games behind in the Wild Card. With June quickly approaching the Mets cannot afford to fall much further behind in the standings. A season that had high expectations and a lot of positivity surrounding it in March has turned sour quickly.

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