Mets Get Stung 12-5 By Rays In Bullpen Game at the Trop

The bullpen has had great games this year, but they’re having a bad series against the Rays.

In a bout the Mets were relying on their bullpen to piece together nine innings, the team lost 12-5 Saturday afternoon in a game that bloated the bullpen’s ERA.

Drew Smith opened the game with an unearned run crossing the plate in two innings, and Joey Lucchesi followed with a scoreless inning of his own. The lefty’s second inning–against the heart of the Rays order–is where things fell apart.

Lucchesi allowed four base runners in a row to open the fourth, which led to three Rays runs before Lucchesi got an out. Sean Reid-Foley came in to relieve Lucchesi and allowed a pinch-hit double to Austin Meadows to bring in another run. A Randy Arozarena single followed and capped off a five-run inning for the Rays.

Lucceshi now has a 9.19 ERA over 15.2 innings. His latest performance may demote him from the long-man role following an opener, which the Mets have done a couple times now. He has options, so the team may choose to give those innings to someone like Jordan Yamamoto or Tommy Hunter, who pitched a scoreless sixth today giving him 6.1 total scoreless innings on the year. Jacob deGrom and Carlos Carrasco are also expected back in the next couple weeks, and Lucchesi won’t be needed to eat innings come June.

Jacob Barnes couldn’t get any of his three batters out in eighth when the Mets had brought the game back to 6-5 deficit the inning before with a Francisco Lindor solo home run. All three of Barnes’ base runners scored when Jeurys Familia came in to relieve him. Familia allowed another three runs before getting out of the inning. That put the game out of reach.

Eleven earned runs are tied for the most the Mets have allowed all year. (They allowed 11 versus the Cubs on April 21, too).

The bright spot today for the Mets was scoring five runs–all on the home run. That’s the most runs they’ve scored off home runs in one game all year.

The biggest surprise came when José Peraza launched a three-run home run over the left-center field wall in the second inning. Pete Alonso followed the next inning with a “hometown home run,” as Gary Cohen put it, to put the Mets up 4-1 at the time.

St. PETE pic.twitter.com/zK7i8IIG7V

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 15, 2021

All five runs came off left-handed pitching, which the Mets hadn’t faced a lot of so far. They came into the game with just 175 at-bats against lefties (the least in the league) with just five home runs.

The Mets will face a handful of lefties in upcoming series versus the Braves, and they’ll also face one tomorrow as they try to salvage the final game of the three-game series in Tampa.

Ryan Yarborough will take the mound for the Rays, while Marcus Stroman looks to hold the Tampa’s bats at bay on Sunday. Stroman will start the game with the fifth-best ERA among starters in the National League. Jeff McNeil, who didn’t play on Saturday, is expected to return to the starting lineup, as well.

The post Mets Get Stung 12-5 By Rays In Bullpen Game at the Trop first appeared on Metsmerized Online.