Sweet Relief for Mets During Streak

They will never have M-V-P chants directed at them, and it’s doubtful anyone will ever look at the OMG sign and think Ottavino-Maton-Garrett, but the Mets relief corps deserve a ton of credit for their work during the six-game winning streak that has New York within a half-game of a playoff spot.

The relievers have yielded just two runs in the bullpen’s 16 2/3 innings that have come during the streak. The eight-headed, 16-armed monster of Edwin Díaz, Phil Maton, Reed Garrett, José Buttó, Ryne Stanek, Danny Young, Huascar Brazobán and Adam Ottavino have combined to strike out 20 and walk four.

Like good teammates, they pick each other up, too. When Buttó walked the first two batters he faced with the Mets holding a 3-1 lead in Tuesday’s victory over the Boston Red Sox, Garrett entered with the game hanging in the balance.

He escaped the jam, giving up just one run, getting Masataka Yoshida to bounce into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play. A pumped-up Garrett celebrated with Francisco Alvarez before hollering on his way to the dugout.

Last Saturday in Chicago, when Díaz was unavailable to pitch, it was Buttó doing the picking up, earning a save (albeit rocky) when he got Andrew Benintendi to hit a comebacker with two men on to end the 5-3 victory. It was Maton’s turn to close a 4-1 win vs. Boston on Monday, and he struck out Yoshida and Mickey Gasper in a 1-2-3 inning.

The ‘pen has provided length when it needed to as well, going for four innings to help Jose Quintana earn a win in Chicago on Saturday, a day after tossing 3 2/3 innings to support a Tylor Megill victory.

That came a day after Buttó tossed a scoreless eighth inning in Arizona with the game tied at 2-2, buying time until the offense came through with the winning hit in the ninth. Buttó earned the win. Díaz got the save. What a relief.

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