Groundhog Day: Ryan Helsley Blows His Third Straight Lead

Even when the offense shows sparks, the same issue continues to weigh the Mets down.

And for Ryan Helsley, things have gone from shaky to spiraling in a hurry.

After Thursday’s meltdown, the Mets didn’t make Helsley wait long for a chance to redeem himself. He had blown a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning on Thursday — but with New York leading Seattle 6-5 in the seventh on Friday, back came Helsley to try to hold the advantage.

The Mets keep trying to make this formula work. They acquired these relievers at the deadline for a reason. But following the run Tyler Rogers gave up in the sixth, Helsley surrendered two runs — and the lead — for the second straight night.

The Mets fell 11-9 to the Mariners, dropping their 14th in their last 16 games. The downward slide continued its merciless descent.

It was the third straight appearance where Helsley had blown a one-run lead. The time before that streak started, on Aug. 9, he entered in a tie game, only for an error and a two-run homer to balloon the Brewers in front 7-4.

That’s four straight rough outings for Helsley. His ERA in a Mets uniform is 8.44, and that’s even with the two-run homer being technically unearned due to the error.

Nine runs. Five earned. Five and one-third innings. All since the Mets got him as one of their prized deadline acquisitions. Helsley, who posted a dominant 2.04 ERA for the Cardinals last year, has seen his season ERA rise from an even 3.00 to 3.70 since coming to Queens.

Carlos Mendoza gave Helsley no leash on Friday. After he surrendered the tying run, Mendoza immediately pulled him, just three batters into his outing. The go-ahead run eventually scored from second to close the book on another ineffective outing.

Helsley had to contend with the Mariners’ 2-3-4 hitters on what was a robust overall night for Seattle’s offense. He tried to attack Cal Raleigh down in the zone with fastballs, but Raleigh led off with a double. The tying run was instantly in scoring position.

Helsely struck out Julio Rodríguez on three pitches, with a fastball up in the zone to blow him away. But it all crumbled quickly after that. He got ahead 0-2 on Eugenio Suárez, then left a slider over the middle. Suárez tabbed it for another double.

The Mariners went on to rally against Brooks Raley to build a sizable lead. Helsley certainly wasn’t the only culprit on Friday; Sean Manaea was roughed up early, while Rogers, Raley, and Frankie Montas all gave up their own runs. But, as has become familiar, Helsley’s outing was the turning point.

It continued somewhat of a baffling trend that has yet to meet its stoppage. The Mets have now blown a lead in seven consecutive games — just the second time they’ve done so in the last 17 years, as Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweeted (with an h/t to Sarah Slangs). Within those seven games, the Mets have technically blown a total of 11 leads. They’ve blown a one-run lead six times and a two-run lead twice, along with leads of four, five, and six (credit to DiComo for counting them all).

The Mets seem to be nearly out of answers. They totaled nine runs, 12 hits and four home runs on Friday and still lost. They’ll have Nolan McLean starting on Saturday to try to freshen things up. But if they have a lead in the middle-to-late innings, who will they go to? Who can they rely on right now?

Helsley was supposed to be one of those guys. And maybe he still will be. But his Queens tenure has gone from so-so to disastrous in just a few outings.

This revamped bullpen was supposed to be a super bullpen. On paper, it should be really good. The root of the problem, as previously discussed in numerous articles, is the lack of length from the starting pitching, which has had a trickle-down effect. But even with Manaea going a decent five innings on Friday, the issues persisted. Some fingers can definitely be pointed at the starters’ lack of reliability, but it can’t be ignored how much Helsley has struggled in the early going of his Mets career.

And it’s coming at a time when they can least afford it.

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