Inside The Mets

Bullpen Unravels Late as Mets Fail to Complete Sweep of Padres

The New York Mets were unable to complete a three-game sweep of the Padres after their bullpen unraveled by allowing a six spot in the seventh.

Pat Ragazzo

(Seth Wenig / AP)

Not very sweep at all.

The New York Mets were nearly perfect this weekend - until the top of the seventh inning rolled around on Sunday and everything came crashing down.

Despite not having his best stuff today, Jeurys Familia battled out of trouble in the top of the sixth, following another excellent start from left-handed pitcher Joey Lucchesi, who went a season-high five innings on 72 pitches, allowing one run on four hits, while striking out six.

While manager Luis Rojas has seemingly pulled all the right strings lately, he opted to push Familia for another inning when he was clearly losing it.

Familia found himself in immediate trouble yet again, and this time, was unable to get out of it, walking Tommy Pham with the bases loaded to give up the lead.

The right-hander exited after 41 pitches, but instead of bringing in Trevor May or Miguel Castro to face the dangerous Fernando Tatis Jr., Rojas brought in Jacob Barnes, who served up a grand slam to bust the game open all of a sudden at 6-2.

Third baseman Manny Machado followed this grand slam up with a homer of his own, and just like that, the Padres had a 7-2 lead via a six spot in the inning.

The Mets thought they created another magical story line on Sunday. Trailing by a run in the bottom of the fifth, they came from behind on a Jose Peraza two-run home run off Padres starter Chris Paddack.

However, the Padres had other plans, as their ice cold offense exploded to score seven runs, which was more than twice as many runs as they eclipsed in the first two games combined (3).

Although they trailed for the entirety of the first two games of the series, the Padres drew first blood when Pham took Lucchesi deep for a solo home run on the third pitch of the game. Following back-to-back singles from Machado and Will Myers with one out, Lucchesi was able to escape the jam by inducing an inning ending double play ball via a Eric Hosmer grounder.

After giving up the homer to Pham, Lucchesi settled in nicely to induce two double plays on his way to retiring six Padres in a row.

On the other side, Paddack was impressive himself, going six innings, allowing two runs on six hits, while striking out nine.

After surrendering a leadoff single to Luis Guillorme to start his afternoon, Paddack set down nine Mets hitters in a row.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Mets finally got to Paddack, as Francisco Lindor ripped a leadoff double into the right field corner. However, they were unable to cash in, as Paddack retired the next three Met batters to escape the jam.

Although they missed out on a prime scoring chance in the fourth, the Mets came back against Paddack in the bottom of the fifth behind a one out single from Mason Williams, which was followed up by a two-run blast from Peraza.

Lucchesi's day was done after gaining his first lead of the day. The lefty has now given up three runs and struck out 19 in his last 17.1 innings across four outings.

Unfortunately, his bullpen couldn't secure the win for him, as the Mets snapped their three-game winning streak with a 7-3 loss. An impressive series win ended in disappointing fashion when a blown lead turned into an ugly loss.

Working with a short bullpen down Miguel Castro, Aaron Loup, Edwin Diaz and Seth Lugo, Rojas pushed Familia one batter too many. He also made the mistake of going to Barnes, as the plan was to let Trevor May close if they had a lead in the ninth. But, they never made it there.

The Mets got one back on a Tomas Nido RBI infield single in the bottom of the eighth, but that's all of the scoring the offense would produce for the remainder of the day.

The Mets are now 32-25 on the season and will have their hands full against the Chicago Cubs for a four-game set beginning on Monday night with the struggling David Peterson on the mound.

Published
Pat Ragazzo
PAT RAGAZZO

Pat Ragazzo is the reporter, publisher, site manager and executive editor for Sports Illustrated's Mets and Yankees On SI websites. Pat was selected as The Top Reporter & Publisher of the Year 2024 by the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) for outstanding leadership, dedication, and commitment to the industry. He has been seen on several major TV Network stations including: NBC4, CBS2, FOX5, PIX11 and NY1; and is frequently heard on ESPN New York FM 880 AM and WFAN Sports Radio 101.9 FM as a guest. Pat also serves as the Mets insider for the "Allow Me 2 Be Frank" podcast hosted by Frank "The Tank" Fleming of Barstool Sports. You can follow him on Twitter/X: @ragazzoreport.

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