It takes a village to overcome a 6-0 first-inning deficit, but it takes five up-to-task relievers to make sure it doesn’t get any more out of hand.
The Mets couldn’t have won Sunday against the Pirates without Michael Conforto’s ninth-inning two-run home run to make it 7-6, or Travis Blankenhorn‘s three-run home run in the fourth inning — the first of his career — to make it 6-4, but it was the 8.2 scoreless innings thrown by New York’s bullpen which glued together the victory.
“Obviously, I didn’t do my part. I sucked today,” said Sunday starter Taijuan Walker. “As a starter, to not make it out of the first inning, it kills our bullpen, but they put up zero after zero after zero. They were the ones who kept us in the game.”
Walker lasted a disastrous third of one inning, allowing five earned runs and the blooper-worthy play which led to three Pittsburgh runs.
From there, Drew Smith came in, bailed the Mets out of the first inning, and threw 2.2 scoreless overall. Miguel Castro (one inning), Aaron Loup (two), Jeurys Familia (two) and Trevor May (one) finished it off from there. As a unit, those five pitched 8.2 innings, allowing seven hits, zero runs and one walk while striking out seven.
(Castro has now thrown three straight scoreless outings after a bumpy end to the first half of the season. “If he starts throwing the ball the same way he did at the beginning of the year, that’s going to be huge,” Luis Rojas said after the game.)
The biggest roadblock to a no-run effort came from Loup, who loaded the bases with no outs on a single, another single and a hit-by-pitch.
He responded by striking out the next batter, the next batter, and the next batter, ending the threat, and the inning, as quickly as it unfolded.
“It ain’t exactly how I drew it up — to load the bases,” Loup said. “I told Tai after he came out of the game before we made it down to the bullpen that we were gonna pick him up, not to worry about it.
“So, at the time I loaded the bases, I told myself, ‘Look, we’re getting back in the game. It’s 6-4.’ I said, ‘It can’t go down like this. You gotta find a way to get out of it. Whatever it takes, you gotta find a way to get out of it.’ I managed to make some good pitches and squeak out of it some kind of way.”
Squeak he did — from one hit blowing the game open to leaving three stranded. Even if the WHIP took a hit, the ERA stayed intact. (In 33 games, Loup’s is down to 1.48.)
Every relief pitcher’s ERA took a step down on Sunday. That was call for a celebration in Loup’s eyes.
“Yeah,” he said, laughing. “I’ve had a few since coming out of the game.”