It’s been a bit of a struggle of late for the Mets’ bullpen.
With the starters failing to work deep into games, they’ve been very overworked.
That was again the case on Monday night, but this time they were able to deliver.
Paul Blackburn was knocked around by the Braves for the second straight outing and was pulled with two outs in the top of the fifth — that marked the fifth straight game a Mets starter failed to finish five innings.
But José Buttó entered into a first-and-third jam and needed just four pitches to clean up the mess, getting Michael Harris II to roll over to end the inning.
He followed that up with a perfect top of the sixth.
Ryne Stanek was handed the seventh and he fell into some trouble after issuing a walk and allowing a two-out single to Ozzie Albies, but he let out one of his signature roars after punching out Murphy with a nasty slider.
Reed Garrett was called upon in the eighth, coming off back-to-back rough outings, and he rebounded nicely with a pair of strikeouts in a scoreless frame of his own.
Edwin Diaz then entered for the ninth, pitching for the first time in five days, and he worked around a pair of hits, striking out Ozzie Albies on three pitches to keep the deficit at just one run.
Unfortunately, the effort was wasted as the Mets’ offense failed to come through.
“Those are tough games to lose,” Carlos Mendoza said. “When you use your high-leverage and aren’t able to close the deal — we just have to turn the page, but I thought they did a hell of a job keeping us in the game.
“We only get 4.2 out of Blackburn and then everyone else kind of kept the game right there for us. Everybody that came out of that bullpen gave us a chance, we just couldn’t push those runs across.”
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