It should come with little surprise that a New York Mets bullpen that was desperate for competent depth and neglected during the spring by upper management helped exacerbate the club’s nightmarish 2023 season on Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia.
Relievers Josh Walker and Jeff Brigham blew a 6-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning with three walks and two hit-by-pitches to gift the Phillies a 7-6 victory in the rubber game of another series loss.
“I was just going out there to compete my butt off and just try to put my best stuff out there and hoping I could get it done and today I couldn’t,” Brigham said. “At the end of the day, you have to go after them and attack them and not end up walking them or hitting guys in like I did.”
Top bullpen arms David Robertson and Adam Ottavino were deemed unavailable on the day even though Robertson was seen warming up in the bullpen in the ninth inning as Craig Kimbrel shut down the Mets’ last gasp.
“We didn’t have anybody else to pitch,” Showalter said after the game (h/t SNY). “[Brigham] was our last bullet… We didn’t have anybody [available]… What else could we do? We were just hoping to stretch every out we can with everybody we got… We just didn’t do it today.”
The Mets (35-42) have lost each of their last six three-plus-game series. The last time they did so was a sweep of the Phillies at Citi Field from May 30-June 1.
With the three-run advantage built on the back of a three-RBI by Pete Alonso — including a solo shot for his 24th of the year in the top of the seventh to make it 6-3 — Walker walked Bryce Harper, allowed a single to JT Realmuto, and walked Bryson Stott to load the bases with recording an out.
Calling on Brigham, he induced what looked like would be an invaluable double play ball from Alec Bohm, but third baseman Brett Baty double-clutched and threw wildly to pull second baseman Jeff McNeil off the bag to bring in a run and keep the bases loaded and cut the Phillies’ deficit to two.
“He just couldn’t get it out of his glove,” Showalter said of Baty’s gaffe. “He’ll be better as he goes forward.”
Brigham proceeded to walk Brandon Marsh before hitting Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner consecutively to give the Phillies their one-run margin of victory.
“I was just trying to throw in on Schwarber with the cutter and I yanked it,” Brigham said. “With Turner, I just backed it up a little bit.”
Turner accounted for the Phillies’ first two runs of the afternoon — a first-inning home run against starter Carlos Carrasco and an RBI single in the third — to cancel out an Alonso two-run single in the second.
Brandon Nimmo put the Mets ahead with a single before Francisco Lindor launched his 15th home run of the year in the fifth to make it a 4-2 game.
After the Phillies cut it to a one-run game when Turner stole third and came home on a throwing error by catcher Omar Narvaez, Starling Marte got it back with an RBI groundout in the sixth.
Alonso’s home run to widen the Mets’ advantage still wasn’t enough for a bullpen that was called in for another busy day after Carrasco pitched just four innings despite allowing just two runs on five hits with five strikeouts and two walks and just 78 pitches thrown.
“He was OK,” Showalter said. “He didn’t let it get away from him… He almost threw 80 pitches in four innings… We threw just about everything we had and we ran out of getting outs.”
Dominic Leone was charged for the Phillies’ run in the fifth before Grant Hartwig posted two scoreless innings.
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