Ollie Perez couldn’t have done worse.
The first real test for Sandy Alderson & Co. was to try to rebuild the middle of the Mets bullpen over the winter. So far, that reconstruction has been a complete disaster.
The Chris Young signing looks like a stroke of genius, but the bullpen at Terry Collins’ disposal is a lost cause right now.
Unless this bullpen shapes up, this will be another painful season for the Mets and their tortured fans, who once again came to cold and damp Citi Field filled with hope yesterday and left filling the ballpark with boos.
Roster changes were made immediately after the Mets gave away what should have been a 3-1 victory that turned into a 7-3 nightmare loss to the Nationals in 11 innings.
After the carnage, relievers Jason Isringhausen and Ryota Igarashi were added to the roster, and yesterday’s loser, right-hander Blaine Boyer, was designated for assignment, while outfielder Lucas Duda was sent down.
The knee-jerk reaction was to say that Young, who was simply magnificent over seven innings, allowing one run on one hit, should have stayed in for the eighth. But considering his shoulder history, Collins made the right move to protect the right-hander and get him out following 108 pitches.
Young left with the 3-1 lead, a lead that was torched once D.J. Carrasco came into the game.
The gasoline alley bullpen then finished the job in the 11th.
Carrasco, to his credit, stood at his locker and said that losing the lead for Young was “horrible.”
Boyer, who surrendered all four runs in the 11th, including three on a monster home run toward the Shea Bridge in right-center to Laynce Nix, admitted afterward that his history the last two years is to have “terrible, terrible starts [to seasons].”
Right now this is the Bullpen to Nowhere. The home run came on an 0-2 changeup that Boyer (0-2) insisted was a good pitch.
“It was low, it was off the plate, he just stuck his bat out there and got it,” Boyer said of the blast.
It’s interesting to note that, at the end of spring training, several scouts told me they felt, considering his body of work last year for the Mets (3-2 with a 2.95 ERA), and his solid spring this year, right-hander Manny Acosta, was one of the Mets best relievers. Yet, Acosta didn’t get the invite to come north with this team.
Then there was the fact the Mets struck out an amazing 17 times yesterday. But that was not the scariest number of the day. Consider that in 34 1/3 innings of relief this year, the Mets’ bullpen has allowed a whopping 63 baserunners on 45 hits, 16 walks and two hit batters. With numbers like that, that’s how you wind up losing two of three to the Nationals at home, a Nats team that did not have Ryan Zimmerman yesterday because of an abdominal strain.
Alderson said this of the bullpen: “It’s been inconsistent, that’s probably as positive an adjective as I could use.”
That’s much too positive a word.
But again, all this is just more proof that Alderson is looking at this season as an evaluation process and is throwing a lot of stuff up against the wall to see what sticks. It actually could have been worse for the Bullpen to Nowhere yesterday because Taylor Buchholz came on after Carrasco and wound up walking three batters, two in the eighth.
To walk anyone in Citi Field is a pitching sin. That was one of the big problems with Ollie.
“This is the big leagues — you have to be able to command your pitches,” Collins said. “I’m not saying you’re never going to walk somebody, but we’re walking at too high a rate.”
The walk out of the Mets’ bullpen has become a walk of shame.