ATLANTA — Meet the Mess, 2020 version.
Just over a week into their 60-game season, the Mets have a glaring problem that will keep them socially distanced from even the expanded playoff format if they can’t find a fast solution.
Just like old times, the bullpen is a raging inferno.
Friday night it was Dellin Betances and Seth Lugo taking the baton from Edwin Diaz’s brutal ninth-inning performance on Thursday. The night before it was Lugo and Justin Wilson who folded.
Betances, still lacking the consistent fastball velocity that made him a dominant reliever with the Yankees, retired only one batter and allowed four runs, and Lugo surrendered the go-ahead hit to Travis d’Arnaud, sending the Mets to a maddening 11-10 loss to the Braves at Truist Park.
“We’ve had a few tough losses already in the young season and that I want to say was the toughest one,” manager Luis Rojas said after watching his team flush a 10-6 lead in the eighth.
Betances allowed two hits and two walks before Lugo was summoned, walked a batter and got the second out. D’Arnaud haunted his former team by stroking a bases-loaded double that brought in three runs, putting the Braves ahead.
Lugo thought he had thrown a strike to even the count at 1-1 to d’Arnaud, but it was called a ball, changing the right-hander’s approach.
“I had a game plan and kind of got away from it the next pitch,” Lugo said. “It’s kind of unacceptable to let something like that get in your head and affect the next pitch you throw. I have got to a better job of staying focused.”
On the bullpen as a whole, Lugo said: “We’ve got to get ahead of guys better, including myself. We put ourselves in a hole pitching behind in counts and we have got to eliminate the leadoff walks and tonight I walked the go-ahead run and that is just unacceptable.”
Submit your Mets questions here to be answered in an upcoming Post mailbag
The Mets signed Betances to a one-year contract worth $10.5 million with the idea he could provide insurance in the late innings, if Diaz and Jeurys Familia struggled. But Betances, coming off a torn left Achilles, continues to sit in the 93 mph neighborhood with his fastball, exposing him when he misses with location.
Rick Porcello was knocked out after four-plus innings, starting the bullpen carousel early. Paul Sewald and Chasen Shreve gave the Mets a chance by combining to allow two runs over the next three innings, but all hell broke loose after Betances’ entry.
“This is a really good bullpen and I keep saying it and there’s so much depth and these guys have so much experience closing games,” Rojas said.
Amed Rosario’s solo blast in the sixth — the Mets’ third homer of the night — and J.D. Davis’ RBI single extended the lead to 10-5 after the Braves had knocked out Porcello the previous inning. Davis dropped a routine fly ball to left field setting up the inning for the Braves.
Porcello allowed four runs, three of which were earned, on five hits and three walks with five strikeouts. The Braves added an unearned run against Sewald in the fifth.
The Mets went ahead with a six-run fifth inning, in which they batted around, knocked out starter Sean Newcomb and took an 8-2 lead.
Cano’s leadoff homer to right field on a hanging curveball put the Mets ahead for the first time, but the fun was just starting for the Mets in their most prolific inning of the season. Wilson Ramos singled and Andres Gimenez placed down a surprise bunt for a single. Brandon Nimmo’s single loaded the bases before Pete Alonso walked to give the Mets a 4-2 lead.
After Davis was retired by reliever Jhoulys Chacin for the second out, it got uglier for the Braves. Michael Conforto walked with the bases loaded and Yoenis Cespedes’ ensuing two-run double to left gave the Mets a 7-2 lead. The scoring rampage concluded with Cano’s second hit of the inning, an RBI single.
Porcello endured a shaky first inning in which he allowed four straight singles that put the Mets in a 2-0 hole. Matt Adams — who was in spring training and summer camp with the Mets — went against the shift and delivered an RBI single for the Braves’ first run. D’Arnaud, who was released by the Mets last season, followed with an RBI single.