#bullpen-struggles

#bullpen-struggles

Pete Alonso bailed out an unreliable bullpen with a three-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift New York to a 5-2 victory on Sunday afternoon at Citi Field. The win snaps a heinous eight-game losing streak that saw the Mets (77-73) temporarily fall out of a playoff spot, though Sunday's result temporarily gives them a one-game lead over the San Francisco Giants for the third and final National League Wild Card spot.

David Sandlin threw the next two innings, allowing two runs, which included a home run and three walks. Sandlin has not handled the switch to the bullpen well and now has an 8.79 ERA in 14 1/3 innings (11 appearances) in that role, which he switched to on August 5th. Prior to that date, between AA and AAA, Sandlin had a 3.50 ERA in 87 1/3 innings.

Between the offseason and today, the Sox have signed or claimed nine relievers. Below are the stats for each: Everyone except Vasil and Castro (who was shut down for the season with a patellar tendon tear in June) has been optioned to the minors at least once this season. Vasil's and Altavilla's stats are the only anomaly from this putrid list, and Altavilla has been in Triple-A for the majority of his tenure with the organization.

Each of Teoscar Hernández, Michael Conforto, and , were unable to make plays that would've changed the outcome of the game, with the latter having the most difficult of the plays. Clayton Kershaw gave up four runs in the first inning due in part to Hernández's aforementioned error, but settled in well after that, ultimately leaving the game tied after five innings.

People got to step up. People got to do their job. We just got to get Hels right, manager Carlos Mendoza said. He has too good of stuff for them to take some really good swings on fastballs, really good takes on sliders. So we have to look back and see what we're missing, because for teams to have comfortable at-bats like that, something's going on here and we have to figure it out.