Mets bullpen collapses after Sean Manaea’s strong start in rough loss to Reds

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For a team coming out of the All-Star break, the Mets sure didn’t look rested. 

They limited Sean Manaea’s pitch count — again — and turned over a one-run lead in the fifth to a 28-year-old rookie, then got almost nothing out of their inconsistent offense until two outs in the bottom of the ninth, as they opened the second half with an 8-4 loss Friday night. 

It’s what happens when a team is putting three starting pitchers back into the rotation after IL stints, as the Mets are, and features an overused bullpen that’s in need of a few upgrades. 

“We’ll take 70-75 [pitches] from Sean and try to piece it together,” Carlos Mendoza said of the game plan for Manaea, who missed time with an oblique strain, as well as an elbow injury. “That’s where we are. Is it a challenge? Maybe.” 

Definitely, when the next man up is Alex Carrillo, who was making just his third major league appearance. 

After the Mets built a two-run lead, thanks in part to Juan Soto’s homer in the first, and Manaea allowed just one run over four innings, Carrillo came in and allowed a two-out, two-run homer to Matt McLain. 

And with the Mets trailing by a run and Mendoza needing five innings from his pen, the manager rolled the dice with Carrillo again in the sixth and it backfired, as the right-hander allowed two more homers. 

In all, Carrillo gave up five runs in just 1 ¹/₃ innings. 

“He just didn’t have it,” Mendoza said of Carrillo. 

But the bigger issue is not getting enough innings from parts of their rotation, as Manaea has been held to about 70 pitches in his past three outings, including a rehab start, Kodai Senga threw just 67 in his first start back from his hamstring injury, Frankie Montas sits in the 80-pitch range, and Saturday’s starter, Clay Holmes, is limited as he blows by his previous season high in innings. 

“We’re gonna need length out of our starters,” Mendoza said. “We feel comfortable with the guys back there [in the bullpen]. We’ll give opportunities to some of these guys and continue to evaluate as we try to win baseball games.” 

After Carrillo exited in the sixth, Mendoza left his primary relievers out of the game and let Brandon Waddell throw 76 pitches over the final 3 ²/₃ innings as the Reds pulled away. 

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The Mets attempted to make a game of it late. 

Shut down by Cincinnati’s Nick Lodolo after the second inning, following All-Star snub Juan Soto’s 24th homer in the first and a run-scoring single by Jeff McNeil in the second, the Mets saw the lefty retire 14 of 15 at one point. 

Then, with two outs in the ninth, Brandon Nimmo doubled, Ronny Mauricio reached on an error, and McNeil walked. 

Pinch-hitter Brett Baty reached on an infield single, and a Luis Torrens RBI hit made it 8-4. 

With the bases loaded, though, Francisco Lindor popped out on a 3-2 pitch to end it. 

The Mets remained a half-game behind the first-place Phillies in the NL East thanks to Philadelphia’s loss to the Angels. 

The defeat highlighted the need, even with the return of lefty Brooks Raley on Friday, for president of baseball operations David Stearns to add some arms by the July 31 trade deadline. 

Friday’s mess against a Reds team that’s won five of its last six games only emphasized that point and provided a disappointing start to the second half by an inconsistent lineup that entered the break having scored more than three runs just once in the final five games.