NEW YORK -- In one area, at least, the Mets have been elite.
For most of this season, New York’s offense has scuffled. Its rotation members have been questionable, particularly when it comes to pitching deep into games. But its bullpen has picked up much of the slack, as it did Sunday in an 8-1 win over the Braves at Citi Field. Four Mets relievers, including A.J. Minter and Huascar Brazobán, closed out the victory to ensure another brief start from Freddy Peralta wouldn’t come back to haunt them.
Thanks to a four-run rally in the first inning (in which the Mets benefitted from a bizarre throwing error on a ball that ricocheted off a pole in foul ground), as well as back-to-back homers from A.J. Ewing and Marcus Semien in the fifth, the Mets carried a five-run lead into the back half of the game. From there, manager Carlos Mendoza turned to two of his lower-leverage relievers, Cionel Pérez and Daniel Duarte, who combined on 2 1/3 scoreless innings.
Minter followed with two outs in the eighth, and Brazobán -- Mendoza’s bullpen Swiss Army knife -- handled the ninth without issue. That gave the Mets a series win against the Braves, who have the best record in the Majors.
Atlanta also features the league’s best bullpen ERA, though the Mets aren’t far behind. At game’s end, New York ranked fourth with a 3.30 relief ERA -- a figure that would be even lower if not for several poor bulk relief performances earlier this season from David Peterson, Sean Manaea and Jonah Tong.