Mets bullpen not to be outdone by starting rotation in NLCS

NEW YORK -- To fully appreciate what the Mets bullpen is doing right now, raw stats are not enough.

Sure, four Mets relievers combined for 3 1/3 scoreless innings Sunday night to preserve a 4-1 win and put the Mets up in the NLCS, 2-0.

But it is the consistency manager Terry Collins has coaxed from this unit—an amagalmation of starters-turned-relievers, starters getting between-starts work in, and relievers forced to embrace new roles—that is truly astounding.

Everyone is in unfamiliar territory. Tyler Clippard was in Oakland until July. Addison Reed was in Arizona until August. Jeurys Familia, the closer, began the year as a setup man. Lefty specialist Jon Niese had been starter for his entire career until the final week of the regular season. Bartolo Colon made a total of six relief appearances in his 18-year career before this season. Noah Syndergaard, Sunday night's starter, was Thursday night's seventh inning guy.

Only one thing is certain from game to game: it's all been working.

“I wasn't a pitcher, so I was never one that thought to have a particular role outside of the guy pitching the 9th inning was that big,” Collins said Sunday night at his postgame presser. “But at this level, it is big. Guys want to know when they're going to be used. Our guys have done a great job. But they're all caught up in it right now. They're all caught up in the success of what's going on.”

The pathway from starter to 27th out was a bit more conventional Sunday night, with Reed pitching the seventh, Clippard the eighth and Familia the ninth inning. Even that was fraught with some level of concern, since the bullpen appearances from guys like Syndergaard and Colon throughout the NLDS meant that Clippard and Reed simply hadn't worked that much.

“You make it work because it's October,” Clippard said, standing in front of his locker following the game. “I think that's what it comes down to. You realize that all hands on deck every single day. And each situation that each guy is given, they want to be out there, you're excited, you want to contribute.”