Mets good vibes will end if David Stearns cant fix bullpen

The good times at Citi Field began to melt one walk at a time.All of the positive vibes launched by a furry purple mascot, an unexpected hit song and — of course — lots of winning reversed in the eighth inning Saturday when the soundtrack devolved from “OMG” to the more familiar “boo.”The targets were Jake Diekman and Reed Garrett because, well, they could not hit their targets.

Each walked the first two batters they faced.Three of the free passes scored.

They threw so many balls that at one point the umpires embarrassingly lost semblance of the count, thinking that there were three balls on pinch-hitter Trey Cabbage when he actually already had walked.That was rectified by replay.David Stearns is going to have a much tougher time fixing the bullpen issue.With a chance to go two games over .500 and tie the Cardinals for the final NL wild-card slot, the Mets instead blew what had been an early five-run lead and returned the Grimace to the facial expression of their fans.“Four walks in the eighth inning, they are going to make you pay, especially a team with that kind of offense,” manager Carlos Mendoza said.Mendoza was operating with a thin staff.He is playing one man down without the suspended Edwin Diaz.

Even in victory Friday, Jose Quintana provided just four innings, leaving four relievers to cover five innings.So Mendoza stuck with Tylor Megill through a three-run fourth, but Megill bulged his pitch count by walking three of the final seven hitters he faced for a Mets staff that has walked the highest percentage of hitters in the majors.Ty Adcock, picked up on waivers in May and promoted Wednesday, provided 1 ¹/₃ shutout innings after Megill left with one out in the sixth.

The key for Diekman with a two-run lead was to work though the less-fierce part of the Astros lineup, but he walked Jake Meyers and Jeremy Pena protecting a 6-4 lead in the eighth.Garrett — a revelation, but a heavily used one — walked two, threw a run-scoring wild ...