Mets’ bullpen falls short in NLDS Game 2 loss

PHILADELPHIA — With the second game of a division series in the balance, manager Carlos Mendoza believed Tylor Megill was his best option.

Phil Maton had thrown 25 pitches Saturday.

Ryne Stanek had tossed 28, Reed Garrett 23 and David Peterson 50.

Edwin Diaz already had entered (and needed bailing out), Mendoza unleashing his best arm with the tying run on second and Kyle Schwarber at the plate in the seventh, when Diaz struck him out.

Jose Butto, who was not sharp, had preceded Diaz.

The only other bullpen arms not mentioned are Adam Ottavino and lefty Danny Young.

So it was Megill, who last started the Mets’ wild-card clincher in Atlanta on Monday and who gave up the game-winning single to Nick Castellanos on Sunday in a wild, 7-6 loss to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park to knot the NLDS at a game apiece.

“I was short today back there [in the bullpen],” Mendoza acknowledged after Diaz and Megill allowed four runs in the final two innings. “You’re trying to stay away from different guys because you’re going to need all of them. Not only the high-leverage reliever guys are going to be in the game, and I’m going to ask them to get huge outs. Everybody is going to have to contribute.”

Megill, who was left off the wild-card roster because he had started so recently, made a postseason debut that he will not want to remember.

He entered in the eighth inning, after Diaz had given up the go-ahead, two-run triple to Bryson Stott, and did his job.

He induced a soft ground ball from J.T. Realmuto that should have been an out at home, but third baseman Mark Vientos bobbled it, letting Stott score and Realmuto to reach.

Megill then blew away Brandon Marsh and got Alec Bohm to foul out.

After Vientos drilled the game-tying homer in the top of the ninth, Megill returned to the mound in an outing that could have grown lengthy: There is no ghost runner in the postseason.

Considering the other options, Mendoza stuck with a fully stretched out righty, even if Megill — who finished the season strong and in the starting rotation — was not a reliever this year.

“No challenge. Same old — just coming out in a different role,” said Megill, who spent much of his day pacing in the bullpen. “At the end of the day, just got to make pitches. Happened to get one away from me, and it cost us the game.”

That “one” was a slider that got too much of the plate to Castellanos, who ripped it to left to jump-start a deafening celebration.

But Megill surely regrets a two-out walk to Trea Turner before battling for seven pitches with Bryce Harper, who also walked, which set the stage for Castellanos.

“He was careful with Turner, he can take you deep, as well,” Mendoza said. “And then obviously you’ve got to pitch around Harper, and we just left that slider — I think it was too good of a pitch for Castellanos, and that’s another good hitter, and made him pay.”

This is the kind of scenario in which the Mets pay for a sprint into the postseason in which just about every bullpen arm has been taxed.