MILWAUKEE _ In his transition from starter to reliever, Robert Gsellman has clearly earned the trust of the coaching staff. While others have struggled, Gsellman and fellow reliever Seth Lugo have emerged as the top alternatives to Jeurys Familia.
In this series against Milwaukee, Mets manager Mickey Callaway opted to twice remove Gsellman in critical spots and ask others to record outs.
In both games, those decisions backfired.
After Gsellman left with two on and a two-run lead in the seventh, Jerry Blevins and Paul Sewald allowed the Brewers to take the lead in an eventual 8-7 defeat on Sunday at Miller Park.
Blevins yet again could not retire a lefty, and Sewald allowed the go-ahead two-run double to Domingo Santana. The Mets (25-24) lost three of four in this series.
Whether a manager's bullpen decisions look good or not are always a result of how the players perform, and Callaway's relievers have not picked up their manager.
Both Friday and Sunday, Callaway opted for relievers who have not been as successful as Gsellman, and both decisions led to losses.
In Friday's 4-3 loss in 10 innings, Callaway removed Gsellman with a lefty due up and a runner on first and two outs in a tied game.
Blevins, who has been anything but a lefty specialist this year, allowed a hit to lefty Christian Yelich, and AJ Ramos issued two walks to end the game.
Gsellman entered Sunday's game with a 6-4 lead in the seventh, and a similar situation unfolded. The Brewers put two on with two outs, and had lefty Travis Shaw due up.
Callaway again opted for Blevins, and once again Blevins failed him. Blevins allowed an RBI single to Shaw that sliced the lead to one run.
Lefties are now batting .296 (8 for 27) against Blevins.
Sewald then entered _ likely because Seth Lugo was being held to pitch multiple innings in the second game of Monday's doubleheader _ and he surrendered a bloop two-run double to left that put the Mets behind for the first time.
Jonathan Villar added an RBI double to put Milwaukee ahead, 8-6.
Since the Mets' hot 11-1 start when all his bullpen decisions seemingly worked out, Callaway's maneuvers haven not been nearly as successful.
The bullpen's blowup wasted another nice day for the offense. The Mets grabbed a 4-1 lead early, and added runs in the fifth and seventh to grab a 6-4 lead.
Tomas Nido's RBI single in the second tied the game at 1-all, and Zack Wheeler's two-run bullet to right off Jhoulys Chacin put the Mets ahead 3-1.
Asdrubal Cabera added an RBI single in the inning for a 4-1 lead, and he homered in the seventh inning off Boone Logan to push the edge to 6-4.
Devin Mesoraco's pinch-hit homer to start the ninth made it an 8-7 game, but Michael Conforto stuck out to end the game with the tying run at second.
As the bullpen blew the two-run lead, it left Wheeler with a no-decision for his six-inning, four-run outing. The righty pitched better than his line indicated. With better defense and bad luck on balls put in play, the righty could have allowed just two runs.
Miscommunication in right-center between Michael Conforto and Jay Bruce led to an RBI single in the first inning that put Milwaukee up 1-0.
Wheeler rebounded nicely from that rough start by retiring the next three batters to limit the damage to that lone run.
A check-swing single by Christian Yelich in the third helped Milwaukee tie the game when Jesus Aguilar hit a three-run bomb to left to tie the game at 4-all.
Wheeler allowed just six hits, and is trending in the right direction.
