Jonah Tong May Help The Mets’ Rotation, But Who Can Rescue The Bullpen?

There was no rain in the forecast at Citi Field Tuesday afternoon, yet blue skies with harmless white clouds were surrounded by dark clouds approaching from both directions above the the scoreboards touting the imminent Mets-Phillies matchup.

There has rarely been a more symbolic baseball sky for state of the Mets, who sandwiched a stormy meltdown by their bullpen in between the sunshine-filled announcement of Jonah Tong’s imminent promotion and Edwin Diaz getting five dominant outs before Brandon Nimmo’s walk-off hit in the ninth gave them a 6-5 win.

To be fair, the same thing about the symbolic baseball sky could be said of the Phillies — who looked ready to end the NL East race this week before losing Monday and Tuesday as their Citi Field losing streak hit nine games — and everyone else in Major League Baseball.

But no contender symbolizes the razor-thin line between World Series hopeful and complete disaster quite like the Mets, who had the best record in baseball through June 12 and possess the sixth-worst record since even after winning seven of their last 10 games.

The much-needed surge began Aug. 16, when Nolan McLean provided a boost to a flailing rotation by tossing 5 1/3 scoreless innings in his big league debut and earning the victory in a 3-1 win over the Mariners. McLean was even better last Friday, when he went seven innings while beating the Braves. He is the only pitcher other than David Peterson to last at least seven innings since June 1.

The Mets will hope to get similar results from Tong, who is slated to start Friday against the Marlins. Tong, already an intriguing prospect after going 6-4 with a 3.03 ERA and 160 strikeouts in 113 innings between three affiliates last year, emerged as one of the best pitchers in the minors by going 10-5 with a 1.43 ERA and a whopping 179 strikeouts in 113 2/3 innings with Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse. He arrived in Syracuse earlier this month and went 2-0 with 17 whiffs over 11 2/3 scoreless innings.

“I think it’s all about him dominating the minor leagues,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said Tuesday afternoon. “You could make a case, all right, Double-A, you want to give him a better look at the Triple-A level. But man, a couple of outings, I think it’s hard to keep him there.”

The promotions of McLean and Tong are an indication of increased urgency from the Mets, who lead the Reds by 3 1/2 games in the race for the final NL playoff spot, and a reflection of their growing impatience with Sean Manaea, Kodai Senga and Clay Holmes.

Manaea and Senga earned plenty of rope with their impressive first seasons in New York and are coming off injuries while Holmes is being built up as a starter after spending most of his career in the bullpen. But they’ve posted a combined 4.67 ERA while averaging just 4.7 innings per start over their last 31 appearances.

“I’m going to be honest — performance matters,” Mendoza said. “We’re to a point now where we’ve got to see performance.”

Tong is being recalled to give Peterson and Senga an extra day of rest, but Mendoza left the door open to the possibility of Tong remaining in the rotation.

“We’re getting to a point now where our job is to put the best guys out there, day-in and day-out, and the players that we feel are going to give us a chance to win that particular day,” Mendoza said. “So he’s going to get an opportunity Friday and we’ll go from there.”

Now if only the Mets had so many options for their struggling bullpen in front of Diaz. (We haven’t even mentioned another potential rotation alternative in Brandon Sproat, a consensus top-75 prospect entering the season who has a 4.50 ERA in 25 games at Syracuse).

Mets relievers have a 4.89 ERA this month after Huascar Brazoban and Ryan Helsley combined to allow three runs before Diaz whiffed four of the five batters he faced. And that ERA doesn’t account for the eight unearned runs the bullpen has surrendered — or that it’s boosted by the 12 1/3 innings of two-run ball thrown by mop-up men Paul Blackburn, Justin Hagenman and Luis Torrens, last seen in the Bronx, Syracuse and starting behind the plate for the Mets, respectively.

Deadline acquisitions Tyler Rogers and Gregory Soto have been better this month than Helsley, but their 1.88 ERA comes with a 1.25 WHIP (30 baserunners allowed in 25 innings). Holdovers Reed Garrett and Ryne Stanek have an 11.15 ERA this month and Garrett just hit the injured list with a sore elbow.

No wonder, then, that Mendoza’s stern tone regarding his reluctance to use Rogers for more than an inning last night (he needed just seven pitches in a 1-2-3 seventh) softened as soon as he began talking about Helsley, who has allowed 14 runs (10 earned) and 20 baserunners in just 8 2/3 innings since he was acquired from the Cardinals on July 31.

“People got to step up, people got to do their job,” Mendoza said. “We’ve just got to get Helsley right. Too good stuff for them to be taking some really good swings on fastballs, really good takes on the sliders. So we’ve got to look back and see what we’re missing.”

Especially because there’s no bullpen help poking its way through an alternately promising and threatening baseball sky for the Mets.