Jeurys Familia walked the tightrope again on Monday. This time, he survived.
The struggling right-hander entered to open the eighth inning of what turned into a 5-4 loss to the Reds, with the small Citi Field crowd already on edge due to his presence in a tie game.
Familia has been wildly disappointing since rejoining the Mets as a free agent in the offseason. He entered Monday’s game in an eight-game funk during which he’d allowed nine runs — eight earned — along with 11 hits and eight walks in eight innings.
He had also struck out six and allowed a pair of homers and wasn’t used in the eighth inning of Sunday’s win over Milwaukee, although Mickey Callaway said going with Seth Lugo in that situation was a matter of “circumstance,’’ since he wanted to get Lugo work and Familia pitched — poorly — on Saturday.