LOS ANGELES — For Sean Manaea and the Mets’ bullpen, the last 12 outs of the Mets’ NLCS Game 2 win were “stressful.” For those watching from the dugout, they were an entertaining watch. Ultimately, Phil Maton bailed out Manaea in the sixth, Ryne Stanek bailed out Maton in the seventh and Edwin Diaz bailed out Stanek in the eighth before, well, kind of bailing out himself in the ninth. The Mets held on for a 7-3 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday afternoon at Dodger Stadium to even the series at 1-1. The grand slam by Mark Vientos might have been the highlight of the game, but the bullpen effort should not go unnoticed. “How did they feel? Stressful,” Maton said. “It’s just playoff baseball. Very rarely, I feel like, do you get to come in and just have a clean situation and go about your job.” Maton inherited a bases-loaded jam from Manaea, the left-handed starter who turned in an ace-like performance for the first five innings. Manager Carlos Mendoza felt it was important for him to start the sixth, but he was prepared, getting Maton up early. After Manaea walked Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez, Freddie Freeman hit a hard ground ball that second baseman Jose Iglesias bobbled, allowing Freeman to reach and load the bases. The Mets went to Maton. “In that situation, it’s just really trying to hammer the zone — especially with the bases loaded — and force the issue on them to make them put the ball and play and do something with it,” Maton said. “I’m just happy I was able to execute pitches, especially to Will Smith there to start the inning, and we just tried to build off an out and limit the damage as much as possible.” Maton came in and got Smith to pop up to Iglesias for an easy out, but Tommy Edman hit a grounder past a diving Pete Alonso at first base to score two. Max Muncy then walked to bring up Kiké Hernandez, who was the hero in the Dodgers’ Game 5 NLDS win with a go-ahead homer. The utility man might not be the heaviest hitter with a career OPS of just .713, but he’s hit 14 postseason home runs over his career, which is why the Dodgers sought a reunion with the 33-year-old at the trade deadline. Maton got Hernandez to ground into a 5-4-3 double play. “Phil came in and kind of cut down that rally a little bit, stopped the bleeding and minimized damage, which was huge,” Stanek said. “I was glad I could come in and kind of take the baton and pass it on.” He passed it to Diaz with two on and two out in the eighth. Diaz came in to face Hernandez and the runners immediately executed a double steal. However, Diaz got his fellow Puerto Rican to pop up to right field for the out. The closer has largely gotten the job done this month, but he’s been shaky at times during the postseason. The Mets had to calm him down during Game 4 of the NLDS and tell him to throw his fastball down the middle against the Phillies. He gave up three runs in Game 2 in Philadelphia when he was brought into the middle of the game. However, Diaz, like any good closer, has a good short-term memory. He’s able to forget bad outings quickly and move forward, but it helps that manager Carlos Mendoza has continually gone back to him soon after those bad outings. It’s intentional on the part of Mendoza, showing the closer that he has confidence in his abilities to get big outs. It hasn’t gone unnoticed by Diaz. Andy Pages and Shohei Ohtani worked walks against Diaz, but he struck out the next three hitters, Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernandez and Freddie Freeman — the exact hitters the Dodgers would want up to the plate down four runs. “I think he was under control,” Mendoza said. “He was able to slow the game down, made pitches to get Kiké in the eighth. After the double steal he got that last out, and then the first two guys get on [in the ninth], and you could tell once he got Mookie, especially using his fastball, he was throwing strikes. It was a good sign.” While the heart rates of the relievers might have been elevated, DH Jesse Winker was just enjoying the game in the dugout. “The Dodgers have a really good lineup, and it’s a lineup full of professional hitters,” Winker told the Daily News. “All three of them did so well, so well and they did the job.”