Mets vs. Yankees recap: This train is out of service

In case it weren’t abundantly clear where the two New York baseball teams were heading over the final month-and-a-half of this season, things were crystal clear as the 2017 edition of Subway Series came to a merciful end at Citi Field on Thursday night. Luis Severino was dominant against a Mets lineup that doesn’t much resemble the one that the team sent out on Opening Day, and Steven Matz continued a recent stretch of awful starts.

The Yankees may not make the playoffs by the time the season ends, but the Mets certainly won’t. And it’s mostly been the Mets’ greatest perceived strength coming into this season—starting pitching—that has been the cause of the team’s record, which now stands thirteen games under .500.

Steven Matz isn’t alone with his underwhelming performance this year, but his 6.08 ERA is currently the worst among Mets pitchers who have thrown at least 50 innings this season. After putting up a Matz-ian ERA through his first few starts of this year, things took a turn for the worse in early July and haven’t gotten better since. And in this outing, he lasted just three-and-one-third innings and was responsible for all seven runs the Yankees scored. One of those was unearned, but even that run could be assigned to Matz, who took a leadoff dribbler and airmailed a throw just over Dominic Smith’s glove to turn an out into a runner on second with nobody out in the first inning.

Despite that dreadful start by Matz, the Mets nearly came back. Matt Reynolds plated the team’s first run on a single in the seventh, but the Mets squandered an opportunity to score more. They didn’t score again until the ninth, but when they did, it was on a Curtis Granderson grand slam that reduced the Yankees’ lead to two runs. Unfortunately, that was all for the Mets on the night, and they’re just set to continue playing out the string as they host the Marlins at Citi Field over the weekend.

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: none
Big losers: Steven Matz, -32.4% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Aaron Judge strikes out in the first, +5.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Gary Sanchez hits a three-run home run in the first, -22.9% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -33.4% WPA
Total batter WPA: -16.6% WPA
GWRBI!: Gary Sanchez