Mets lose again with terrible, horrible, no good, very bad pitching

There isn’t much that can be said about this game that can’t already be inferred from the 17-6 final score. The pitching went from bad, to worse, to stop stop he’s already dead.gif.

The game started off promising when the Mets’ offense actually put together a nice rally against Brewers’ starter Chase Anderson. They scored three runs but it was mostly on bloop singles and walks. Michael Conforto and Adrian Gonzalez had brutal at bats with the bases loaded so the 3-0 lead could have been much bigger.

With that minor quibble aside, Jason Vargas was staked to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and gave it right back almost immediately. After getting Lorenzo Cain out to start the inning, he picked up where AJ Ramos left off the night before and started walking people. Travis Shaw also picked up where he left off and drove in the first run with a single. Hernan Perez followed with a double and the game was tied 3-3.

Brandon Nimmo untied the game leading off the second with a solo home run, and Conforto added a blast of his own the following inning. Now with a 5-3 lead in the third, once again Vargas made it disappear by giving up two runs in the bottom of the inning. That ended his outing and he still has yet to prove his worth in this rotation.

With Vargas out of the game early, once again that meant the bullpen would be required to get a lot of outs. In all they had fifteen outs to get but twelve runs crossed the plate before that fifteenth out was recorded.

First up was Jacob Rhame. Rhame walked Cain but Cain did not remain (on first) and caused the Mets more pain. Jay Bruce took a weird route to a ball Christian Yelich hit which went for a triple. That gave the Brewers their first lead and they never looked back.

Pretty much every Brewer in the lineup filled up his stats sheet today. Cain, Yelich, and Jesus Aguilar all had three hits a piece, and Travis Shaw, Tyler Saladino, and Erik Kratz-who wasn’t even on the team yesterday-all had two-hit nights. Finally, every position player in the starting lineup had an RBI by the time this one ended.

Most of the damage came against poor Chris Flexen who hasn’t pitched since he was recalled on May 19. He finished off the fifth when A.J. Ramos could not, and he escaped a bases loaded situation in the sixth unscathed, but in the seventh his luck ran out. Things blew up on him quickly and he was unable to complete the inning. Seven runs crossed the plate and Jerry Blevins had to come in to get the final out of the inning. To be fair to Flexen, Jose Reyes did botch a play that was originally ruled an out, but despite having a big lead the Brewers challenged and the call was overturned.

Reyes had cut into the Brewers’ lead in the fifth when he doubled home Adrian Gonzalez, and he worked a walk in the first to bring home the Mets’ third run of the inning, but true to form any positives he brings to the table, he eventually finds a way to negate them.

Ramos was terrible for the second straight day but Blevins actually managed to get outs so that was progress. He only issued one walk in over an inning of work and was the only pitcher to not give up any runs.

There are very few positives to find in games like this even though the offense scored six runs. Nimmo and Conforto’s blasts were certainly positives, but Jay Bruce still looks lost both in the field and at the plate.

Most of the losses aren’t this bad and won’t be this bad but it is almost Memorial Day and this loss was just a symptom of much larger problems. The failure of the front office to invest properly in quality talent (even Gare mentioned during the broadcast that Cain has been worth every penny of his contract so far for the Brewers), the failure to cut ties with players not getting the job done, and the lack of depth within the organization. Fred Wilpon complains that the Yankees have an unsustainable model, but with those three issues the Mets put on full display, what is it exactly the Mets are sustaining?

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: Jose Reyes +13.6%
Big losers: Jason Vargas -33.3%, A.J. Ramos -21.8%, Jacob Rhame, -18.3%, Adrian Gonzalez -10%
Teh aw3s0mest play: Jose Reyes double in fifth
Teh sux0rest play: Hernan Perez double in first
Total pitcher WPA: -74.3%
Total batter WPA: +24.3%
GWRBI!: Christian Yelich