Mets suffer historically embarrassing loss against Nationals

On a day where the acting-GM triumvirate (GM-virate?) announced that the plan going forward is to build around the Mets’ pitching, there was no pitching to be found hours later as the Mets lost 25-4, the worst deficit in franchise history.

Before the game, Gary Cohen mentioned Steven Matz had never given up a run at Nationals Park. That all changed very quickly in the first inning. Trea Turner singled, then stole second and third to start the inning. It was all downhill from there.

This game had everything: temper tantrums, relief pitchers (yes plural) batting, Jose Reyes pitching, dehydration, rain, GKR media guide readings, replay review with the score already more suited for football, a Jacob deGrom glove cameo, and a faux charging of the mound.

In the first alone, the Nationals sent twelve men to plate, scored seven runs, the Mets used two pitchers, and Wilmer Flores exited the game with dehydration. All of the damage that inning came against Matz, who only got two outs and exited after giving up over half a dozen runs. The big blow that inning came off the bat of opposing pitcher Tanner Roark. It was going to be that kind of night.

The rest of the game didn’t get much better. Jacob Rhame, Tim Peterson, Tyler Bashlor, and Jose Reyes—yes you read that correctly—combined to give up eighteen runs in five innings. The only two pitchers to escape unscathed were Jerry Blevins and Drew Smith.

Daniel Murphy had six RBIs by the third inning and the top of the Nationals’ lineup that remained in the game got seven at-bats each. For the most part, Washington was in a good mood and Ryan Zimmerman had some fun and faked charging the mound after being hit by a very slow Jose Reyes pitch. Reyes was using deGrom’s glove on the mound and the very next inning the Mets scored three runs, which was more than they scored in deGrom’s last two starts combined.

There weren’t many bright spots in this game considering they lost by three touchdowns, but Jeff McNeil did hit his first major league home run, and Austin Jackson hit his first as a Met. Yes, it was a very poorly played game by the Mets, but it also took a bit of an ugly turn when Shawn Kelley had a meltdown on the mound with his team leading by twenty-one runs. He spiked his glove and threw a bit of a temper tantrum when the umpires called him out for pitching too quickly. Again, this was when the Nationals held a twenty-one run lead.

The good news is this only counts as one loss in a season where the Mets have plenty of them. The bad news is the trade deadline has come and gone and this team still has no clear picture of what it is going to be in the near future.

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: None
Big losers: Steven Matz -40.8%
Teh aw3s0mest play: Amed Rosario reached on an error in first
Teh sux0rest play: Tanner Roark double in first
Total pitcher WPA: -42.4%
Total batter WPA: -7.6%
GWRBI!: Tanner Roark