Edwin Diaz and the Mets prove that things can always get worse

To the surprise of just about nobody, the Mets managed to turn one of the most dramatic comebacks of the season into another heartbreak within half an inning in their 6-3 loss in Philadelphia.

Before the hopes and dreams of Mets fans fell faster than the walls of Jericho, there were some positives to take from this game, specifically the performance of Zack Wheeler. Through six innings of work, the potential deadline trade chip struck out seven powder blue Phillies while only giving up one run on two hits. The downside of that stat line is that one of those hits was Bryce Harper’s sixth inning home run which was almost the only run scored this afternoon.

In the first half of the game, the Mets’ only real chance to score against Aaron Nola came in the third inning after Amed Rosario led off the inning by reaching on an error and Jeff McNeil was hit by a pitch with two outs to bring up Pete Alonso. It was not meant to be, unfortunately, as Alonso flew out to Bryce Harper and ended the threat as quickly as it began.

The Mets created another blip in the radar in their half of the sixth after Zack Wheeler knocked the first hit against Aaron Nola. Predictably, Alonso replaced Wheeler at first after a force out and after a Michael Conforto walk Todd Frazier grounded out to Jean Segura to end the inning with nothing coming home.

To the detriment of the Mets, the Phillies took a much more direct approach to getting a run across. With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Bryce Harper sent his 14th home run of the season over the stands in center field and onto Ashburn Alley to give Philadelphia a 1-0 advantage.

With Brooks Pounders and Chris Flexen keeping the the score as it was, the Mets had the heart of their order coming up in the ninth against Hector Neris with one run needed to tie and two to go ahead. Pete Alonso grounded out to start things off, but Michael Conforto poked the Mets second hit of the night in to right field to bring up Todd Frazier as the go-ahead run. Six pitches from Hector Neris later, Frazier sent a pitch to the seats in left field to give the Mets a 2-1 advantage. Shockingly, the Mets offense didn’t stop there as Dominic Smith and Wilson Ramos followed with a pair of singles to bounce Neris from the game and bring in the bespectacled hurler known as JD Hammer. Amed Rosario was able to bring one run home with an infield grounder, but that was all the Mets would get as they handed the ball over to Edwin Diaz with a 3-1 lead.

As you might’ve guessed, that lead wasn’t held very well as Diaz immediately walked Cesar Hernandez and somehow things only got worse from there. Three pitches after walking Hernandez, Diaz allowed a game-tying home run to newly-minted Mets killer Maikel Franco to tie the game at three and prove that dreams only exist to be crushed beneath the steel-toed boot of reality. To be fair, Diaz did manage to retire J.T. Realmuto who came to the plate as a pinch hitter and promptly struck out, but that was as pleasant as things would get.

Professional cooler puncher Sean Rodriguez drew a walk and Scott Kingery moved him over to second on a single to bring Jean Segura up with two men on. Any potential bits of joy that you may have held onto were quickly turned to ash in your mouth as Segura laced a ball over the left field wall to win the game for the Phillies and earn himself a Gatorade bath as Edwin Diaz and the rest of the Mets sulked off the field and back to the clubhouse. Recording only one out, Diaz gave up five runs and raised his ERA for the season to 4.94 en route to his fourth blown save of the season.

While the Mets team may be a train wreck of historically horrific proportions, Jacob deGrom remains a golden gift from above and he’ll be taking the mound at 7:10 tomorrow against Mike Soroka and the Braves.

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: Todd Frazier +55.5% WPA, Zack Wheeler +14.6%
Big losers: Edwin Diaz -91.4% WPA, Pete Alonso -17.6% WPA, You, the viewer
Total pitcher WPA: -69.8% WPA
Total batter WPA: +19.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Todd Frazier’s ninth inning go-ahead homer, +66.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Maikel Franco’s game-tying homer, -45.7% WPA