The worst!
Mets pummeled by franchise-record 21 runs (and that’s after they scored 3 in the 9th!)
Tuesday began with the Mets hanging on dearly to all their pitchers and all their aging veterans, including Jose Reyes. It ended with Reyes on the mound and the worst defeat in franchise history.
The Mets stood pat at the trade deadline, and then they got walked all over in Washington.
It was fitting, really, to see the same old club take the field at Nationals Park on Tuesday night and promptly allow seven runs in the first inning of an eventual 25-4 loss. They had never lost a game by more than 19 runs in the team’s history.
Steven Matz, one of the core four of pitchers the club refused to part with due to delusions of grandeur that they can contend in 2019 with this roster as currently constituted, got lit up by the Nationals. He didn’t make it out of the first inning, allowing eight hits and seven runs and recording just two outs.
“Everything was middle,” manager Mickey Callaway said of Matz’s outing. “I think you go through rough patches now and again, and tonight was really rough.”
Reliever Jacob Rhame did not fare much better, though he lasted longer out of sheer necessity, giving up seven hits and six runs in two frames. By the fourth inning, every Nationals player had recorded a hit and scored a run and the score was 13-0.
Former Met turned Met killer Daniel Murphy did his predictable share of damage, going 3-for-4 with two home runs and six RBI, continuing to feast on his old team. Bryce Harper, who had been made available by the Nationals Monday night in trade talks, was still around Tuesday and had two base knocks and three runs scored.
The Nationals had 26 hits in the game, pitcher Tanner Roark even getting in on the fun with two knocks and three RBI. His batting average (.195) is about 20 points higher than that of Jose Reyes, who took the mound for the first time in his career, doing about as well as you might expect and about as well as the rest of the Met pitchers, giving up six runs on five hits, including two long homers to Matt Adams and Mark Reynolds.
“It’s embarrassing and we gotta do better,” Callaway said, without much feeling.
Jeff McNeil hit his first major league home run, and Austin Jackson hit his first dinger as a Met.
Wilmer Flores exited the game early with dizziness. It’s a wonder he was the only one, with the amount of times Mets players had to spin around to watch baseballs leave the park.