The Washington Nationals handed the New York Mets the worst loss their franchise has suffered since their inception in 1962 with a 25-4 smackdown. Even when the Ol’ Professor Casey Stengel was managing the misfit Mets, they never took a beating this bad. Former Manager Yogi Berra may have amended his famous quote, “It ain’t over till it’s over,” to a more Roberto Duran styled “No mas!” type of exclamation. Instead, the Mets are left with a bad taste in their mouth, while Bryce Harper and his teammates go down in the history books for their offensive outpouring.
The Mets looked like they may have been starting to get their act together. They managed to go 12-11 in July after a 5-21 June, which in part is what kept them from having a huge fire sale prior to the non-waiver trade deadline passing. The Nationals, who were in much better shape than the Mets coming into the game, were listening to offers to move Bryce Harper yesterday morning. For both teams, this game is a signal. While a 162-game regular season isn’t about one game, one game can tell you a lot about where teams are headed.
The Nationals’ 7 runs were the most in the 1st inning of a game by an NL team this season.
Steven Matz allowed 7 ER that inning, tying Dylan Bundy and Felix Peña for the most allowed in the opening frame by any pitcher this season.
Those 7 ER also tied a career-high for Matz. pic.twitter.com/T5GEBw1SCe
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) July 31, 2018
The game was immediately on track to be something big, according to Bleacher Report . Steven Matz surrendered seven earned runs, the most of his career, and the most by an NL team in the first inning this season. The bullpen fell apart, giving up three runs in the second, third, fourth, and fifth innings. Infielder Jose Reyes had to come in to pitch in the eighth, surrendering a pair of home runs, but by that point the bullpen was bare and any arm that could get the ball near the plate was good enough to take the mound.
The final line on Jose Reyes:
1.0 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 0 K, 48 pitches.
His velocity ranged from 49 to 82 mph.
Reyes’ career ERA is 54.00.
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) August 1, 2018
Daniel Murphy slugged two home runs and became number two, behind Mark McGwire, on the career list of highest slugging percentage versus the Mets by players with 100 plate appearances. He totaled three hits with six RBIs. Harper also had three hits, including a pair of doubles, and three RBIs. It’s a game that made the National’s front office look smart for keeping a now potentially contending team together and can propel a team to believe in itself. For the Mets, who were already eliminated from doing anything this year other than on paper, it is a demoralizing defeat after their front office did nothing to help the team improve at the trade deadline, as per Deadspin .
#Mets lose. The joke of all jokes this season. Worst single game loss score-wise in the team’s history.
— Michael Baron (@michaelgbaron) August 1, 2018
The game got so out of hand that Deadspin reported the Mets announcers gave up even trying to do the play-by-play and decided instead to entertain themselves. With a nearly empty stadium and viewing numbers down this season, at least someone in the Mets’ organization was having a laugh.
“It got so out of hand, Mets television announcers Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling and Gary Cohen took turns reading verbatim from the team’s media guide in the late innings — the SNY network played the theme from ‘Masterpiece Theatre’ in the background.”
