Game #150: Nationals 10, Mets 1

Oh boy, was that ugly.

The Nationals broke it open with 7 runs in the last 2 innings, sending the Mets to an awful 10-1 loss, completing the 4-game sweep.

The Bad Stuff:

• It was all Bad Stuff today: pitching (10 earned runs), fielding (2 errors, including a 6th in 6 games from David Wright), hitting (0-11 with RISP, 10 left on). There was even a balk in the 7th that led to a run.

The Good Stuff:

• Back in the cleanup spot due to players getting the day off, Jason Bay went 2-4 with 2 doubles and the team's lone RBI. In a time when the team is trending way down, Bay's numbers are going back up again; his batting average is at .248 and his 57 RBIs are somewhat respectable for a 6-hole hitter.

Final Analysis:
Over the last 4 games, we've seen the Mets run out of gas, lose the breaks, and start drifting, then plummeting, downhill. Today was the crash. The big thud. It was a spectacular crash, one that's hard to look at but impossible to tear your eyes from.

New York's 4-game home sweep at the hand of Washington, their first such sweep since Colorado did it during the 5-13 start in April, gives the Mets a dismal 1-8 record in their current homestand, wipes out the progress made the two and a half weeks previous, and drops them back to their lowest (so far) low: 8 games under. And with a brutal 12 final games left, the horrifying question is how far the record will fall.

Fans who lived through this latest implosion will be hard-pressed to do this now, but the important thing is to not forget how much fun it was to watch this team for most of the season. Aside from the awful start and this awful finish, the New York Mets were one of the most exciting teams in baseball this year. No losing streak can take away the thrills of watching Jose Reyes when he was on fire in June, or of beating Mariano and the Yankees in July, or crushing the Phillies with an even-more makeshift lineup. At the end of the season I'll recap those highs officially, but it's important to keep those in mind and not let the exhaustion of September take that away from us.

And at the absolute very least: if we had to be swept, at least Davey Johnson oversaw it.

MM