The Mets’ 74th game captured why, after almost half a season, the most expensive team in baseball gets only a 14.2% chance of reaching the playoffs, according to Baseball Reference. For only the second time in franchise history, the Mets on Wednesday gave up 10 runs (including two unearned runs), walked eight batters and threw two wild pitches in just eight innings in a road loss.
The 10–8 clunker in Houston has as its only comp in scattershot pitching a 19–10 defeat in Montreal by the 2004 Mets, losers of 91 games. These Mets are on pace to lose 88.
How could a team with a $359 million payroll possibly be this bad? Let us count the ways, based on where they stood after the game Wednesday.
