New York Mets: Reflecting on the horrors of going 5-21 in June 2018

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DENVER, CO – JUNE 21: Wilmer Flores #4 of the New York Mets reacts after flying out despite earning a sacrifice RBI on the play during the eighth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on June 21, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images) /

The 2018 New York Mets had an all-time bad month when they went only 5-21 in June. Let’s look back at the horrors of how bad the team was.

June of 2018 was not the one many New York Mets fans want to bring home to their parents. The 5-21 record not only put them in a giant hole at the midway point of the season, but it also eliminated happiness from the summer for many diehard fans.

A year has passed since the travesty. I’m ready to go back and relive just how ugly things got.

The Schedule

The Mets began the month by playing the final three games of a series sweep against the Chicago Cubs at home. The anemic offense had a day off only to fall to the lowly Baltimore Orioles 2-1 then 1-0 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

One more day off in the first full week of the month didn’t help either. They dropped the first two games to the New York Yankees at Citi Field before finally winning 2-0 game on Sunday, June 10. Thanks to six shutout innings from starter Seth Lugo and three more from Robert Gsellman and our dear old friend Anthony Swarzak, the Mets managed to win their first game of the month.

Did I mention these were all home games up until this point? You’re supposed to win at home more often than not.

Out on the road, the Atlanta Braves took two games against the Mets before the team split the final two in a four-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. This gave them 3 wins for the month and a 30-38 record for the season.

Keeping our hopes high, they defeated the Colorado Rockies 12-2 at Coors Field to extend their winning streak to three. This wasn’t the turning point, though. They fell to the Rockies three more times before returning home and getting swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The month finished off with the Mets winning the second game of three versus the Pittsburgh Pirates in New York then falling to the Miami Marlins twice down in Florida. The loss on June 30th gave them a season record of 32-48.

So why were things so bad? Let’s check in on the weakest link from 2018, the offense.

PHOENIX, AZ – JUNE 14: Todd Frazier #21 of the New York Mets ties his laces on-deck during the first inning of the MLB game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on June 14, 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

Cold June Offense in 2018

Would you believe, Jose Reyes had the second-highest batting average in June of 2018? We all gave him plenty of grief last year yet his .257/.366/.343 slash line looks Ruthian compared to other Mets from the month.

The leading hitter was Wilmer Flores who still only batted .286/.327/.561 in his opportunities. Flores, now the team’s regular starting first baseman, also tied Brandon Nimmo for the team lead in RBI with 13. Nimmo did outslug Flores and everyone else with a team-leading 6 home runs in June, but only a .250 batting average and 39 strikeouts in 96 at-bats.

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Some numbers from the offense this month weren’t abysmal. However, many times you will find a player or two putting up numbers which far exceed their lifetime averages. The Mets didn’t get this from anyone. To make matters worse, the men they hoped to lean on were struggling.

Amed Rosario slashed .216/.284/.311 in June which greatly outperformed the batting lines from Michael Conforto and Todd Frazier. This pair, perfectly healthy for the month and able to participate in the majority of the team’s games both hit .198 with 4 home runs and 9 RBI. Conforto did manage to post a .327 OBP thanks to his 16 walks. Frazier, no longer a threat to get on base via the walk, only took four ball fours and put up a putrid .227 OBP for the month.

To no one’s surprise, Jay Bruce was one of the worst hitters of the month. In 34 at-bats, the former slugger slashed .118/.231/.147. Adrian Gonzalez also signed his own walking papers by slashing .111/.143/.148 in his 8 games played.

At month’s end, the Mets scored 89 runs which put them 27th in baseball. The rebuilding Kansas City Royals were the only team to record a batting average worse than the .210 the Mets hit.

And by the way, the Royals also went 5-21 this month. The Orioles, who beat the Mets twice, only won 6 games.

As ugly as it was, not everything fell on the bats. Plenty of Mets pitchers also struggled in this month we’d all like to redo.

NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 05: Jason Vargas #40 of the New York Mets pitches in the third inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Citi Field on June 5, 2018 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /

Practicing for Batting Practice

Jacob deGrom’s season theme was alive and well in June. In six starts, the future Cy Young winner went 1-4 with a 2.36 ERA. Only relief pitcher Tim Peterson had a better ERA at 0.96. Of course, this came in only 9.1 innings of work.

This was the month Zack Wheeler really began to pitch well and I give him credit for going 0-2 but earning a 3.26 ERA. Steven Matz also performed well at 1-2 with a 3.90 ERA. Unfortunately, this was a month we didn’t see Noah Syndergaard throw a baseball.

Seth Lugo did make 4 starts and a relief appearance. From it, he gathered a 1-2 record and 4.09 ERA. The worst starters were Corey Oswalt and Jason Vargas. Oswalt had only one chance and lasted just 2.2 innings where he allowed 6 earned runs. Meanwhile, Vargas lost all three of his starts and ended the month with an 8.76 ERA.

I’d also miss an important event if I failed to mention Jerry Blevins’ lone MLB start. The lefty-specialist got the nod on June 24th against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It began terribly with Enrique Hernandez and Max Muncy hitting back-to-back home runs to begin the game.

The Mets bullpen is what truly let down the pitching staff this month. We saw guys like Buddy Baumann, Gerson Bautista, and Jacob Rhame allow a run per inning or more in their opportunities. Even Robert Gsellman and Jeurys Familia participated in the batting practice tryouts.

The Mets had a team ERA of 4.71 in June 2018 which combined with the silent offense didn’t help win many games. Often, when the bats did heat up, the Mets pitchers got lit up, too. The opposite occurred on days when a Mets starter would pitch a gem. On those games, the offense got lost on the way to the ballpark.

Next. Top 10 seasons by Mets first basemen in team history

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A lot needs to go wrong for any team to end a month 5-21. Even less needs to go right. Though we may believe injuries were a factor for the bad play, the Mets weren’t really missing too many players. It was just an average baseball team that decided to slump at the same time.

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