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

3 of 3

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

Want your voice heard? Join the Rising Apple team!

Write for us!

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.

Home/New York Mets History