NY Mets disasterclass vs Nationals capped off by frustrating Richard Lovelady moment

If the New York Mets were ever going to get their season back on track, this was their opportunity. After sweeping the toothless Detroit Tigers and taking two out of three from the crosstown Yankees, taking a trip down to the Nation's Capital with a head of steam to take on the Washington Nationals seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.

At first it was. The Mets opened the series on Monday with a 16-7 drubbing of their division rival. With Nolan McLean taking the mound on May 19 for the second game of the four-game set, it seemed as if blood was in the water, and finally, the Mets were the sharks.

Staked to an early 5-0 lead, the budding ace seemed to have everything he needed to lead New York to its fourth-straight victory. However, it only took until the second inning for things to unravel when he loaded the bases and James Wood launched a deep fly ball to left-center field. The ball clanked off a leaping Nick Morabito's glove, and with that, the merry-go-round was off. The end result? An inside-the-park grand slam to bring the Nationals back into the game.

The Mets would fall behind in the bottom of the third, and then trailing 5-7 in the bottom of the fourth, they decided to put on a defensive display that would embarrass your kid's Little League team. After a Wood single to lead off the inning, McLean got Luis Garcia Jr. to fly out, setting the scene for a tailor-made double play ball off the bat of Jose Tena.

However, instead of ending the inning, Marcus Semien bobbled the ball and then compounded the error by throwing the ball away, allowing Wood to advance to third and Tena to sneak into second. CJ Abrams then hit a grounder to Bo Bichette, who tried to cut Wood down at the plate. The throw was a bit high (but catchable), and Luis Torrens couldn't corral it, allowing Wood and Tena to score.

Adding insult to injury, Brett Baty fielded a scorcher down the third base line, but his throw was off-line. The Mets then had Abrams caught in a rundown, but the return throw to third was shockingly cut off by McLean, permitting a dead-to-rights Abrams to return to third safely.

Things would settle from that point forward, but the damage had been done. New York's last licks came down 9-6 in the top of the ninth against a familiar face. Mets fans rejoiced when Richard Lovelady was DFA'd and joined the Nationals, and he knew it. Any hopes of a rally against their former arsonist were quickly ended as the lefty set down Baty, Torrens, and Carson Benge in order. He then celebrated as if he had just closed out Game 7 of the World Series.

Richard Lovelady and the Nationals embarrassing the Mets exposes a grim reality

The Mets can point to a thousand different reasons why the season hasn't gone as planned. Injuries have played a role. Slow starts from key cogs have been a problem. In some cases, there have been a few bad bounces that have been the differentiating factor between victory and defeat.

However, this performance exposed a bigger issue. You can wait for the cavalry to come off the IL and hope that with time, key veterans start playing like the back of their baseball card, but you can't excuse sloppy, lackadaisical baseball as we saw in this game.

You can't make a big deal out of fixing last year's problematic defense, as David Stearns did immediately after last season's collapse was complete, and then go out and throw the ball around like the Bad News Bears. You can't make silly mistakes when the reality of the situation is that you are fighting each day to save your season.

But that's where the Mets are. The excuses are great, but they are also hollow. This is a team that doesn't have its head in the game and can't execute the fundamentals. Lovelady poking them in the eye at the end wasn't a diss. It was a well-deserved public shaming for a team that just put forth a shameful effort, and has done so far too often this season.

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