The New York Mets were defeated by the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night by a score of 13-7 (Box Score).

Believe it or not, the New York Mets played a baseball game tonight in the wake of their latest Public Relations crisis over the past 30 hours. Steven Matz took on the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park and was far from sharp, allowing seven runs in four and a third.

The Mets hung with the Phillies until the fifth inning when things completely fell apart. Between poor pitching and sloppy defense, the club looked lifeless once Matz gave up the go-ahead home run to Maikel Franco, which then saw the Phillies score eight unanswered runs in their route of the Mets.

After an embarrassing display by the Manager, along with the bush league manner the organization handled the utterly disgraceful incident with Newsday reporter Tim Healey, the noise will only continue to build for Mickey Callaway to be relieved of his duties.

Despite swinging the bat well initially, there is no denying the club looked defeated following yesterday’s latest gut punch and today’s circus in the press. This lackadaisical play only further reflects signs of a poorly managed team. The Mets are now five games under .500 and nine back in the division.

In a year, where the general manager Brodie Van Wagenen said “come get us,” it looks as though the team has been GOT. The Mets are beginning to look more and more like sellers and unless something dramatically changes over the next few weeks, that’s most likely what they will be with the trade deadline on the horizon.

Pitching

Coming off a poor start in Atlanta, things trended in the opposite direction for Matz tonight, as he surrendered seven runs on 10 hits and failed to get out of the fifth inning.

Despite coming to the mound with a two run lead tonight, Steven Matz was unable to contain the Phillies offense in the first inning giving up solo home runs to Jean Segura (8) and Rhys Hoskins (17). The tie was then broken on an RBI chopper to Roman Quinn to put the Phils up 3-2.

In the next frame, Amed Rosario‘s lack of range reared it’s ugly head with his inability to get to a Jean Segura single up the middle. The following batter spelled trouble for the Mets as Bryce Harper doubled to deep left center to plate Segura extending the Phillies lead to 4-2.

Matz’s only clean inning of the night came in the the third on a 1-2-3-4 frame, which saw him work around a two-out Maikel Franco single. The left-hander capped things off by striking out the opposing pitcher Zach Eflin for the lone strikeout he recorded in the game.

The Mets tied things up in the top of the fourth, but this score did not last long. Segura and Harper were at it again with their second single-RBI double sequence of the night to regain the lead 5-4.

In the fifth inning, Matz would only record one out before walking Quinn. On the next pitch, the left-hander hung one to Maikel Franco (10) for a two-run blast to put the Phillies back ahead 6-5. This go-ahead home run chased Matz from the game ending his forgettable night.

Callaway removed his struggling starter in favor of reliever Brooks Pounders. Unfortunately, the damage wasn’t quite over when Jeff McNeil‘s lack of experience in right field was fully exposed as he completely whiffed on a Jean Segura liner, which scored the eighth run.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Mets outfield defense continued to burn them all, as Michael Conforto took a poor route on a J.T. Realmuto double that turned into a triple. This led to another run after Cesar Hernandez dropped in a soft RBI single to add on the ninth run for the Phils.

That wouldn’t be all for the Phillies in the inning. Franco hit a bullet to Rosario at shortstop that came up on him for a very tough hop and sailed over his glove into left field. Hernandez, who standing on second came around to extend his team’s lead to 10-6.

Former Met Jay Bruce got in on the action, as well in the next at-bat. Bruce slammed a Pounder’s slider into the right field seats for his 21st homer of the season and seventh as a Phillie in only 63 at-bats.

Youngster Stephen Nogosek came on to pitch a clean inning in the seventh working around a single. He would come back out for the eighth inning, striking out a batter, but surrendered a run on a Scott Kingery two-out single, which made the score 13-6.

Hitting

The Mets offense got off to a fast start tonight in the top of the first inning. Pete Alonso started it off with a soft grounder to the third basemen Franco, who appeared to throw him out, but the call was instead reversed for an infield hit.

After Robinson Cano flew out for the second out, Conforto continued his hot streak smacking an RBI double to put the Mets on the board first. In the next at-bat, Todd Frazier drove in Conforto on an RBI single extending the team’s lead to 2-0.

Despite loading the bases in the next inning with two outs, the offense failed to score as the struggling Cano flew out again to end the inning. Cano’s abysmal stretch at the plate in the three hole continued to kill the Mets with runners on base tonight. Cano went 0-for-4 and left six men on base.

The Amazins’ would get back on the board in the third inning when Todd Frazier smacked a solo home run (9) to left center to cut the deficit to 4-3. Wilson Ramos followed this up two batters later by poking a solo shot (9) of his own into the right fielder bleachers to tie the game.

In the top of the fifth, Matz led off with a bloop single to right field. Next up, McNeil ripped a hit into right, which saw Mets third base coach questionably test Bryce Harper‘s arm with his pitcher running. The result came as expected when Matz was gunned down at third to make the first out of the inning.

This play was arguably the rally killer as the Mets were unable to get a run home in the inning after this miscue. Cano once again made the final out with runners in scoring position, but was unlucky this time due to the fact that he made hard contact on a sharp line drive to first base.

Conforto came up to the dish to start off the fifth inning and crushed a solo homer (16) to left center field evening things up at five a piece. After a Dominic Smith double and Ramos single, Rosario drove home the go-ahead run on a sac-fly to center field.

Despite tying a season high with 15 hits, the Mets were only able to score five runs tonight. The bats went quiet after the fifth inning merely scratching across four more hits, two walks, and one run on a Dom Smith (9) ninth inning homer to cut the deficit to 13-7.

Up Next

Walker Lockett (0-1, 23.14 ERA) will look to get the Mets back in the win column tomorrow night against Phillies number two starter Jake Arrieta (6-6, 4.12 ERA). First pitch is at 7:05 E.T and the game will be televised on SNY.