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Mets Pitcher Etches His Name in the History Books with One of the Worst Outings in MLB History

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New York Mets pitcher Steven Matz had a historically bad outing Tuesday against the Philadelphia Phillies.

The numbers are hard to fathom.

Matz’s official line was eight runs on four hits in zero innings pitched, with six of those eight runs earned.

Yes, he gave up eight runs and did not record an out before being lifted for Drew Gagnon in the first inning.

Matz faced only eight batters. Two of those batters — Scott Kingery and Maikel Franco — hit home runs.

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To put this in historical perspective, only five pitchers since 1893 have had equally bad outings, according to ESPN.

One of those pitchers was the Mets’ Bobby Jones, who gave up eight runs before recording an out in 1997.

Two Oakland A’s starters — Blake Stein in 1998 and Bill Krueger in 1984 — also did it.

The last man to accomplish this dubious feat was the Cincinnati Reds’ Paul Wilson, who did it twice — once in 2003 and once in 2005.

After the game, which the Phillies won 13-4, Matz was blunt about his performance.

“Poor effort tonight,” he told reporters after the game. “I’ve got to get ready for my next start. Just got to wash it and address what went wrong out there and keep moving forward.”

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He cited pitch execution as his problem.

“I’ve been here before, so at this point I know I can come out of it,” Matz said. “It doesn’t define me or define the season or anything. Just got to wash it and move forward.”

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What’s even more shocking about this effort is that Matz had been pitching great coming in. He was 1-0 in four starts with an ERA of 1.65, which was fifth-best in the league. Matz had 19 strikeouts in 16.1 innings.

With this one bad outing, his ERA jumped to 4.96.

“These happen from time to time,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said, according to MLB.com. “Not very often. These are rough ones. He’ll regroup, come back out next time and get after it.”

The Phillies improved to 10-6, while the Mets fell to 10-7.

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Dave is a lifelong sports fan who has been writing for The Wildcard since 2017. He has been a writer for more than 20 years for a variety of publications.
Dave has been writing about sports for The Wildcard since 2017. He's been a reporter and editor for over 20 years, covering everything from sports to financial news. In addition to writing for The Wildcard, Dave has covered mutual funds for Pensions and Investments, meetings and conventions, money market funds, personal finance, associations, and he currently covers financial regulations and the energy sector for Macallan Communications. He has won awards for both news and sports reporting.
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