WASHINGTON — By sheer math, baseball is bound to produce unusual moments every so often. There are 30 major league teams and each of them plays 162 games, not including the playoffs.
Before Tuesday, the Mets had played 9,035 regular-season games in their 57-year history. None was as lopsided as their 25-4 debacle against the Washington Nationals that unfolded that night. In contrast, Wednesday afternoon’s 5-3 loss felt like an improvement.
It was the 26th time since 1908 that a team had won by 21 runs or more, but it will be long remembered by fans of both teams and, well, anyone who loves schadenfreude or who stumbled across a score more typical of football than baseball — except when the Nationals were up, 19-1.