Yankees' worst loss in several seasons to Mets pushed multiple players past point of no return

As if it wasn't bad enough that the New York Yankees lost the Joe Davis, "Oh NO, The Mets!" game, they finished the set without their first series win at Citi Field since 2018, which seemed fated for the entire back half of the contest (especially when David Bednar retired Juan Soto in the ninth inning with two on and no outs).

Instead, the Yankees lost an unloseable game. Anthony Volpe lined a clutch two-run single. Bo Bichette dropped a run-scoring pop-up. The scuffling bullpen made it through the seventh and eighth unscathed. The Mets haven't won a game they trailed in entering the ninth - prior to Sunday! - since the 2024 postseason, when they victimized Devin Williams.

From the moment David Bednar blew Mark Vientos away with a shoulder high fastball, the following things happened in a one-inning span:

• Austin Wells and Bednar agreed on a looping get-me-over curveball to start a .177 hitter in Tyrone Taylor
• Taylor homered immediately
• Max Schuemann tried to bunt at four consecutive pitches (two balls, two strikes) before swinging over a wicked Devin Williams changeup three feet off the plate
• Wells, in desperate need of positive momentum, ripped into a double play before we could even consider the narrative
• Whatever ... that was that ended the game with Tim Hill, allergic to strikeouts, trying to keep the free runner from scoring while pitching to contact. The Mets broke an 0-91 streak when trailing after eight innings. Ninety-one.

Austin Wells, David Bednar may not recover from Yankees disaster vs. Mets in Subway Series

Put it up against any regular season game you can remember. The 4-0 lead at Fenway where a Domingo Germán no-hitter became a swift and painful loss. The 7-2 lead blown in the top of the ninth in Houston heading into the 2021 All-Star break. Hell, any game from 2021. The Miami Meltdown of last summer, post-trade deadline. This has to be the most painful regular season loss in that lexicon. Has to be. How is it not?

And while a theoretical Major League Baseball team could steer out of this type of skid, can the Aaron Boone-led Yankees? This wasn't a full-blown swoon until today. This wasn't a season-definer until today. Will Austin Wells, who botched an add-on opportunity against Sean Manaea with a barely-struck dribbler, then rocketed a double play ball harshly to the first baseman to ruin the Yankees' minute chance of scoring and/or winning in the 10th, be able to come back from this? Will David Bednar, who's been running with ungreased wheels all year and finally careened off the track on Sunday? What about Bednar's setup men? If the Yankees can't trust their closer - who is a CLOSER and started a .177 hitter off with a mid-70s curveball instead of a show-me fastball - then who can they trust? The answer is nobody. They don't have a single trustworthy soul.

If they can lose that game, they can lose any game. We, as fans, now know we're not being irrational when we fear a cascade. The players know that, too, and they don't have a leader who's proven himself capable of getting these types of things back on track.

From 26-12 to what feels like a doomer-ish end in just 10 days. A new record. A new "worst loss" every couple of days. A new reality we've grown quite accustomed to in recent years. You are the laughing stock. You are the losing streak. You are the team that can pull defeat from any crevice. You are.

You have 3.5 months to decide whether you're going to sleepwalk into the playoffs with a 26-man roster that not a single fan has an ounce of confidence in, or if you're going to be so, so much worse than that. Unfortunately, after Sunday's debacle, those feel like the only two options.

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