Fastball

New York Mets Pitcher Josh Walker Joins MLB Company That No One Wants to Be In on Tuesday

The New York Mets lost in one of the rarest ways possible on Tuesday night - a walk-off balk.
Brady Farkas|
New York Mets Pitcher Josh Walker Joins MLB Company That No One Wants to Be In on Tuesday
New York Mets Pitcher Josh Walker Joins MLB Company That No One Wants to Be In on Tuesday

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New York Mets

The New York Mets lost to the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night 7-6 in ten innings. 

The loss was the latest embarrassment in a lost season for the Mets. After coming in with expectations of winning the World Series, New York is 50-56 and just traded away Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Tommy Pham and Mark Canha at the trade deadline. 

The loss on Tuesday was particularly crushing in that it came in one of the rarest ways possible - via a walk-off balk.

Reliever Josh Walker committed the infraction and lost the game for the Mets without ever throwing a single pitch, putting him an exclusive group in baseball history.

Per YES Network's James Smyth:

So @baseball_ref has one other game on record with a pitcher committing a balk and never throwing a pitch: Mike Stanton for the Nationals on July 15, 2005 against the Brewers. Like Josh Walker for the Mets tonight, a walk-off balk

That's company that no one wants to keep in the record books. The 28-year-old Walker has appeared in nine games this season, his only year in the big leagues. He's 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in 6.2 innings. The Connecticut native was drafted by the Mets in the 2017 draft out of New Haven.

The Mets will take on the Royals again on Wednesday night with first pitch from Kauffman Stadium slated for 8:10 p.m. ET.

Mets rookie Kodai Senga will pitch against Cole Ragans. Senga is 7-5 with a 3.17 ERA while Ragans is 2-3 with a 5.22.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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