It was a night to forget for Matt Garza and the Milwaukee Brewers.
The New York Mets sent 15 batters to the plate in a 10-run fourth inning Saturday to hand the Brewers to their worst loss in nearly five years, a 14-1 drubbing at Citi Field.
Garza was tagged for a career-high 10 earned runs on 10 hits with three walks in just 3 1/3 innings.
"It was just not a good night," Garza said. "Frankly, I sucked. There's nothing else left to say. It's on me. My job is to go deep; I didn't. I didn't get anywhere close to what I wanted to accomplish. You just wear it and move on."
Michael Cuddyer started the fourth inning with a single to right, while Garza then walked Daniel Murphy. With runners on second and third and one out, Kevin Plawecki hit a ground ball to the drawn in infield, but rookie shortstop Luis Sardinas' throw sailed high and wide to allow Cuddyer to score.
"I'm going to have to go back and look on it, but he needs to be out if we are playing in," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "It was a pretty well-struck ground ball. We should be able to get an out there with a good throw."
Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom followed with a single to load the bases for Wilmer Flores, who hit a grand slam to center to put the Mets up 6-0.
Two singles and a walk reloaded the bases for the Mets before Cuddyer doubled in a pair off Garza, ending the right-hander's night. Murphy greeted reliever Brandon Kintzler with a two-run double to center, while Campbell followed with a single to score Murphy to make it 11-0.
After the game, Counsell second-guessed himself wondering if he should have removed Garza before the inning snowballed out of control.
"It just happened fast," Counsell said. "We didn't make the play on the groundball to Sardinas. We didn't get an out there. He then makes a mistake to Flores and it snowballed pretty fast. I wish I could have gotten him out of there sooner, and I should have.
"I wish I would have gotten somebody up a hitter sooner and then taken him out at least a hitter sooner."
Garza entered off his best start of the season in which he held the Chicago Cubs to just one run on three hits over seven innings on May 10.
But instead of running his quality starts streak to five, Garza allowed 10 runs for the first time in his career and lasted less than four innings for just the 14th time in 226 career starts.
"It's a head-scratcher, but you just keep going," Garza said. "Especially the way I threw last time. You take it as it goes. It's a weird game. The ball bounces one way (one night) and the other way another night. You flush it and go. I've had them before, and obviously you hate having it, but they happen.
"It's like a fight. You get knocked, down, and it's how you get back up. That's all it is. Am I going to lay down, or am I going to get back up? I like getting back up. That's why I'm here. You just flush it and do what you do, take what you take from it and move on."
New York later added three runs in the seventh off left-hander Neal Cotts to give Milwaukee its worst loss since it lost 15-2 to the San Francisco Giants on July 7, 2010. In that game, Brewers starter Chris Narveson was tagged for nine earned runs, while Counsell played shortstop and went 0 for 4.
"I think it is just an ugly game," Counsell said. "That's why we are happy there's a game tomorrow. You flush it when you leave the ballpark and get ready for tomorrow."
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