The New York Mets had to eat a lot of crow yesterday at the MLB Trade Deadline, trading away Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander while still being forced to pay a good chunk of both pitchers' salaries going forward. The return was decent enough for the two aging arms but the Mets were supposed to compete this year with their $345 million payroll, not sell their prized free agent acquisitions at the deadline. Kudos to Steve Cohen and the front office for not falling into the sunk cost fallacy, I guess, but it was not a great day for this New York squad.

Insult was then added to injury when the Mets lost to the Kansas City Royals, who own the second-worst record in baseball. Even worse, they lost in a ridiculous manner. In the bottom of the 10th with the bases loaded and two outs, the umpires called Josh Walker for a balk, giving us the ever-rare walk-off balk.

If it were just sheer ineptitude it would've been funny enough. But it seems the balk was caused because catcher Francisco Alvarez realized Walker didn't have his PitchCom and signaled as much, accidentally causing Walker to balk. So I suppose it is still sheer ineptitude. Just of a more logical sort. You can see how this happened and yet are still astounded at how the worst possible scenario came to be.

Honestly this game fully exemplifies what kind of year it's been for the Mets. Pete Alonso even managed to take a pop-up foul ball to the face while laying on the ground. Do you know how hard that is?

It was that kind of game in that kind of year for the New York Mets.

This article was originally published on thebiglead as Mets Lost on a Walk-Off Balk vs. Royals .