Browsing: breaking

AEW/Lee South

“Ultimo Mone” Mercedes Mone captured her historic 12th title just one day after breaking Ultimo Dragon’s record for most belts held simultaneously with her victory at WrestleDream. Mone captured Winnipeg Pro Wrestling’s WPW Women’s Championship Sunday night with a victory over Jody Threat at the promotion’s Rumble in the Burt 3 event.

According to POST Wrestling, Mone’s appearance on Sunday marked the biggest turnout for WPW at the Burton Cummings Theatre in Winnipeg. Over 1,600 people were in attendance to see Mone defeat Threat, with a little help from Ava Lawless, who attacked the TNA star at ringside, allowing Mone to hit the Mone Maker for the victory.

The win came just hours after her WrestleDream victory over Mina Shirakawa for the interim ROH Women’s Television Championship. “The CEO” was not initially on the card for the pay-per-view, but issued an open challenge following her successful defense of the CMLL World Women’s Championship over Persephone at Arena Mexico on Friday. Mone announced she’d be putting her TBS Championship on the line at WrestleDream, and the day of the event, AEW President Tony Khan announced that the challenger would also put their title on the line, setting up Mone’s historic victory as she became “11 Belts Mone.”

The nickname only lasted the day with her WPW victory, and now, Mone will go by “12 Belts Mone,” just days after she broke Jade Cargill’s record to become the longest reigning TBS Champion in AEW history. Following her win at WrestleDream, and after she interrupted the champion’s celebration before her own match, Mone called out AEW Women’s World Champion Kris Statlander for a match at Full Gear.

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Smriti Mandhana is 12 runs short of overtaking Belinda Clark’s 28-year-old record. (ANI) Indian opener Smriti Mandhana is approaching a significant milestone in women’s ODI cricket as she needs just 12 runs to surpass Australian legend Belinda Clark’s record for most runs in a calendar year when India face South Africa in the ICC Women’s World Cup match on Thursday.India enter the match undefeated after victories against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, while South Africa recently rebounded with a win against New Zealand following their 10-wicket loss to England.Mandhana has had a modest start to the tournament with scores of 8 and 23 against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, respectively. However, her overall 2025 performance has been impressive with 959 runs in 16 innings at an average of 59.93 and a strike rate exceeding 113, including four centuries and three fifties.The record Mandhana aims to break was set by Belinda Clark in 1997, who scored 970 runs in 16 matches across 14 innings. Clark’s remarkable year included three centuries and four fifties, with an average of 80.83 and a strike rate of 98.11, highlighted by her unbeaten 229.Another milestone awaits Mandhana as she is 81 runs away from reaching 5,000 ODI runs. This achievement would make her the second Indian after Mithali Raj and the fifth woman overall to reach this mark.Mandhana’s current ODI career statistics stand at 4,919 runs in 110 matches at an average of 47.29 and a strike rate of 89.71, including 13 centuries and 32 fifties.Most runs in a calendar year in Women’s ODIs:YearPlayerCountryRuns1997Belinda ClarkAustralia9702025Smriti MandhanaIndia959*2022Laura WolvaardtSouth Africa8821997Deborah Ann HockleyNew Zealand8802016Amy Ella SatterthwaiteNew Zealand853

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MELBOURNE, Australia — Russia-born Australian tennis player Daria Kasatkina says she’s ending the season early for the sake of her mental wellbeing after hitting “breaking point” on tour.

The 19th-ranked Kasatkina, a French Open semifinalist in 2022, said Monday she has been left drained by the constant travel on the tour schedule, a stressful process to gain permanent residency in Australia, and being unable to see her parents.

Kasatkina, who is engaged to figure skating Olympic medalist Natalia Zabiiako, told the Times of London in 2023 that she can’t go back to Russia “as a gay person who opposes the war” in Ukraine.

“Truth is, I’ve hit a wall and can’t continue. I need a break. A break from the monotonous daily grind of life on the tour, the suitcases, the results, the pressure, the same faces (sorry, girls), everything that comes with this life,” Kasatkina wrote on Instagram.

“The schedule is too much, mentally and emotionally I am at breaking point and sadly, I am not alone.”

She added she plans to return in 2026 “energized and ready to rock”.

Kasatkina said she had been “far from fine for a long time” and her results on court had suffered while she “kept a lid” on how she felt for fear of seeming ungrateful.

She’s the latest in a series of players including Elina Svitolina and Beatriz Haddad Maia who have opted to end their seasons early for extra rest.

Kasatkina’s last match on tour was a straight-set loss to Sonay Kartal in the second round of the China Open on Sept. 27 and her last tour title was at the Ningbo Open in Oct. 2024.

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“I am at breaking point and sadly I am not alone.

“Add in to the mix the emotional and mental stress related to my nationality switch and there is only so much I can deal with and take as an individual woman.

“If this makes me weak, then so be it, I’m weak.

“However, I know I am strong and will get stronger by being away and recharging.

“It’s time I listened to myself for a change.”

Former top-five players Elina Svitolina and Paula Badosa ended their seasons early in recent weeks.

Ukraine’s Svitolina said she had “not been feeling like myself”, while Badosa has spoken about the mental toll of an ongoing back problem.

Other players have also spoken about the impact of the tennis calendar.

Five players retired injured in two tournaments in China last week, with six-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek saying the season is too long and intense.

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has made it mandatory for top players to participate in each Grand Slam, 10 WTA 1000 events and six 500-level tournaments.

The majority of 1000 events on the WTA and men’s ATP Tour last two weeks, as do all four Grand Slams.

Players can skip mandatory events if they injured or have personal reasons, but they will receive no rankings points or prize money if they do not play.

Former world number one Novak Djokovic, who has slimmed down his schedule in recent years to protect his body, has called on players to be more united, external in forcing change.

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SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)…

SHOW SUMMARY:In this week’s Flagship Flashback episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast from ten years ago (10-6-2015), PWTorch editor Wade Keller was joined by Jason Powell from ProWrestling.net and the Pro Wrestling Boom podcast. They discussed with live callers the previous nightâ€s Raw including Brock Lesnarâ€s early appearance, third hour ratings crash, New Day in main event spot with John Cena, Summer-RuRu drama, NXT Takeover, and more.

Then, in the previously VIP-exclusive Aftershow, they reflect on live show callers, react to breaking news on the TNA World Title and the Total Divas cast, plus answer email topics on WWE charity, who could spark Raw, and much more.

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One event in wrestling history that has been written about almost to the point of beating it to death is the infamous “Curtain Call” at Madison Square Garden in May of 1996. But as the business seems to get away from the tradition of self-governance it adhered to for decades on decades, when heels and babyfaces couldn’t travel together, when legitimately losing a bar fight could cost a wrestler his or her job, or when acting up backstage could land one in “Wrestler’s Court,” it’s worth revisiting as one of the most trademark moments when an incident in wrestling history broke longstanding unwritten rules.

With both Kevin Nash and Scott Hall ready to part ways with WWE, set to arrive in WCW as “The Outsiders” in a buildup to the formation of the nWo, their final date with the then-WWF was at an MSG house show when they’d each face fellow members of backstage group of friends known as “The Kliq.” Hall (as Razor Ramon) squared off against Triple H (then Hunter Hearst Helmsley), and in the main event, Nash (as Diesel) would challenge Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship. Naturally, the departing wrestlers would lose these matches, but the outcomes didn’t really matter nearly as much as what happened after Diesel/Michaels in a steel cage closed out the show.

Hall hugging Michaels wasn’t a huge deal, with both men babyfaces at the time, but Nash embracing Triple H, a fellow heel, was, and then when all four came together in a goodbye showing, all hell broke loose backstage. Michaels couldn’t be punished as the current champion, Hall and Nash were gone, and fellow Kliq member Sean Waltman was in rehab at the time (soon off for WCW himself), leaving Helmsley to suffer the blame for it all, losing an opportunity to become King of the Ring later that year and, as he said in Netflix’s “Mr. McMahon” documentary, having to “learn to eat s*** and like the taste of it.”

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SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)…

Alright, my dudes. Iâ€m broke. Itâ€s 2025 and we have growing internet costs, and on top of that we have to subscribe to antivirus software and monthly subscription fees to be able to use the internet. Outside of that, I also have to pay for food and shelter. I have to pay for transportation, healthcare costs, and interest on credit cards because of all of the costs. Then everything asks for a tip at the end of the bill. Then if you have a family, multiply those costs, and Iâ€m barely scratching the surface of what it is to live in The States and afford to live right now.

The one escape we have in common for those reading an article like this one is professional wrestling. For most of my life, it was a pretty inexpensive way to be entertained. If you had cable, you tuned in on Monday nights. Once every few months, youâ€d purchase a Ppay=per-view card, and when the WWE would come to town, youâ€d shell out for tickets to the arena, and tickets started as low as $35 just a few years ago.

Now as we live in a world where costs of necessities are more, the wages for many of us are not keeping up, and weâ€d still like a little enjoyment in our humble life as a peasant. So I tune into cable in Monday, and itâ€s now on Netflix. You want that in the quality that matches your TV and can be used in multiple rooms in the house without ad interruption? Thatâ€ll be $25 each month, please.

At the same time, I get that contracts end, streaming is the current, not even the future, and I already had Netflix, so Iâ€m fine with it. But it hasnâ€t stopped. Now I have to add Netflix but still need Peacock for the archives and PLEs? Thereâ€s another $17. And now ESPN is involved? I feel like my loyalty is now the point of being taken advantage of.

Merch Prices

Itâ€s not a must, but I like to leave with a souvenir of some sort from an event. My t-shirt count is closer to 500 than 100, so Iâ€ve slowed down on shirts. Comes at a good time, I suppose when event shirts can be $45, and ordering online is close to the same after shipping the shirt to me. Iâ€d love to have an Iguana puppet, but thatâ€s $100 for a cool shelf piece, or worse, thatâ€s way too much for a childâ€s toy!

Ticket Prices

Most wrestling fans get into this fandom as children, and many stories begin with someoneâ€s dad/uncle/friend group went to see a wrestling show live. But at $35, I could afford to bring a niece or nephew when I took my own children. I canâ€t even afford to take myself and the one kid who wants to go in current circumstances, let alone offer to bring a friend.

This makes me fear where the next generation of wrestling fan may come from. Most who watch are not children, but it has been something that has been marketed around family entertainment outside of the Attitude Era and your niche hardcore promotion. Will there be enough people to fill arenas at pre-TKO pricing?

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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At least with money, as Arn Anderson once told Cody Rhodes, in some pretty terrible advice from that podcast story, that you can always make more later. There are time we have more and times we have less when it comes to bank funds. What none of us can afford to lose with no chance of regaining is time.

I work two jobs, have even more hobbies, and I like to have time to spend with spouse, children, and friends. I donâ€t have much time. Even taking time to write these articles are time I will not get back where I could have been something more personally productive, but I enjoy it.

Anything I give my time to at this stage of life is because I really enjoy it, sacrificing my time to lend a hand to someone else, or my wife made me do it. So for me to give time to sit and watch wrestling without it being background noise to keep up on things is slim. Keeping up with every show they planned for the year and the shows they created as counter-programming is a real chore.

The WWE has five weekly shows including Evolve and LFG. Then if you want to watch their online content, a documentary, or another promotion, you just canâ€t keep up.

Another App Subscription

Iâ€m not doing it. I canâ€t justify $30 a month for a sports channel. I donâ€t care about traditional team sports. I like MMA and love mat wrestling (big shout out to whatâ€s happening with Real American Freestyle). Thatâ€s three hours of entertainment once a month, with extra for two day shows, that I get from ESPN with zero time to have interest in anything else theyâ€re going to offer me. I canâ€t. I just canâ€t WWE. Refer back to my opening sentence if you need more.

Not Providing What Weâ€ve Paid For

Now weâ€ve paid you all of our hard earned money to watch the show. We now get five matches per card. In a one-app world, I was thrilled with making those five matches mean more, and also making the television show matches mean more, since theyâ€re true PLE level match-ups, but used as a main event on a Raw or Smackdown. Now I have to get an app that costs me another $30 for those five matches?

Not only are the matches fewer, the advertising spots are more. Bringing in talent and getting them in gear to show off a pizza anyone with their physiques, obviously arenâ€t eating themselves. Then – and I have mixed feelings about writing this – we donâ€t get what we want.

Now, I am not the writer for a 52-week episodic story, and I get having a plan that youâ€re going with and sticking with it. On the other hand, as celebrated as he is now, many people stopped watching wrestling because of John Cena and the style of wrestling we got. And more left when Roman Reigns was being force-fed to the audience as a babyface.

In this era, we have not seen that, but we have seen two crowd favorites dropped. With all of the money the company is making, you had to release, then realize your mistake in not renewing R-Truth. Then Karion Kross, despite the responses and merchandise sales, was also dropped from future promotion plans. Add in enough advertised matches without finishes, and you may eventually have fewer people willing to pay for your product.

(Griffin is a lifelong fan of wrestling, superheroes, and rebellious music of all forms. He is the owner of Nerdstalgia, and you can shop online, learn about visiting the store in Colorado Springs, or catch him at a comic con in the Rocky Mountain area by going to

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  David SchoenfieldSep 22, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

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  • Covers MLB for ESPN.com
  • Former deputy editor of Page 2
  • Been with ESPN.com since 1995

If the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians had been going toe-to-toe for the lead in American League Central all season long, this would be viewed as a fun division race between two scrappy-if-flawed teams.

But timing is everything — and that’s not how each team’s wins and losses unfolded.

Instead, we get the much more intriguing storyline of the Guardians surging to a miracle comeback to make the playoffs and the Tigers trying to avoid an epic collapse.

In early July, after the Tigers swept the Guardians, Cleveland trailed Detroit by 15½ games in the division race. No team has ever won a division title or pennant after a deficit that large. On July 8, Cleveland’s odds of winning the division were a minuscule 0.1%, according to FanGraphs. At the time, the Tigers were 59-34, the best record in the majors.

The Guardians clawed back to 6½ games out of first place in mid-August but then lost nine of 10, including three straight shutouts at the end of that stretch, to fall 12½ games out of first place on Aug. 25. Their division chances didn’t even register: 0.0% via the odds at FanGraphs; their overall playoff odds were a mere 3.0%.

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But 0.0% must not mean zero, because as we begin the final week of the 2025 regular season, the Guardians have chased down the Tigers, trailing by only one game — with the two teams meeting in Cleveland for a three-game series starting Tuesday. Though the Guardians’ 10-game winning streak ended Sunday, they have gone 20-6 since their odds were not-quite-zero. The Tigers lost their sixth in a row Sunday and are 7-16 since Cleveland’s playoff odds were not-quite-zero.

The panic is real in Detroit.

“It’s hard trying to put into words what’s going on,” manager A.J. Hinch said after his Tigers blew a ninth-inning lead Saturday when the Braves scored the tying and go-ahead runs on two-out singles. “Some big emotional swings, and an absolute gut punch right to the face.”

So, what happened? How did both Cleveland and Detroit end up in this position? And where does this AL Central race potentially fall among the greatest comebacks/collapses in MLB history? Let’s break it all down.

How the Guardians and Tigers got here

What makes this Guardians run so unbelievable is that they aren’t exactly sending Manny Ramirez, Albert Belle and Jim Thome out there. Their lineup has one power-hitting star in Jose Ramirez, who leads the team in most offensive categories, including with 5.6 WAR, and then outside of Steven Kwan, who boasts 3.4 WAR, no other non-pitcher has more than 1.8.

Remember, as well, the Guardians were soft dealers at the trade deadline, trading starter Shane Bieber to Toronto. Their former ace hadn’t yet pitched in 2025 at that point, but he was rehabbing in the minors as he recovered from the Tommy John surgery he had in 2024. Closer Emmanuel Clase had been put on a nondisciplinary paid leave on July 28 and starter Luis Ortiz on July 3 as MLB conducted a sports betting investigation into both players. (The pair remain on leave “until further notice” while the investigation continues.) The Guardians didn’t bother to replace either Bieber or Clase at the deadline, just riding with what they have.

Somehow, they started winning anyway. Since Aug. 1, they have the lowest ERA in the majors and have given up the fewest runs in the AL. They’ve thrown five shutouts in September, including blanking the listless Minnesota Twins in both games of Saturday’s doubleheader, and the bullpen has been lights-out with a 2.64 ERA during this 20-6 stretch.

Manager Stephen Vogt and pitching coach Carl Willis have pulled all the right moves. Logan Allen started the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, after the team had pushed back his turn in the rotation to have two veteran arms ready for the doubleheader. The decision didn’t sit well with Allen, but he responded with eight scoreless innings and the Guardians would need only three innings of relief work across the two games. Now, the bullpen is in good shape for the Detroit series.

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With no Bieber and no Ortiz, the Guardians turned to rookie southpaw Parker Messick, who might come from the David Wells school of conditioning but pounds the strike zone and is 3-0 with a 2.08 ERA in his six starts, walking only five and giving up only one home run. He got all of this rolling with seven shutout innings on Aug. 26 in his second career start and Cleveland has gone on to win his past three outings as he has given up only four runs.

As always, the key to the success of the Cleveland franchise: It finds and develops pitchers.

The same can’t be said for the Tigers.

With a clear need for rotation help at the deadline to help back up Tarik Skubal, their big acquisition was 41-year-old Charlie Morton. After posting a 10.89 ERA in his first five starts with the Baltimore Orioles, Morton had seemingly found himself and had gone 7-1 with a 3.88 ERA in 11 starts before the Tigers traded for him. It seemed like a reasonable move and he pitched well in three of his first starts with Detroit. But then, as 41-year-old pitchers might be apt to do, he hit a wall: The Tigers lost his next five starts as he gave up 22 runs in 17 innings, leading to them releasing him Saturday.

It’s not all on Morton. Jack Flaherty has won only three of his past 17 starts with a 5.59 ERA. The offense clearly overperformed in the first half as well, with Javier Baez and Zach McKinstry both unlikely All-Stars. Fellow All-Star Riley Greene has hit .218 in the second half and Baez has predictably plummeted to a .205 average, .213 OBP and one home run. Since that hot 59-34 start, the Tigers have gone 26-37. The offensive splits:

Through July 8: .253/.324/.427, 5.0 runs per game
After July 8: .240/.306/.402, 4.4 runs per game

It all leads to these final six games: the three head-to-head games and then Detroit finishing at Boston (one of the teams battling for one an AL wild card) and Cleveland hosting Texas. The Guardians lead the season series over the Tigers 6-4.

Where this race ranks among all-time comebacks/collapses

These are the six races that stand out:

1951 NL pennant: New York Giants/Brooklyn Dodgers

Status: Giants were 13 games back on Aug. 11
How it’s remembered: A Giants comeback and a Dodgers collapse

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The Dodgers didn’t really collapse, going 27-24 the rest of the way while the Giants finished 39-8 to force a three-game tiebreaker series for the pennant, but it’s painted as both a comeback and a collapse since both teams were famous rivals and Bobby Thomson hit the home run to win the pennant. Decades later, we would learn the Giants had installed an elaborate sign-stealing system at the Polo Grounds involving a telescope in center field, a buzzer and a relay system to signal to the batter what pitch was coming.

1964 NL pennant: St. Louis Cardinals/Philadelphia Phillies

Status: Phillies were 6½ games up with 12 to play
How it’s remembered: A Phillies collapse

The Phillies led the Cardinals and Reds by 6½ games, seemingly on their way to their first pennant since 1950 — only to lose 10 in a row. Manager Gene Mauch famously panicked and started Jim Bunning and Chris Short, his two best starters, on two days’ rest, with Bunning getting hammered twice. Philadelphia won its final two games, but it was too late: The Cardinals won the pennant by a game.

1978 AL East: New York Yankees/Boston Red Sox

Status:Yankees were 14 games back on July 19
How it’s remembered: Mostly as a Red Sox collapse

For a long time, this was just another etch in the Curse of the Bambino timeline, another miserable disappointment in Red Sox history. What everyone forgets: The Red Sox had to win their final eight games just to force the one-game playoff for the division title, only to see light-hitting Bucky Dent hit the unlikely home run off Mike Torrez over the Green Monster.

1995 AL West: Seattle Mariners/California Angels

Status:Mariners were 12½ games back on Aug. 20
How it’s remembered:More as a Mariners comeback

This was the first time the Mariners ever made the playoffs, doing so in dramatic fashion with several memorable wins and then beating the Angels in a tiebreaker game. Really though, this one went both ways as the Mariners finished 26-13 while the Angels finished 12-26, a span that included separate nine-game losing streaks. But the Angels did win their final five to get into the tiebreaker game.

2007 NL East: Philadelphia Phillies/New York Mets

Status:Mets were seven games up with 17 to play
How it’s remembered:A Mets collapse

The Mets went 5-12 down the stretch, beginning with three losses to the Phillies at Shea Stadium. In the first game, the Mets lost in 10 innings in front of 53,000 fans. The next afternoon, in front of 55,000 fans, they blew a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning. On Sunday, with another crowd of 50,000-plus, they committed six errors in a 10-6 loss. Tied going into the final day of the season, Tom Glavine gave up seven runs in the top of the first against the Miami Marlins while the Phillies won their game. This is correctly viewed as a Mets collapse.

2011 AL wild card: Tampa Bay Rays/Boston Red Sox

Status: Red Sox were nine games up on Sept. 3
How it’s remembered: A Red Sox collapse

This is the famous beer-and-chicken Red Sox team that lost its playoff spot on the wild final day of the regular season. The Rays rallied from a 7-0 deficit in the eighth inning to beat the Yankees on Dan Johnson’s two-out, pinch-hit home run to tie it in the ninth and Evan Longoria’s walk-off home run in the 12th while the Red Sox blew a ninth-inning lead against the Orioles. The Red Sox finished 5-14 while the Rays went 13-7, so the “Red Sox collapsed” angle feels like the right one.

There are a few others we could have mentioned, including the 1914 Boston Braves, who actually had the largest deficit of any team to be trailing but win a pennant division as they were 15 games back and in last place in the National League on July 4 before going 68-19 the rest of the way to win the pennant by 10½ games.

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The ultimate legacy of this AL Central race will be determined not so much by which team wins the division, but whether the Tigers miss the playoffs entirely. If that does happen, it goes down as an all-time collapse — going from the best record in baseball to not even winning a wild-card spot.

There’s another scenario in which the Tigers lose the division and do win a wild card. That was the scenario back in 2006, when they led the Twins by 12 games on July 15, but Minnesota rallied to win the division on the final day of the regular season. But the Tigers still made the playoffs as a wild card and even advanced to the World Series, so that collapse has been forgotten.

In the end, that’s all that matters at this point for both Cleveland and Detroit: just get in.

But winning the division will feel particularly sweet.

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  David SchoenfieldSep 15, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

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  • Covers MLB for ESPN.com
  • Former deputy editor of Page 2
  • Been with ESPN.com since 1995

It wasn’t the biggest hit of Pete Alonso’s career, but his walk-off, three-run homer in the 10th inning on Sunday was certainly the biggest for the New York Mets in their past nine games — and maybe their biggest of the campaign so far.

“He prolonged their season in 2024,” said Mets broadcaster Ron Darling, referring to Alonso’s ninth-inning home run to beat the Milwaukee Brewers in the wild-card series. “He might have saved their season in 2025.”

It didn’t sound like hyperbole, as the Mets had lost eight games in a row before securing Sunday’s 5-2 victory. They had watched the Philadelphia Phillies run out way ahead in a National League East division that the Mets once led and had watched their comfortable lead for the final wild-card spot shrink to half a game over the San Francisco Giants.

As only a die-hard Mets fan could understand — remember, this was a franchise that blew a seven-game lead with 17 games to play in 2007 to miss the playoffs — that eight-game skid was misery piled on top of more misery. The Mets lost twice to the Cincinnati Reds. They lost four in a row to Philadelphia, including a 1-0 decision and a blown 4-0 first-inning lead. On Friday, they lost to Jacob deGrom in his first game back at Citi Field since signing with the Texas Rangers. Then came the ultimate gut punch: They blew a 2-0 lead in the final two innings to the Rangers on Saturday, giving up two runs in the eighth and the winning run in the ninth. Eight losses in a row.

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New York (77-73) insisted it wasn’t panicking, with Juan Soto saying after Saturday’s loss, “We have the energy. We have the guys. We have everything we need to go all the way.”

But do they? The Mets, featuring a $340 million payroll, the second highest in the game, have been among the worst teams in baseball since mid-June. On June 12, the Mets beat the Washington Nationals to improve to 45-24. They had the best record in the majors, led the Phillies by 5.5 games in the NL East and, according to FanGraphs, had a 75% chance of winning the division and a 96% chance of making the playoffs.

Since then, however, only the Colorado Rockies and the Minnesota Twins have had worse records, while the Nationals have matched the Mets at 32-49.

What happened? Let’s look at three main components of their game — the rotation, the bullpen and the offense — to see what has gone wrong.

1. The starting pitching got worse

Through June 12:2.79 ERA (first in majors)
Since June 12: 5.09 ERA (24th)

Things got so desperate that the Mets are now featuring three rookies in their rotation in Nolan McLean (who made his MLB debut on Aug. 16), Jonah Tong (debuted Aug. 29) and Brandon Sproat (debuted Sept. 7). Needless to say, no team has won a World Series with three rookie starters in its rotation. It’s either an act of brazen confidence in inexperienced starters or the worst decision by the Mets since then-manager Terry Collins left Matt Harvey in to blow a 2-0 lead in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the 2015 World Series.

So far, however, the results have been acceptable, especially from McLean. He started on Sunday and pitched six scoreless innings, exiting with a 2-0 lead — which the Mets’ bullpen promptly blew. McLean is 4-1 with a 1.19 ERA in his six starts, has allowed one home run in 37â…“ innings and, if the Mets do make the playoffs, is the starter they should want out there in Game 1.

Sproat allowed three runs in six innings in his debut but followed that up with six scoreless innings against the Rangers on Saturday. Only Tong, who led the minor leagues in ERA and strikeouts when he was recalled, has scuffled, including a miserable outing on Friday when he had no fastball command and gave up six runs without escaping the first inning.

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Still, the Mets can’t rely only on the youngsters. David Peterson and Clay Holmes have each exceeded career highs in innings and have been much less effective. Peterson had a 3.06 ERA at the All-Star break but 5.23 since; Holmes had a 3.31 ERA at the break but 4.72 since. Sean Manaea is 0-2 with a 7.71 ERA since the beginning of August and has now been demoted to the bullpen, where he will piggyback with Holmes. Kodai Senga, so good early in the season, got sent down to Triple-A after going 0-3 with an ERA over 6.00 in August.

Right now, even with McLean on a roll, this is not a championship rotation.

2. The bullpen has been worse … much worse

Through June 12: 2.82 ERA (second in majors)
Since June 12: 5.04 ERA (26th)

While the starters were pitching well during the first two months, they weren’t going deep into games. So, manager Carlos Mendoza relied heavily on his bullpen, running his top relievers other than closer Edwin Diaz into the ground. President of baseball operations David Stearns added reinforcements at the trade deadline, most notably hard-throwing St. Louis Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley.

Helsley, to put it bluntly, has been one of the worst trade acquisitions of all time. Not hyperbole. With the Mets, he is 0-3 with four blown saves and a 10.29 ERA in 17 appearances. He has allowed 20 runs and a .354 average. He throws 100 mph, and the ball comes back off the bat at 110 mph. He was expected to be Diaz’s top setup guy down the stretch, but Helsley has now been relegated to mop-up duty as he tries to figure things out.

The pen remains an issue. On Saturday, Mets play-by-plan man Gary Cohen described the circle of trust as just Brooks Raley, Tyler Rogers and Diaz. Rogers and Diaz promptly blew Saturday’s game. On Sunday, Raley blew the 2-0 lead and Diaz escaped a jam in the ninth when the Rangers lined into a double play with a runner on third and the infield pulled in. It took Ryne Stanek to rescue the day in the 10th inning when he escaped a first-and-third situation with a strikeout and a popout.

Right now, this does not look like a championship bullpen.

3. The offense has been inconsistent

Through June 12:.248/.332/.427, 4.6 runs per game
Since June 12:.250/.323/.425, 4.8 runs per game

It certainly wasn’t good during the eight-game losing streak, hitting .211 and scoring just 20 runs. But the Mets have had other stretches like this: an 0-7 skid in early August when they hit .203 and an 0-7 spell in June when they hit .205. Yep, that’s three different losing streaks of at least seven games. Rarely have Francisco Lindor, Soto and Alonso all been clicking at the same time.

This could be a championship-level offense, but it hasn’t been. The Mets are 11th in the majors in runs scored.

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The Giants lost on Sunday, so the Mets’ lead for that final wild card is back to 1.5 games (and two games over the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2.5 on Cincinnati). The Mets also hold the tiebreaker over the Giants, so San Francisco will have to finish with the better record to make it to October.

“That win felt like a deep breath,” Stanek said after Sunday’s dramatic triumph.

Mets fans would agree. After eight days of agony, Citi Field exploded with joy as Alonso flipped his helmet and rounded the bases, reaching home plate with a bath of Dubble Bubble gum from his teammates. Baseball was fun again, the losing streak over.

But there are still 12 games to go — 12 games for the Mets to prove themselves worthy of joining the postseason tournament.

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