Great reporting by Svrluga.
Still, painful to read, and confirms what we all suspected with respect to Matt's poor decision making abilities and respect in the clubhouse.
Here's another story (of many) that is revealing.
That afternoon, veteran reliever Casey Janssen came down with a neck issue during warmups, and he wasn’t available. Veteran lefty Matt Thornton, though, hadn’t appeared in a game in five days. He was ready. Williams got Thornton up once to warm up, but didn’t use him. He got him up again, but still didn’t call on him. As the game wore on, Thornton warmed up a third time, then a fourth time. By the time Wilmer Flores led off the 12th with a homer off Rivero, good for a 2-1 Mets win, Thornton had thrown in the bullpen five times.
“Never seen it before,” one Washington reliever said.
Then, in the next game:
In the eighth inning against the Mets, Williams lined up Thornton, the left-hander, to face the left-handed hitting Curtis Granderson, who was leading off. Here was the by-the-book move. Granderson, though, doubled. After an out, Williams ordered Thornton to intentionally walk Cespedes, a right-handed hitter who, over the course of his career, had extreme “reverse splits” — meaning he hit righties better than lefties — .314 against right-handers, .219 against lefties. That brought up Duda, who crushed Thornton’s 1-2 pitch to left-center, breaking the tie, providing the Mets with the winning run.
“My job there is to execute the pitch,” Thornton said. “I couldn’t do that, and we lost.”
The Nationals relievers, though, believed there was more to it to that. They believed the five times Thornton got up the previous night affected his ability to execute the pitch to Granderson, the pitch to Duda.
Thornton didn't make excuses, so credit for that.
