Royals get stepped on literally and metaphorically in 8-3 loss to Mets

The Mets’ seven runs in the 8th and 9th killed the vibe.

Welp, the bullpen blew it.

Michael Wacha ran into some trouble in the third inning - he had to face Juan Soto with the bases loaded and one out - but he managed to get out of the jam giving up only one run on a bases-loaded walk. It was good enough - I’ll take five innings of one-run ball from the starter.

The Royals bullpen (Angel Zerpa + Steven Cruz) was putting together a solid game up until the eighth inning. Cruz allowed a single and two walks to load the bases with no outs. Quatraro went with a two-inning save opportunity, or maybe just a fireman opportunity, for Carlos Estévez to try to prevent any damage. Estévez got a strikeout but then Mark Vientos doubled into the right-center field gap to score all three baserunners.

In the ninth, Taylor Clarke gave up four more runs, including two home runs, before getting even a single out.

Just like that, a 3-1 lead turned into an 8-3 blowout loss. The Royals had plenty of scoring opportunities, but their season-long tendency to struggle with runners in scoring position reared its ugly head yet again.

The game started late after a lengthy rain delay (it never rained at my house...). The Royals wasted no time in TRYING to get the scoring started. Jonathan India led off the bottom of the first with a grounder to deep short, and Francisco Lindor couldn’t handle it cleanly. It’s not clear he could have thrown out India had he snagged it, but whatever. A baserunner is a baserunner.

Bobby Witt Jr followed up with a line drive to left field for a double. Vinnie Pasquantino struck out, and then Maikel Garcia hit a liner right back to Mets starter Kodai Senga. Senga threw to third to try to get the double play, but the throw was off and got past the third baseman. Unfortunately, the third baseman stepped on India’s hand trying to field the throw, so India and Witt were both unable to advance on the wild throw. Salvador Perez then struck out to end the inning.

Runners on third and second with no outs, and the Royals get nothing. That’s frustrating. I understand India got stepped on. That hurts. It still sucks not to score in that situation.

The Royals got two runners on again in the bottom of the second - back-to-back walks by John Rave and Kyle Isbel - but India hit a one-hopper to the same third baseman who stepped on his hand for the third out. Four baserunners, three in scoring position, and zero runs.

The Royals once again got two baserunners on in the third, another one in scoring position, but failed to bring any of them home. Two singles put runners on the corners. With two outs, and facing Jac Caglianone a second time, Senga had a very clear plan of attack - the forkball. Senga threw four straight forkballs, not a single one a strike, and struck out Cags. He swung at three of the four. Again, not a single one of them was even close to a strike.

I guess due to Senga coming back from injury only just today, the Royals got into the Mets’ struggling bullpen in the fifth inning. In the sixth, Perez hit a line drive single to left field, and Nick Loftin hit a fly ball to left field. Brandon Nimmo dove for it and could not knock the ball down, so it got past him. Running at full speed, Perez managed to score alllllll the way from first base due to Nimmo’s missed dive to tie the game.

The Royals took the lead in the bottom of the seventh inning. Isbel singled, and Tyler Tolbert pinch-ran for him. Tolbert attempted a steal of second and clearly beat the tag, but he lost contact with the base during his slide. The initial call of safe was overturned upon a Mets challenge. India followed with a single, bringing up Witt. BWJ blasted a homer beyond the left-center field wall to make it 3-1. Pasquantino doubled and advanced to third but did not score. And that was all the Royals could muster.

The Royals offense left eight runners on base, and went 0-8 with runners in scoring position. They actually out-hit the Mets 10-8. The Royals pitchers gave up eight (!) walks though, five of them by the bullpen.

The record is 46-49. The Mets move to 54-41. The two teams will play again on Saturday at 3:10pm US Central. Looks like it’ll be Michael Lorenzen vs Frankie Montas.