The Mets found a new way to make a mess of things Tuesday night, and this one was especially brutal.
New York blew a 9-4 lead and fell 16-12 to the Kansas City Royals at Citi Field, turning what should have been a comfortable night into another entry in a season full of ugly losses. The Mets are now 38-54, the same record as Kansas City, and the defeat only added to the sense that this team keeps inventing fresh ways to unravel.
It started almost absurdly well for the Mets. A first-inning blunder by the Royals opened the door, and New York cashed in for three runs after a sequence of errors from Seth Lugo, Jac Caglianone and Nick Loftin. That gave the Mets a 3-0 lead right away, and they stretched it to 9-4 before the game flipped hard in the fifth.
Then came the collapse.
Tyler Torbert tied the MLB record with a hit in 12 straight at-bats, and Lane Thomas delivered a three-hit night that included a two-run double during a seven-run seventh inning that completely changed the game. By then, the Royals had seized control, and the Mets never recovered.
The loss landed especially hard because of the numbers behind it. According to MLB.com Mets beat writer Anthony DiComo, the Mets had been 129-0 when scoring at least 11 runs at home before Tuesday. USA Today's Bob Nightengale also noted that the Mets are now 200-2 when scoring 12 runs and 325-5 when scoring 11 or more in franchise history.
That backdrop made the defeat feel even more outlandish, especially with the offense doing enough to win. Juan Soto and A.J.
Ewing each homered, and Ewing finished a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate. But the bullpen couldn’t hold up, and New York allowed 19 hits in all.
The Mets have now dropped 13 of their last 17 games and sit last in the NL East, 15 games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves and 8.5 back of the fourth-place Washington Nationals.
For a team with plenty of talent on paper, the bigger problem keeps showing up in the same places. The Mets own a 21st-ranked 4.40 ERA and are 9-16 in one-run games, a combination that has left them stuck in the kind of season that keeps slipping further away.
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