Mets piecemeal pitchings implosion wastes early lead in ugly loss to last-place Royals
Raise the white flag.As if a matchup of two last-place teams on a crummy night in Queens wasn’t enough, the Mets had perhaps their sloppiest, ugliest loss of the season against the miserable Royals, 16-12, in a wild game to open a homestand at Citi Field on Tuesday night.After opening a five-run lead in the fourth, the Mets gave up a dozen straight runs before getting back on the scoreboard.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets.
It came on a night that saw the Royals hand the Mets a three-run Little League homer, thanks to three errors on one play, in the bottom of the first.That proved to be just an appetizer for a bizarre night and it still couldn’t propel the Mets to a victory, as their ragtag pitching staff was no match for the Royals, who tagged the Phillies for 15 runs on Monday.The Mets showed plenty of their flaws Tuesday.For instance, Kodai Senga proved he can be nearly as ineffective out of the bullpen as he was as a starter.And even with that, the Mets built a five-run lead in the fourth.Just as quickly, Austin Warren entered to start the fifth and allowed all six batters he faced to reach base — and five of them to score, as Kansas City improbably tied the game 9-9.It overshadowed A.J.Ewing reaching base five times at the top of the order and hitting his sixth homer of the season.Among the many low points, with the game knotted heading into the seventh, Long Island native Matt Seelinger gave up a whopping seven runs in his MLB debut.The right-hander immediately ran into trouble, as he walked Lane Thomas on four pitches and then gave up an RBI double to Salvador Perez.Nick Loftin tagged Seelinger for a two-run shot later in the inning.He survived and pitched a scoreless eighth, but it didn’t matter.Coming off back-to-back close wins in Atlanta, the Mets returned to Queens, where they’d lost six of seven in their last homestand.Looking to win a th...