What started out looking like a slugfest quickly turned ugly for the Mets. Facing the Kansas City Royals, they went down by one, then up by two. Then they were down by a run and tied the game once again.
But left-hander Sean Manaea struggled with his command on a cold, windy day. Once the Royals took a lead in the fourth, they never let up. The Mets lost, 11-7, at Citi Field on Saturday afternoon.
Manaea (1-1) was charged with eight runs (six earned) on nine hits over 3 2/3 innings, walking three and striking out four.
“He struggled to find his pitches,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “It was a battle for him.”
Manaea struggled to put hitters away with two strikes. The Royals did damage on his changeup, a pitch that had been successful for him in his first two starts.
“The feel and the metric side of it, I thought it was good,” Manaea said. “I have to go look back and watch the video since from those two sides I thought it was good. But whether they were seeing it or I was just leaving it up, they put some good swings on it.”
After allowing a run in the top of the first, the Mets (6-8) took three runs off Marsh in the bottom of the inning. Three walks and two singles issued by Manaea in the second resulted in three runs and a 4-3 Kansas City lead. Pete Alonso hit his fifth home run of the season off right-hander Alec Marsh in the third inning to tie the game at four. He would later hit his sixth of the season and second of the game but by then, the Royals (10-5) had already run away with it.
Facing the top of the order in the fourth, things went awry for Manaea and the Mets.
Manaea struck out Maikel Garcia to get the first out. It looked as though he had an easy out for the second with a fly ball to right field by Bobby Witt Jr. But Starling Marte closed his glove on the ball too quickly and the speedy Witt made it all the way around to third. Nick Loftin sent him home with a single to left field and Salvador Perez then hit one back to the center field wall. It was initially ruled a double, but it was determined to be a two-run homer after a review.
The Royals went up, 7-4.
Marte apologized to Manaea in the dugout, saying he should have made the catch.
“We can’t put the blame on the wind,” Marte said through a translator. “That’s an easy play to make. There could be a tornado out there and it’s still play that needs to be caught and you have to secure the ball.”
Manaea didn’t fault the right fielder.
“Stuff happens,” Manaea said. “You’ve got to get back out there and do your job. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that, so that’s on me.”
The Mets brought in Cole Sulser with two out and one on in the fourth. He gave up an RBI and a walk to put Kansas City up, 8-4.
The crowd started to clear out at that point, unwilling to sit through wind, rain and a blowout loss.
It didn’t stop from there. Sulser gave up three earned runs. Jorge Lopez gave up hard contact.
Alonso hit his second homer of the game off left-hander Angel Zerpa in the bottom of the sixth to make the score 11-5. It was the 20th multi-homer game of his career.
Marte drove one over the fence in the bottom of the eighth to make it 11-6. The home run came off Matt Sauer for his second of the season.
The Mets didn’t give up, scoring twice in the bottom of the eighth. Still, this ended a four-game stretch for the Mets that saw them record double-digit hits. The offense had outscored opponents, 44-29, over their last six games until Saturday, but defensive miscues and a tough outing for Manaea left them with too much ground to make up.
However, the fight the Mets have shown with late runs in recent losses is something the team has been proud of.
“It says that we’re a complete offense,” Alonso said. “We’re not just relying on those one or two big innings throughout the game. We can scratch a run off here and there throughout the course of the game. That’s really important.”
Marsh (2-0) earned the win, allowing four runs on five hits.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Right-hander Sean Reid-Foley (shoulder impingement) will throw an inning with High-A Brooklyn on Sunday.
UP NEXT
The series is tied at 1-1 with the finale slated for Sunday afternoon with right-hander Jose Butto getting his first start of the season. He’ll face left-hander Cole Ragans. The game will be played following a ceremony to honor former Mets great Dwight Gooden and retire No. 16, the number he wore throughout his 11-year career with the Amazins’.
