KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ The Royals at one point sat in an embarrassing state of futility as, for 22 consecutive innings, they had been held scoreless. They had not seen one of their men cross home since Sunday. Such is life for the home nine, who were never expected to contend this season.
In came the Mets, who recently put together a fierce run to storm back into the postseason hunt and inject belief into their fans. They arrived in Kansas City at 2:30 a.m. on Friday, and walked into Kauffman Stadium with a sense of urgency in the afternoon because of what is at stake now and for the rest of the season.
"Every game is vital to us right now," Mets manager Mickey Callaway said as part of an answer during his pregame talk with reporters.
Let's face it: This series looked like an opportunity for the Mets to stockpile wins that will become important in a tight postseason race. Anything can happen, sure, but you would expect New York to handle business.
But a night after exploding for 10 runs on 23 hits, the Mets never woke up against a team that entered with only 43 victories. The 4-1 loss to Kansas City marked the latest example of inexplicable inconsistency, which has plagued the Mets all year.
In the fifth inning, the Royals scored for the first time in days _ and they scored twice off Noah Syndergaard. Meibrys Viloria doubled down the right-field line to tie the game. Then, Nicky Lopez smoked a line drive past an outstretched Ruben Tejada at third, and the go-ahead run crossed home.
It got worse late.
Brad Brach came in to pitch the eighth, and the Royals quickly loaded the bases (helped by an intentional walk of Jorge Soler). So, in a one-run game with no outs, Callaway went to Edwin Diaz, who has struggled mightily this season.
The first batter he faced, Brett Phillips, walked and a run scored. Then Bubba Starling singled to score another.
The game soon looked over when Ryan O'Hearn hit a grand slam off Diaz _ momentarily, at least. The Mets challenged and the umpires ruled it went foul, meaning the Mets would not face a seven-run deficit.
Diaz struck out a man and got a double-play ball to escape the jam, but the Mets bats had no answer. They loaded the bases in the ninth but couldn't mount a comeback. The Mets are now only two games over .500.
New York struck first on a third-inning RBI single from Michael Conforto. You perhaps thought the Mets might pile on a bad team, especially after the outburst they had against a good club a night ago.
Not so.
They instead went silent, nowhere to be found. Even worse: They hardly threatened.
In the sixth, Conforto drove a fly ball to the wall and it looked like it could leave the yard. But the ball, which would have given the Mets a lead, did not carry out. Instead, it landed in a glove.
The Mets managed one run against Mike Montgomery, who entered with a 5.19 ERA. Most recently, he held Detroit scoreless over seven. But if the Mets want to compete down the stretch, they'll need to scratch against starters much better than Montgomery.
Even if the Mets were sleepwalking, they still had three innings _ nine outs to work with _ against the Royals bullpen that is almost in the bottom third in baseball in ERA. Recently, the Mets have been able to knock out starters with good at-bats, then take advantage of relievers. They were shut down by four of them on Friday.
Thus, they fell to one of the league's worst teams. There is never an ideal time to do so, but it seems even more painful at this time of the season.
