Mets offense shows up fashionably late in win over Royals

Mets 8 Royals 3 (Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO)

Mets record: 54-41

Mets streak: Won 1

WP - Huascar Brazoban (5-2)

LP - Steven Cruz (2-1)

Seat on the Korner:

We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.

I've seen enough baseball to know that it's dangerous to call something the "biggest" anything. In our current world, everything is the biggest of the season ... until the next game.

But Mark Vientos' three run double in the 8th inning to give the Mets the lead will certainly go down as the biggest hit of his season. It certainly led the Mets to a much needed victory to kick off the last series before the All Star break.

Need to Know

• The game started after a weather delay of 80 minutes.

• The Mets win combined with a loss by the Phillies puts the Mets a half game behind the N.L. East division lead.

• Kodai Senga pitched for the first time since June 12th and went four scoreless innings, giving up four hits and two walks on 67 pitches (42 for strikes), while striking out four.

• Former Met Michael Wacha started for Kansas City and threw five innings, giving up a run on a bases loaded walk. He gave up three walks and two hits total, striking out five.

• Vientos' three RBI game was his 4th game of teh season with three RBI or better.

• Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto hit back to back dingers in the 8th. Lindor's homer was a three run shot to put the game away.

• This was the 12th game of the season where the Mets scored 8 or more runs.

• Bobby Witt Jr.'s two run HR in the 7th off Huascar Brazoban gave the Royals a 3-1 lead. Brazoban would finish the inning and get the vulture win.

• Carlos Estevez last pitched against the Mets in the 2024 NLDS, where he gave up a grand slam to Lindor in Game 4. Cumulatively, there have been a span of five Mets batters that Estevez has faced who have driven in 7 runs.

Turning Point

Vientos' entire season has been a ball of frustration. In the third inning, Vientos had a chance with the bases loaded and struck out. But not only struck out, he struck out and showed visible and obvious frustration.

That frustration was palpable in the 8th after the Mets once again loaded the bases with Pete Alonso up.

Then up came Vientos. He had been struggling so mightily that it seemed like he couldn't hit air with his own breath. But then, the turning point ...

After having two hits in the first 7 innings of the game, the Mets would go on to score a total of 7 runs in the 8th and 9th innings to put this game away by a score of 8-3. Will it turn around Vientos' season? We hope so. But we know that it turned around this game, and for now that's good enough.

Three Keys

Throwing The Ghost Fork Through The Escape Hatch

Los in all of this was the return of Kodai Senga from injury, and even though he only went four innings, nobody can say it was anything but a success. When he came back from injury in the playoffs last year, it took him a while to find his range ... and by "a while", I mean a few months because he never seemed to find it last season. On Friday, it started out a little wonky, but he found his footing in time to get out of a few jams.

He did it in style in the first, embarrassing Salvador Perez (who had two hit sin the game) on a ghost fork after throwing him fastballs earlier in the at-bat. Then after he was bailed out in the second on a nice play by Ronny Mauricio to end the 2nd ...

... , he got out of another jam in the third by making Jac Caglione look like he was in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

All in all, it was a hopeful sign for the Mets, who badly need some top end starting pitching to survive the rest of the season. Between Senga's outing and Sean Manaea's return on Sunday, the Mets have a chance to go into the break with some good vibes.

Dr. Heckyll And Mr. Jive

Through it all, there's still a level of consistency that the Mets offense has to find. Getting shut down by a guy who had an ERA north of 7 in his recent starts is a trend that this lineup has stayed true to. There are many reasons for it, but they're all baffling.

But between Vientos' hit, and back to back jacks by Lindor and Soto in the 9th, the better of the offensive personalities showed up at the right time to sing their old black magic.

I believe that the underdog will eventually survive.

The Owner Has Their Back

I grew up in the shadows of owners like George Steinbrenner who, when they made a public statement, usually did so when things were going bad. Those were the kinds of owners players never wanted to hear from, because that meant bad news.

We live in different times now. And we live in a timeline where a New York sports owner is supportive and is firmly in his team's corner ... at least from what we see on Twitter. Steve Cohen tweeted after tonight's win and reminded you that although he may be rich enough to buy baseball teams and frozen sharks, he's a Mets fan first.