Royals 11 Mets 7 (Citi Field Flushing, NY)
Mets record: 6-8
Mets Current streak: Lost 1
Mets Last 10 Games : [6-4]
WP- Alec Marsh 2-0
LP - Sean Manaea 1-1
Seat on the Korner: Salvador Perez
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.
Today's Seat on the Korner belongs to Salvador Perez, who had a home run and an RBI in the early innings as the Royals went on to beat the Mets. Perez was MVP of the 2015 World Series with a .364 average and catching every inning in Kansas City's five-game victory, but lifetime during the regular season had been .185 career hitter against the Mets in the regular season with one homer and three driven in. On Saturday he had a homer and four RBI while moving to first base in a day game after a night game.
Need to Know
In his ninth at bat (and 10th plate appearance) as a Met, Joey Wendle poked a single in the fifth inning for his first hit of the year. He added a second hit in the ninth. The Mets are the left-handed hitting infielder's fourth team, having spent the last two years with Miami, four years with Tampa Bay, and starting his career in Oakland.
In the two games heading into Saturday, the Mets scored a combined 22 runs by beating the Braves (16-4) and opening the homestand with a 6-1 win over the Royals. It took the Mets eight games to score 22 runs, starting the year at 2-6.
Coming into Saturday's game, the Mets had recorded 10 or more hits in four straight games--the last time the Mets managed that feat in five straight games was April 12-16, 2019.
Friday night marked the 20th game all-time between the Mets and Royals in the regular season. The teams stood at 10-10 all-time heading into today's action. New York's win Friday was its first against Kansas City since 2019. The Royals swept the Mets in 2023 in the first series after the trade deadline that sent Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, David Robertson, Mark Canha, Tommy Pham, and others out of town.
Matt Quatrano is in his second season as Kansas City's manager. On Friday night the Mets ended a seven-game winning streak by the Royals, the longest for the franchise since last July 28-August 3, which coincided with New York's visit to Kansas City.
The Mets and Royals met in the 2015 World Series. It was the Mets' first trip to the Fall Classic since 2000, but Kansas City had won the pennant in 2014 and lost Game 7 of the World Series to the San Francisco Giants. In the 28 years between Kansas City's 1985 world championship and 2014 pennant, the franchise had zero postseason appearances, seven winning records, 13 seasons of 90 losses, and 13 managers. The Royals have not reached the postseason since 2015, have not had a winning record in any season, and had three 100-loss seasons, including 106 losses last year. They say baseball is a game of timing.
Turning Point
The game turned early on a fly ball that wasn't caught. The half inning after Pete Alonso homered to tie the game, Bobby Witt Jr.'s high fly to right field in the fourth inning clanged off Starling Marte's glove and Witt dashed to third base. Nick Loftin singled in Witt to break the tie . Salvador Perez then hit a ball to deep left-center that Brandon Nimmo got just enough glove on to push it off the railing atop the fence that signifies a home run. (Video review provided Perez with his 250th career homer, second all-time in Royals history to George Brett's 317.) The extra out created by Marte's gaffe allowed the inning to continue. A couple more hits and a stolen base sent Sean Manaea to the showers. His ERA in his first two starts as a Met had been 0.82; the eight runs (six earned) on nine hits shot his ERA to 4.91.
Three Keys
A SECOND (INNING) CHANCE
The Mets held a 3-1 lead after the first inning, and Sean Manaea got a soft grounder Maikel Garcia that was the second out of the inning, but pushed runners to second and third. Unlike in the first inning, when Manaea threw a 3-0 cookie with a runner in scoring position that was lined for a hit by Nelson Velazquez, he stayed away from Bobby Witt Jr. and walked him on four pitches. Manaea then walked Nick Loftin to bring in a run. Salvador Perez followed with a single to left to bring home two runs and give Kansas City a 4-3 lead.
A HUSTLING THIRD BASEMAN NAMED BRETT
The greatest player in Royals history is George Brett, a Hall of Famer with 3,000 hits, the only player to win batting titles in three decades (1976, 1980, 1990), a Gold Glove at third base, and leader of a Kansas City team that won seven division titles in a 10-year span under three managers. The Mets' third baseman Brett (Baty) has a long way to go to reach those heights, but he hustled the Mets into two extra runs in the first inning. With one out and men on the corners in a 1-1 game, he hit a ground ball to second base that looked like a sure double play that would have ended the inning. He was aided by a good slide into second base by runner Pete Alonso that resulted in a slightly off throw to first base and Bady hustled across the first base bag. Baty then came around to score on a double by D.J. Stewart.
PERSEVERING MARSH
The Mets had worked Royals starter Alec Marsh hard in the bottom of the first inning, forcing him in the bottom of the first to throw almost 40 pitches while hitting, hustling, and watching Marsh's deliveries go by. But Marsh persevered. He came back in the second inning throwing strikes and getting outs. The first of two Pete Alonso home runs was Marsh's only blemish the rest of the day. The second-round pick in 2019 finished with 90 pitches in five innings, two strikeouts, a walk, and five hits to and improve to 2-0 on the year.
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