Never in franchise history had the Mets scored 12 runs in a home game and lost. Well, there’s a first time for everything. And this 16-12 loss to the Royals at Citi Field had a lot of events never seen before. I attempt to describe them in the roughly 2,500 words below, but quite frankly, this was a baseball game that defies description.
Serving as the opener ahead of Kodai Senga, Cionel Pérez wriggled his way out of a jam in the first to keep the Royals off the board. With one out, Bobby Witt Jr.
continued to climb the American League leaderboard in hits by lacing a single to right. Lane Thomas followed with a single and Pérez balked to advance the runners to second and third still with only one out. But he got a big strikeout of Salvador Perez and induced a fly ball out from Jac Caglianone to escape the inning unscathed.
It looked like Seth Lugo would manage to pull off a similar Houdini act in the bottom of the frame, but what transpired instead is what I can only describe as the Metsiest play ever perpetrated by a non-Mets team. A.J. Ewing led off the inning with a single and Lugo bounced back to strike out Juan Soto on a pitch Soto challenged, but was confirmed to be strike three. Bo Bichette then waited nicely on an offering from Lugo and threaded it up the middle for a base hit. Francisco Lindor struck out looking and then Carson Benge hit a slow roller toward the mound, but a heartbeat later, rather than the inning being over, Benge was crossing home plate with the Mets up 3-0—a Little League home run thanks to three separate throwing errors by the Royals. Lugo scooped up the ball and threw it wildly to first base. Then, first baseman Jac Caglianone scrambled after the ball in foul territory down the first base line, picked it up, and flung it into no man’s land somewhere in foul territory between third base and home plate. He was likely trying to throw the ball home, but it didn’t even end up in the same zip code. Once again scrambling in foul territory, third baseman Nick Loftin made a second attempt at throwing home for a play at the plate and also missed the mark, as Carson Benge completed his full trip around the bases to give the Mets a three-run lead. Again, I assure you I am describing a series of events that happened to the opposition rather than the Mets this time. Indeed, it is the first time in franchise history an opposing team has made three errors on a single play against the Mets. And my words don’t do it justice; you should really just watch the highlight for this one, trust me. For full effect, play circus music in the background as you watch it.
Anyway, unfortunately for the Mets, their laughing was relatively short-lived as Kodai Senga came in to begin the second inning and—after recording the second out of the inning on a successful version of a play nearly identical to the one Lugo failed to make that caused the first domino to fall in the first—gave up a single to Michael Massey and a two-run homer to Tyler Tolbert to bring the Royals back within a run in a hurry. But the Mets reclaimed their three-run advantage in the bottom of the frame. With one out, Brett Baty lined a ball into the gap in left-center for a double. He was erased on a fielder’s choice when Luis Torrens hit a grounder to third and Baty ended up caught in a rundown between second and third, eventually tagged out as he hit the dirt. A.J. Ewing followed with an absolute no doubter of a monster shot into the upper deck in right field—the furthest I’ve ever seen him hit a ball as a big leaguer—to give the Mets a 5-2 lead.
Senga rebounded to put up a zero in the third and Lugo did the same, working around a walk and a stolen base by Carson Benge. But Senga lost the strike zone in the fourth and it came back to bite him, allowing the Royals to once more cut the lead to one run. The inning could have been much worse, but in contrast to Royals earlier and in contrast to their usual modus operandi, the Mets helped Senga out some defensively. The walk Senga issued to lead off the inning was erased on a pickoff (which the Mets had to challenge to get awarded). Senga then walked Michael Massey and gave up a single to Tyler Tolbert, who simply cannot be retired right now. That was Tolbert’s ninth consecutive hit, which is a new Royals club record. Senga then struck out Carter Jenson for the second out, but wanted no part of Bobby Witt Jr. and issued a semi-intentional walk to him to load the bases. He then very much unintentionally got behind in the count to Lane Thomas and Thomas socked a two-run double off the wall in left field that could have easily cleared the bases if not for Royals third base coach Vance Wilson (Mets legend) very conservatively putting a stop sign up. Senga kept a tenuous hold on the lead when Juan Soto made a nice diving catch on a sinking Sal Perez liner to end the inning.
Something we are not used to seeing from the 2026 Mets: they once again punched back immediately against old friend Seth Lugo in his first time facing his former team. Jared Young singled to lead off the inning and then with one out, Luis Torrens singled. A.J. Ewing then singled for his third hit and RBI before the game had even reached its halfway mark. Juan Soto then launched a three-run shot to dead center to stretch the Mets’ lead to five runs. But the Mets saw that lead shrink once again in the top of the fifth, as it became clear that this was going to be one of those games where no lead was safe. Austin Warren was the next pitcher up for the Mets and things did not go well for him, to put it kindly. Jac Caglianone doubled to lead off the inning and then Warren hit Nick Loftin with a pitch to put two men on. Isaac Collins and Michael Massey then hit back-to-back doubles to make the score 9-7. Tyler Tolbert then continued his streak to notch his tenth straight hit—this one an infield single on which he beat Bo Bichette’s spinning throw to first. He promptly stole second base to put the tying run in scoring position. Austin Warren then walked Carter Jensen, marking the sixth straight Royal to reach base, still with nobody out. Warren was pulled from the game having failed to retire a batter, leaving Huascar Brazobán with a huge mess to clean up and a skinny two-run lead to protect.
Bobby Witt Jr. greeted Brazobán with a sharp grounder to short that ate up Francisco Lindor, costing the Mets a potential double play, but Lindor did manage to get the out at second. A run scored on the play to bring the Royals within a run still with runners at the corners and only one out. The Mets were fortunate to record the second out on a caught stealing which required replay review to adjudicate. But Sal Perez blooped a single to shallow center to tie the game at nine runs apiece. Brazobán finally struck out Caglianone, who you may recall led off the inning with a double, to mercifully end the inning. Again, this was the top of the fifth. I’ve written a full length recap already. But there’s still four innings of baseball to be played.
Lugo, who hadn’t thrown a pitch in 30 minutes, came back out for the bottom of the fifth with his team having evened the score and struck out Carson Benge for the first out. In his first game with the Mets in nearly three months, Jorge Polanco made a bid to give the Mets the lead again, launching a ball to the second deck down the right field line, but replay review revealed the long fly was just foul, so Polanco, having already completed his trip around the bases, had to return to the batter’s box and ultimately settled for a walk instead. That ended Seth Lugo’s night and he made way for Daniel Lynch IV, who was the beneficiary of a nice sliding catch by Lane Thomas in center to retire Jared Young. With two outs, Brett Baty also made a bid to give the Mets the lead, but Tolbert caught his towering fly ball right in front of the wall to keep the game knotted at nine runs apiece.
Brazobán immediately found himself in another pickle in the top of the sixth because nothing about this game could be normal. Nick Loftin doubled to lead things off and then Collins walked. Michael Massey then struck out for the first out. Tyler Torbert then hit a bouncer to third and—you guessed it—he beat it out for his eleventh straight hit because Bo Bichette was unable to come up with the short hop and whiffed trying to swipe at it and by the time the ball got to Francisco Lindor backing it up, it was too late. With the bases loaded, Carter Jensen hit another ball toward third on which Bichette did field the short hop and threw home for the force out. Bobby Witt Jr. then hit a liner back to the mound that Brazobán managed to stick his glove up and snag to somehow keep the Royals off the board.
Daniel Lynch IV and John Schreiber combined for a scoreless bottom of the sixth for the Royals, working around a walk and stolen base by A.J. Ewing (he was initially called out but then ruled safe upon replay review). With the game still tied in the top of the seventh, the Mets called upon local kid Matt Seelinger to make his big league debut in front of “half of Long Island,” as he put it before the game. Unfortunately, a cult hero’s performance was not to be for the 31-year-old. Likely with butterflies in his stomach, he walked Lane Thomas on four pitches to lead things off. Salvador Perez then doubled in Thomas to give the Royals the lead for the first time all evening. Seelinger struck out Caglianone for the first out, but then gave up a two-run homer to Nick Lofton to extend the Royals’ newfound lead to 12-9. Seelinger then walked two more batters and who came striding into the batter’s box but Tyler Tolbert with a chance to make baseball history. He hit yet another slow roller—this time toward short—and he beat it out again to secure his place in the record books. He became just the fifth player in baseball history to record twelve straight hits and three of the five he logged in this contest were infield hits.
Things continued to get worse for Seelinger, who issued another walk with the bases loaded to force in a run. It seemed like he got exactly what he needed when Bobby Witt Jr. hit a grounder to short that seemed destined to end the inning, but the Mets were only able to record the out at second, as Witt beat the throw to first base by a whisker. That whisker was the difference between a game that still felt within reach, especially given all that had already transpired, and the Royals blowing the doors off. With no one warming behind him in a shorthanded bullpen, poor Matt Seelinger had to wear it. And wear it he did. Lane Thomas doubled to plate two more runs for the Royals before the inning finally came to an end. All told, Kansas City scored 12 unanswered runs after trailing 9-4 and in the worst game of his major league career, Seth Lugo got a no-decision. Seven of those runs came against Seelinger in the seventh—a big league debut he will surely never forget for all the wrong reasons.
The Mets clawed back two runs in the bottom of the seventh to give both teams double-digit run totals. Carson Benge walked with one out and hearing chants of “Pete Alonso!” by the exasperated (and let’s be honest, probably drunk) crowd, Jorge Polanco laced a double to drive in Benge. Jared Young then singled to advance Polanco to third and John Schreiber made way for Beck Way (pun intended). Brett Baty launched yet another ball to the warning track for a sacrifice fly to score Polanco, which made the score 16-11 if you are still keeping track.
Not down by enough runs to use a position player to pitch, the Mets’ choices at this point were a.) send Matt Seelinger out for another inning or b.) use A.J. Minter, which would have likely necessitated the use of one of Luke Weaver, Devin Williams, or Brooks Raley for a third straight day. The Mets chose option a and with an assist from A.J. Ewing, who leapt up against the wall to rob Michael Massey of an extra base hit to end the inning, Seelinger posted a redemptive clean frame. Ewing continued to have quite the game, blooping a single off familiar foe Matt Strahm to lead off the eighth for his first career four-hit game. Strahm retired the next two batters he faced, but then walked Francisco Lindor and gave up a single to Carson Benge to bring the Mets within four.
A.J. Minter threw a 1-2-3 top of the ninth, which is only notable because a.) a 1-2-3 inning was about as rare as the Hope Diamond in this ballgame and b.) one of those outs was Tyler Tolbert, whose streak came to an end at 12 straight hits—tying, but not breaking, the major league record. Lucas Erceg responded with a 1-2-3 inning of his own to seal the victory for the Royals in what was a rather anticlimactic ending to an otherwise rollercoaster ride of a game. I feel like I ran a marathon, but all I did was recap a baseball game…an extremely bizarre baseball game.
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Big Mets winner: A.J. Ewing, +39% WPA
Big Mets loser: Matt Seelinger, -49% WPA
Mets pitchers: -97% WPA
Mets hitters: +47% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Carson Benge’s Little League home run in the first, +25.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Matt Seelinger gives up a go-ahead RBI double to Salvador Perez in the seventh, -21.1% WPA
