The Royals took a late-inning lead into a baseball game against the Mets. That’s worked out pretty well in the past. This time, it did not. Oh, heavens, it did not.
New York beat Kansas City, 11-5, after training by a run entering the seventh inning. Glenn Sparkman rebounded from a rough first inning by cruising through the next six, but his work was completely undone by the bullpen.
We’ll get there, though. So the Mets get a three-run homer in the first inning and the Royals slowly but surely come back throughout the course of the game. Ryan O’Hearn got them on the board with an RBI groundout in the fourth. Three runs scored in the fifth, coming on a Whit Merrifield RBI single, a Nicky Lopez’s RBI fielder’s choice, and a Hunter Dozier sacrifice fly.
Sparkman was, aside from the three-run moonshot by Michael Conforto (452 feet!), really good. He got through six innings only allowing five hits and the three runs. He struck out three batters.
Then entered Kevin McCarthy and holy, holy moly. Kevin McCarthy is part of a horrendous bullpen, yet he just might be the most horrendous pitcher of the group. He faced five batters and only got one of them out, and it was on a bunt. Richard Lovelady came in and didn’t get anybody out. The Mets opened the inning with double, bunt out, single, double, single, single, double, single, single. Like, that was the sequence. It was just painful.
The bullpen is so bad. Josh Staumont came in and got a few guys out, I guess. Jacob Barnes got some outs too. They both gave up runs, though. It was awful.
After a whole bunch of runs scored, the final score was 11-5. The Royals lost the series.
The record is 44-80. Eighty losses in August. That feels perfect.
Next up: I think they go to Baltimore. That’ll be fun to watch.