KANSAS CITY, Mo. — They couldn’t save a few hits from the previous game?

Such is baseball’s fickle nature that the Mets could total a season-high 23 hits against the Braves one night and then appear completely overmatched at the plate by the hapless Royals the next.

Neutered by mediocre left-hander Mike Montgomery and the Royals’ bullpen, the Mets lost 4-1 at Kauffman Stadium for their fourth defeat in five games.

The Mets (62-60) arrived wanting to sweep this team that began the night 30 games removed from first place in the AL Central, but will now have to scramble over the next two days just to escape with a series win.

Among the conspicuous absentees in this one was Pete Alonso, who went from 5-for-5 Thursday night to hitless in three at-bats with a walk Friday. But the Mets received next to nothing from the fifth spot in the batting order on down, as Todd Frazier, Juan Lagares, Joe Panik, Tomas Nido and Ruben Tejada/Luis Guillorme combined for only two hits.

Amed Rosario came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth and was retired by Ian Kennedy.

Montgomery, who entered with a 5.19 ERA, allowed only an unearned run on five hits and two walks over six innings before the Mets went virtually silent against the Royals’ bullpen and remained two games behind in the race for the NL’s second wild card.

The Mets are 1-3 on the road trip and hardly reminding anybody of the team that won 15 of 16 games before losing to the Nationals last Sunday at Citi Field.

Noah Syndergaard kept the Mets in the game by allowing two earned runs on five hits and two walks over six innings, throwing 90 pitches. But the outing snapped a streak of six starts since the All-Star break in which the right-hander had pitched at least seven innings.

Justin Wilson pitched a scoreless seventh for the Mets, but Brad Brach loaded the bases with nobody out in the eighth before Edwin Diaz entered and walked Brett Phillips to force in a run. Bubba Starling followed with an RBI single that extended the Royals’ lead to 4-1. But the inning could have been worse: Diaz surrendered an apparent grand slam to Ryan O’Hearn, but the call was overturned on replay, which showed the ball outside the right-field foul pole. O’Hearn struck out and Diaz got Meibrys Viloria to hit into an inning-ending double play.

Syndergaard rolled into the fifth with only one hit allowed, but the Royals soon assembled a rally to end their scoreless streak, which had extended to 22 innings. O’Hearn singled with one out and consecutive RBI doubles by Viloria and Nicky Lopez put the Mets in a 2-1 hole.

Michael Conforto stroked an RBI single in the third that gave the Mets a 1-0 lead. It came after the Mets got a play overturned at second base in which J.D. Davis was originally called out on a transfer play. But replays indicated second baseman Whit Merrifield never caught the throw from Hunter Dozier on Alonso’s grounder. Davis returned to second and Conforto drove in the run.

Panik’s brain cramp in the second ran the Mets out of an inning. Panik had singled and advanced to second on Nido’s one-out walk. Tejada followed with a fly out to right field, but Panik, evidently forgetting the number of outs, ran to third base and was doubled up.

Source: Read Full Article