We’ve seen a lot of long, frustrating losses this season. Last night’s 16-12 offensive barrage was unique even for the 2026 Mets. Following that monstrosity of a baseball game, tonight’s affair was blissfully, mercifully fairly normal in comparison. It was a fairly low-scoring evening until a sudden offensive barrage in the eighth inning, and the Mets came away with a 6-2 victory.
The Mets got the scoring started early against Royals opener Steven Cruz, as A.J. Ewing followed his four-hit barrage last night with another homer to lead off the game for the Amazins. It was Ewing’s seventh major league home run—and his first in the leadoff spot—and it quickly gave the Mets a 1-0 lead. That would prove to be the only run the bats would bring home for quite a while, as bulkman Randy Dobnak came on in the second and would go on to shut the Mets down for 5.2 scoreless innings. They came close in the bottom of third when Francisco Lindor socked a ball to deep right field with runners on first and second with two outs, but Tyler Tolbert made a terrific leaping catch against the wall to end the inning.
Thankfully for the Mets, Christian Scott was able to maintain that one-run lead during his start tonight. While Scott has overall had a pretty solid 2026, going deep into games has been an issue for him—as mentioned by Gary Cohen on the broadcast, he had not made it through five innings in any of the past three starts. Tonight, he managed to make it through five scoreless innings, giving up just three hits and one walk while striking out five. The most meaningful threat against him came in the top of the second when he surrendered a two-out walk and single, respectively, before inducing a pop fly to second base from the previously unstoppable Tolbert. All told, it was an encouraging outing from one of the few bright spots in the team’s starting rotation.
Unfortunately, the Mets quickly surrendered the lead when Scott exited the game. Tobias Myers was just recalled from the minors today, and he came on for the top of the sixth. He gave up a one-out double to Jac Caglianone, and after a groundout to third brought him within one out of getting out of the inning, Salvador Perez lined a 3-2 pitch to left field to bring the tying run home. Thus, Scott would receive a no-decision despite his solid start, and we were square even once more.
Myers got out of that inning and managed to toss a scoreless top of the seventh. Brooks Raley then came on and contributed a scoreless inning of his own. The Mets’ bats, meanwhile, continued to look hapless following the leadoff homer. Reliever Alex Lange came on for the eighth inning and quickly recorded the first two outs, and it looked like it was going to be yet another scoreless frame. Then Lindor lined a single to the outfield to break up a lengthy hitless stretch. Carson Benge followed that with a walk, and then Jorge Polanco hit a dribbler to first base and made it safely when Caglionone made an errant toss to the pitcher covering the bag. That loaded the bases for Jared Young, though Lange got him to two strikes and was one pitch away from getting out of the inning. His 2-2 pitch, however, nicked Young in the elbow, and that brought home the go-ahead run. The Mets then further capitalized on the Royals’ misfortunes when Brett Baty lined a single to center to bring two more runs home and put Young on third base. Lange then made his exit in favor of Jose Cuas, and his very first pitch sailed to the backstop to bring another run home and move Baty to second. Francisco Alvarez then blooped yet another single to left, bringing home the fifth run of the inning. Ewing followed that with a double, and Juan Soto was then intentionally walked to make it eight straight baserunners reaching base following the first two outs. Bo Bichette struck out to finally end it.
The suddenly comfortably 6-1 lead allowed Andy Green to rest his high-leverage relievers, and he instead turned to new arrival Xzavion Curry to close things out. It would have been quite a 2026 Mets thing for him to quickly allow the Royals back into the game and make things suddenly dramatic in the worst possible way. And indeed, after retiring the first two batters, Curry did surrender a walk and a double to bring home a run and make it 6-2. Thankfully, that was all the drama we were gonna get, as he struck out Bobby Witt Jr. to end it and give the Mets the victory. Now they will go for the series victory tomorrow afternoon.
Big Mets winner: Christian Scott, +28% WPA
Big Mets loser: Juan Soto and Bo Bichette, -6% WPA
Mets pitchers: +38% WPA
Mets hitters: +12% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Jared Young RBI hit-by-pitch in the eighth, +25.0% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Salvador Perez RBI single in the sixth, -14.9% WPA
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.amazinavenue.com ’
