Mets swept by lowly Royals as trade deadline sell-off week hits new low
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — This dead cat won’t bounce.
After the Mets dismantled their roster with trades over the past week there was at least some hope that three games against the hapless Royals might at least create a temporary illusion of wellness.
On Wall Street, that kind of short recovery is referred to as a “dead cat bounce.” These Mets have replaced “bounce” with “splat.”
Vital signs zero, the Mets lost 9-2 at Kauffman Stadium on Thursday to complete the Royals’ three-game sweep.
The Mets fell eight games below .500 and will be rewarded with a weekend series against the Orioles, who own the American League’s best record.
On the brink of getting shut out for a second straight day, the Mets received a two-run homer from Francisco Lindor with two outs in the ninth inning.
The Royals began the day third from the bottom in the major leagues with a 5.14 ERA.
Their starting pitcher, Brady Singer, had a 5.46 ERA.
“I would say that the energy was a little down,” Lindor said in assessing the Mets’ first series since the trade deadline. “I think that comes with the territory of the first day of the unexpected, we didn’t know what was happening. But we have got to turn the page. That is not an excuse. They played better than us, and hopefully we come out with a little bit more energy and better vibes in Baltimore, because that is a really good team.”
Lindor was asked what the team hopes to accomplish over the final two months.
“Win games and hopefully shock the world,” he said. “But most importantly, I want the younger players to learn and to understand how the game is played and not back down from any challenges. All the challenges that are going to be put in the middle of the road for us, to overcome them. Ultimately that is what I want for these next two months.”
Carlos Carrasco lasted six-plus innings and allowed six earned runs on eight hits and one walk in a fourth straight clunker.
Since pitching eight shutout innings against the Diamondbacks on July 6, the veteran right-hander owns a 12.33 ERA over four starts.
“It’s one of those years, it’s really bad,” Carrasco said. “I’m just trying to figure out how I can get it un-bad. I just need to feel like myself again. Today I felt like myself, but I gave up six runs. The more important thing is I’m healthy so I can go every five days.”
Carrasco’s afternoon unraveled in the seventh on Drew Waters’ three-run homer that buried the Mets in a 6-0 hole.
He was then pulled with nobody out.
Normally, manager Buck Showalter might have removed Carrasco after the sixth, but with David Peterson returning to the rotation on Friday and not completely stretched out, the manager tried to avoid extending the bullpen.
Josh Walker, who balked in the winning run on Tuesday in the 10th inning, allowed three runs on three hits in the eighth on this day.
Showalter used a position player, Danny Mendick, to get the final two outs in the inning.
Salvador Perez sliced an RBI double in the first inning that gave the Royals a 1-0 lead.
On the play right fielder DJ Stewart appeared to get a late read on the ball and watched as it hit behind his glove on the right-field fence.
Samad Taylor reached on an infield single to start the third and stole second before Carrasco’s wild pitch sent him to third.
Maikel Garcia’s sacrifice fly gave the Royals a 2-0 lead before Bobby Witt Jr. cleared the center-field fence for his 19th homer of the season.
“[Carrasco] is not getting the ball where he wants to get it in the sequence of pitches,” Showalter said. “That is why you are seeing hard-hit balls on 0-2 and 1-2 counts. … He was fortunate, a lot of hard-hit balls that we caught, too.”
