​Tuesday’s game between the Mets and Royals will be one you’d rather forget if you’re in New York’s bullpen. Before the Mets’ roller-coaster 16-12 loss, they had never lost a home game when scoring 11 or more runs. Their 12 runs in defeat ties for the franchise record for most runs in a loss, period, and those tallies all fell on the Mets’ bullpen. After back-to-back long pitching stints in Atlanta, interim manager Andy Green was short on arms on Tuesday, and the bullpen game in the series opener with Kansas City didn’t do him any favors. Still, the Mets pushed ahead.
Cionel Perez opened the game, and Kodai Senga gave up four runs over three innings. The Mets’ offense punched through the Royals’ pitching staff and built a 9-4 lead by the time the fifth inning arrived. That’s when Austin Warren took the mound and immediately paid a heavy price, allowing five earned runs on four hits and one walk without recording an out. “It was a tough day for us. No other way around it,” Green said after the loss about his pitching staff. “Perez got us off to a good start. [AJ] Minter had a really good inning in there. [Huascar Brazoban] came in and did some decent stuff. Everything else just was a tough day. Austin Warren’s been somebody we’ve relied on all year long; he’s been very very good for us. It wasn’t his day today.”
Green explained that the plan had been for Warren to work multiple innings, but since that didn’t materialize, they turned to recently acquired right-hander Matt Seelinger in the seventh with the score tied at 9-9. Seelinger, a 31-year-old whose career has been largely in the minors, was making his major league debut and allowed seven runs in the frame, effectively sealing the outcome. “As a group, we have a ton of confidence in Austin Warren. He had a night that was really tough. We looked at it pretty confidently; we believed he would give us a couple of innings tonight. It didn’t turn into that,” Green said. “It was at that point we knew we had to put SeelingER in a tough debut spot you’d prefer not to. We believe in Austin, we’ll continue to believe in him. He’s been great for us all year. That’s where we tripped up a little bit. And that happens.”
Warren described his own performance with blunt honesty. “We were light today, I knew I needed to cover some innings,” he said. “Doesn’t change the way I go about my business. It just didn’t work out. Bad outing.” Warren has been a contributor this season, but his last two appearances have been subpar: four runs on July 4 against the Braves in two innings, and five runs Tuesday. That brings him to nine runs allowed over his last two appearances (2.0+ innings), matching the nine he allowed in his entire previous 33.0-inning span. He attributed the struggles to missing spots but refused to use excuses, focusing instead on finding a way to get hitters out.
Looking ahead, the Mets will be juggling five straight games before the All-Star break, and Warren, along with the rest of the pitching staff, will need to rebound quickly to prevent more performances like Tuesday’s from reappearing. The club will need to mix those arms effectively, cover more innings when needed, and keep the offense rolling to salvage a grueling stretch of games before the pause. With the All-Star break looming, every bullpen and rotation decision will be scrutinized as Green and his staff aim to stabilize the arms and steer the team back toward consistency.