​The Kansas City Royals dropped two of three to the New York Mets this week, and shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. did not hide his frustration after the series finale. KC erupted for 16 runs in the opener but managed only five combined over the final two games, culminating in a 7-3 defeat in which the Mets blew the game open with a five-run fifth inning. Witt made his feelings clear afterward, signaling that the vanishing offense is weighing on him and the rest of the clubhouse.
Michael Wacha took the loss in the finale, dropping to 5-7 on the season with a 3.77 ERA. While this outing was among his tougher ones, he surrendered six earned runs in 4.2 innings before being pulled in the fifth. The 35-year-old right-hander remains the most dependable arm in the Royals’ rotation for much of the year, even as this outing marked one of his roughest starts.
Witt Jr.’s frustration extended beyond a single game to the larger issue of an offense that has often failed to back Wacha this season. The Royals sit last in the American League Central, and Witt has continued to shoulder a heavy load for a team that has not always delivered around him. The 26-year-old three-time All-Star is batting .288 with an .823 OPS and 13 home runs, including a solo homer in the fourth inning of the finale that briefly gave Kansas City a 2-1 lead. He also stands second in the majors in stolen bases, a remarkable feat achieved despite the surrounding struggle and despite playing through a right knee MCL sprain in June that briefly sidelined him.
The numbers Witt is posting on a 38-56 team underline just how special a player he is. The Mets series served as a microcosm of Kansas City’s season to this point. The Royals began the set with a 16-run outburst in the opener, suggesting they had found a rhythm and potential for momentum. Yet that momentum quickly evaporated as the bats went quiet in the subsequent games.
In the finale, the Mets loaded the bases in the fifth inning and stitched together a sequence—sacrifice fly, a two-run single, and an RBI single—that broke the game open and turned a 2-1 lead into a more comfortable margin. That kind of swing has come to symbolize the 2026 Royals, a club that entered the year with playoff ambitions after reaching the postseason in 2024 but has since struggled to sustain consistent offense.
For now, Witt will continue to lead by example, grinding away at the plate and in the field, while hoping the rest of the lineup begins to respond and contribute more consistently. The Royals head to Baltimore for a series starting Friday night, a pivotal test as they chase improvements across their lineup. They will need a more balanced effort from top to bottom if they want to halt the current skid before the trade deadline reshapes the roster once again. This stretch could define whether Kansas City can regain the momentum that briefly surfaced in the opening game of the Mets series and translate it into longer-term success.