New York Mets vs Kansas City Royals Picks and Predictions July 9th 2026

Mets, against Royals, give fans glimpse of what might have been

A stirring eighth-inning surge Wednesday night almost surely won’t be the start of a playoff push for the New York Mets.

But at least it provided the Mets evidence of what they could have been before injuries and misfortune derailed their season.

The Mets will aim to earn a rare series win Thursday afternoon when they host the Kansas City Royals in the rubber game of a three-game interleague set between last-place teams.

Left-hander Sean Manaea (1-4, 5.16 ERA) is slated to start for the Mets against right-hander Michael Wacha (5-6, 3.45).

Brett Baty’s two-RBI single highlighted a five-run eighth inning Wednesday for the Mets, who beat the Royals 6-2.

The Mets scored their eighth-inning runs after Juan Soto and Bo Bichette grounded out to start the inning. The two-out uprising provided an encouraging ending to a rare evening in which most of New York’s Opening Day lineup was on the field. Soto, Bichette and Baty were joined Wednesday by Francisco Lindor, Jorge Polanco, Carson Benge and Francisco Alvarez.

Polanco, who returned to the Mets on Monday after missing the previous 74 games with Achilles and wrist injuries, beat out an infield single to extend the rally immediately before Jared Young was hit by a pitch to force home Lindor with the tie-breaking run.

Baty delivered his hit before Alvarez, who missed time earlier this season due to a knee injury, added another RBI single.

Soto missed 18 days in April with a right calf sprain. Lindor suffered a strained right quad on April 22 — the day Soto returned — and was sidelined until June 24.

Opening Day second baseman Marcus Semien (hip) and center fielder Luis Robert Jr. (back) remain on the injured list for the Mets, who are in last place in the National League East at 39-54 and are 12 games out of the final NL wild-card spot.

“This whole season, we’ve known what we can do as an offense,” Baty said. “It’s a complete lineup when we’re firing on all cylinders.”

The Royals, last in the American League Central at 38-55, cooled off Wednesday after a prolific two-game stretch. Kansas City scored 31 runs on 41 hits over the previous two days — a 15-1 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies followed by a 16-12 win over the Mets on Tuesday in which the visitors overcame a five-run deficit.

But the Royals were limited to eight hits — one apiece by eight different players — and finished 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position Wednesday against a quartet of Mets pitchers.

The struggles at the plate and on the mound Wednesday were too familiar for the Royals, who rank ninth in the AL with 402 runs while surrendering 473, the third-most in the league. Kansas City’s negative-71 run differential is fourth-worst in the majors, ahead of only the San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies and the Athletics.

“As we’d seen (Tuesday) night and tonight, anything can happen,” said Royals catcher Carter Jansen, who hit a two-out RBI double in the ninth on Wednesday.

Manaea and Wacha took the loss in their most recent starts last Saturday night.

Manaea gave up six runs over five innings as the Mets fell to the Atlanta Braves 14-3. Wacha, pitching the same night he was named to the American League All-Star team, allowed four runs over six innings in the Royals’ 6-1 defeat to the Phillies.

Manaea is 2-3 with a 5.50 ERA in seven career games (six starts) against the Royals, who selected him in the first round of the 2013 draft before dealing him to the Athletics in 2015.

Wacha is 5-4 with a 3.59 ERA in 10 starts against the Mets, for whom he went 1-4 with 6.62 ERA in eight games (seven starts) during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

–Field Level Media