Eric Hosmer hilariously ribs Mets before they kill a KC Royals streak

Eric Hosmer hasn't played for the KC Royals since 2017. He left for San Diego after that season, and began a slow road of decline that led from the Padres to unsuccessful stints with the Red Sox and Cubs, and ended with his retirement earlier this year.

But to countless Kansas City fans, Hosmer will always be a Royal, an understandable sentiment considering everything he did for, and meant to, the club.

And no memory of him is more vivid than what he did on a chilly late 2015 New York night. It was Hosmer who took full advantage of some good scouting to rush from third to home on a grounder to Mets third sacker David Wright; Hosmer's thrilling ninth-inning run tied the game and forced it into extra innings, where the Royals won it, and the World Series, in the 12th.

And on Friday, almost nine full years since that magic moment and just hours before today's Royals took on today's Mets back at Citi Field, the site of Kansas City's Game 5 glory, Hosmer took this good-natured jab at the 2015 National League champs (some may have to log in to X to view):

Unfortunately, Hosmer's poke was probably a bigger hit with Kansas City fans than the Royals' evening effort. Although Hosmer's X post probably had nothing to do with inspiring them, the Mets won this one 6-1; in the process, they ended the Royals' winning streak at seven by pushing starter Michael Wacha around for three innings and stifling the red-hot bats their guests brought to New York. Hosmer's X post probab

An early Kansas City lead didn't hold up for long

For a short time, it looked like the Royals would begin this six-game road trip to New York and Chicago with a win. Salvador Perez led off the second inning with his third home run of the season to give the club an early 1-0 lead. But it was the only run the Royals could muster against New York starter Luis Severino and a cast of four relievers that included former Royals Jake Diekman and Jorge López.

To make matters worse, Perez's homer constituted exactly one-third of Kansas City's hits — only Vinnie Pasquantino and Nelson Velázquez singled after that, Pasquantino off Diekman in the sixth, and Velázquez off López in the ninth. The Royals drew four walks, but left six on base and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

At the end of the night, though, the glaring lack of offense just didn't matter. The Mets tied the game in the third, then scored twice in both the fourth and fifth, and once in the eighth, to put the contest away. All but one of their runs came at Wacha's expense.

It was Wacha's, and the KC's rotation, worst start of the season. He'd given up only three runs over 12 innings in his other two starts, and no KC starter had yielded more than three runs before Friday.

The Royals and Mets meet again Saturday at 12:40 p.m. CDT.

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