A 28th-Round Pick Finally Made His MLB Debut. Then He Gave Up Seven Runs.

Matt Seelinger grew up 20 minutes from Citi Field. He got drafted in the 28th round. He toiled in the minors for nearly a decade. So when he finally jogged out of the bullpen on Tuesday night for his first major league appearance, it should have been a moment Mets fans could hold onto during a lost season.

It was not that kind of night.

The 31-year-old righty from Long Island entered a tied game in the seventh inning and promptly melted down. Seven runs crossed the plate. Four walks. His first MLB inning looked less like a fairy tale and more like a nightmare straight out of the Mets bullpen playbook this year.

The Feel-Good Story That Fell Apart

Seelinger was the kind of underdog New York loves — a late-round pick who kept grinding, got traded to the Mets, and finally got his shot in the ballpark he grew up visiting. The crowd wanted to cheer for him. The dugout wanted a hero. But the Royals had other plans.

Kansas City tagged him for hit after hit, working counts and punishing mistakes. By the time the inning ended, a tie game had turned into a blowout. Seelinger did come back out for a clean eighth inning, but the damage was already done. The Mets lost 16-12.

To be fair, Seelinger didn’t lose this game by himself. The Mets bullpen was a mess long before he got the ball.

The Whole Pen Imploded

Austin Warren came in during the fifth and gave up four runs without recording a single out. Huascar Brazoban walked three guys in two innings of labor. The entire relief corps looked gassed, and Kansas City took full advantage.

The Mets actually led 9-4 after a Juan Soto three-run homer in the fourth. That should have been enough. It wasn’t. Not with this bullpen.

Tyler Tolbert went 5-for-6 at the plate for the Royals. Lane Thomas knocked in four runs. Kansas City scored 16 total, which is impressive for a team that came into the game with the same record as the Mets — 38-54.

Both teams are sitting at .278, by the way. The symmetry is just depressing if you’re a Mets fan.

One Night, One Inning, One Mess

Seelinger will probably get another chance. The Mets don’t have a lot of fresh arms, and the season is already toast. But first impressions matter, and this one was brutal.

He knows how this works. He’s been a pro for a decade. One bad outing doesn’t define a career, even if it stings a little more when it happens in front of your hometown crowd.

The Mets packed it in and headed for the clubhouse. The Royals headed out for a 1-0 series lead. And somewhere in the stands, a bunch of Long Islanders who grew up with Seelinger probably just sat there in silence, watching the whole thing unfold.