Bill Kostroun/Associated Press
Eric Young Jr.'s two-run homer off Luis Mendoza ended the game after David Wright left an inning earlier with a hamstring injury.
From start to finish, it was an unsettling Friday for the Mets.
It began in the morning, when their bullpen took a dual injury blow. It continued into their game against the Kansas City Royals, one of baseball's hottest teams, when the Mets' reordered lineup went silent and the bullpen faltered, making things difficult even after a fine start from Dillon Gee.
Things reached a nadir, finally, in the 10th inning, when third baseman David Wright, the team's captain and best player, limped ominously into the Mets' dugout, feeling at his right hamstring.
At that point, the game's result ceased to matter — for the record, the Mets won, 4-2, when Eric Young Jr. hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 11th inning at Citi Field.
"It's bittersweet at the moment," Manager Terry Collins said after the game.
The injury to Wright looked fairly serious. It could represent a gigantic problem for the Mets, who have had trouble scoring runs anyway. Before the game, Collins shuffled his lineup to address the problem, moving Daniel Murphy to fifth, Ike Davis to seventh and Juan Lagares to second.
Wright, who will have a magnetic resonance imaging test Saturday morning, was not available to speak to reporters after the game. A club spokesman referred to the injury as a right hamstring strain.
"It's mostly likely not all that good," Collins said.
Wright started the game hitting .302 with 15 home runs and 52 runs batted in and promptly demonstrated his worth. In the first inning, he drilled a two-run homer to left field to give the Mets an early lead against the Royals, who came to Citi Field with a nine-game winning streak. It was Wright's 220th homer, which tied him with Mike Piazza for second on the club's all-time list, behind Darryl Strawberry with 252.
Hours later, when the score was 2-2, Wright led off the 10th inning and drilled a grounder into the shortstop hole. He sprinted down the line, swerving to avoid an errant throw, but as the ball rattled around, Wright hobbled to a stop, holding the back of his right leg, before coming to a rest with his hands on his knees.
Wright, who has had a right hamstring problem for a week or so — a problem he has been reluctant to talk about — promptly left the game, walking gingerly into the Mets' clubhouse. All this week, Wright said he felt healthy enough to play, and Collins said he trusted Wright.
"He just wanted to get extended to try to help us win a baseball game," Collins said late Friday. "That's what it was all about."
An inning after Wright's injury, Young ripped a two-run homer to right field off Luis Mendoza to end the game. But the jubilation at home seemed more subdued than the average game-winning celebration.
Earlier, Gee brought some steadiness to the up-and-down day, giving up one run in seven-plus innings, allowing just three hits and two walks and striking out four batters. The Mets carried a 2-1 lead into the ninth, but their bullpen could not finish the job. It was a meltdown that could have been predicted hours earlier, when two key relief pitchers were sidelined.
Josh Edgin, a 26-year-old left-hander, was placed on the 15-day disabled list after a magnetic resonance imaging test revealed a hairline fracture in the eighth rib on his left side. Edgin was told he could miss four to six weeks, but he will be re-evaluated next week.
Edgin began to feel pain around his rib cage last month, but he pitched through it. When the pain intensified this week, he thought it might be an intercostal muscle strain. But an M.R.I. showed otherwise.
The Mets were also without closer Bobby Parnell, who has 22 saves. Parnell visited team doctors Friday because of lingering stiffness around his neck. He was given medication and will be re-examined Monday.
Parnell's absence became glaring when David Aardsma, handed the closer's job for the night, botched the save chance. He loaded the bases before Lorenzo Cain lined a sacrifice fly to center field that tied the score.
Pedro Feliciano, called up Friday to replace Edgin, entered the game. It was Feliciano's first major league appearance since Oct. 2, 2010, during his first stint with the Mets. After showing an 85-mile-per-hour fastball, he coaxed Alex Gordon into hitting a groundout on a 73-m.p.h. changeup.
Feliciano arrived from Nashville, where the Mets' Class AAA team was playing, in the middle of the game, and he got a joyful welcome from his teammates inside the bullpen.
"It's been almost three years that I've been out of here," Feliciano said, smiling. "So they see me back there, and they all get happy, and I get happy, too. I started hugging everybody, like a big family."
For the Mets, it was a bright moment on a mostly disconcerting day.
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