KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Relax, it's a long season.
The New York Mets stood on the third-base line during pregame ceremonies, forced to watch as the Kansas City Royals played World Series highlights on the Kauffman Stadium scoreboard and raised a championship banner. Edinson Volquez then outpitched Matt Harvey as the Mets lost to the Royals 4-3 on Sunday night in the first-ever Opening Day rematch of the previous year's Fall Classic combatants.
Volquez limited the Mets to two hits and three walks in six scoreless innings. Trailing 4-0, the Mets loaded the bases with one out in the eighth against Joakim Soria. Lucas Duda then dunked a two-run single into left field and Neil Walker had a run-scoring fielder's choice in his Mets debut. However, fellow debutant Asdrubal Cabrera struck out against Luke Hochevar to strand the tying run at second base.
The Mets left the tying run on third base in ninth when David Wright and Yoenis Cespedes struck out.
The Mets dropped to 35-20 in franchise history in openers -- still an MLB-best .636 winning percentage.
This wasn't quite a continuation of Harvey's profound spring-training struggles. Still, it was not dominant Harvey, either.
The Dark Knight ultimately was charged with four runs (three earned), giving up eight hits, two walks and striking out two in 5⅔ innings in his first career Opening Day start. The final run charged to Harvey came after Bartolo Colon inherited a pair of baserunners and surrendered an RBI single to Omar Infante. Colon is working in relief this series because the Mets play only twice during the first five days of the season.
Harvey coaxed three double-play grounders during an 83-pitch effort or the damage might have been worse.
He had given up 15 runs in 8⅓ innings over his final three spring-training starts. He also is still taking medication for a bladder issue that affected him early last week.
Undoubtedly, a bigger concern than Harvey this season will be the team's defense. There was a glaring disparity between the quality of the Mets' and Royals' fielding Sunday.
After the Royals handed out Gold Gloves to three of their fielders during the pregame festivities, Kansas City victimized the Mets in consecutive innings with stellar defensive plays. Travis d'Arnaud was robbed of a run-scoring infield single when Mike Moustakas made a strong throw from deep third to end the top of the second. An inning later, first baseman Eric Hosmer ranged to his right to snare a sharp grounder from Duda. Hosmer, one of the pregame Gold Glove recipients, tossed to Volquez covering first base to again strand two baserunners.
On the other hand, Cespedes -- who won a Gold Glove for his time in left field with the Detroit Tigers last season -- dropped Moustakas' routine line drive in the first inning. Moustakas then reached second base on a passed ball by d'Arnaud and ultimately scored the game's opening run.
D'Arnaud had only one passed ball last season in 569⅓ innings -- slicing his total from a league-high 12 passed balls in 2014. Cespedes, who spent most of this spring training in center field, had played 156⅔ error-free innings in left field after joining the Mets last season, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Still, there were some positives for the Mets:
Juan Lagares' elbow, like his range, might be back to 2014 form. Lagares didn't get to flash his arm during Grapefruit League play but certainly seemed to demonstrate its health Sunday. Lagares nearly retired Infante trying to go first to third in the fifth. A Mets replay challenge failed to overturn the original safe call.
Michael Conforto reached base in all four of his plate appearances -- walking twice, then doubling and singling. Conforto closed last season without a walk in his final 82 plate appearances. That was the sixth-longest active streak in the majors, according to Inside Edge. Conforto became the first Met since Xavier Nady in 2006 to reach base at least four times (4-for-4) in a season opener.
Against the team that exploited him in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the World Series, Duda initiated a 3-6-1 double play with his first 2016 fielding chance.
Jerry Blevins tossed a perfect eighth. Batters are now 0-for-18 against him in two seasons with the Mets.
What's next: The Mets have their first of three days off this week. They reconvene Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium for the conclusion of the series against the Royals at 4:15 p.m. ET. Noah Syndergaard opposes ex-Met Chris Young, who takes the start originally intended for Ian Kennedy (hamstring issue).