Matthew Cerrone
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The experts were right. They told me two things before last night’s game, 1) to beat the Royals, you must score early, and keep scoring, because, if tight, they’ll needle you to death late in games until – eventually – their opponent can’t breathe, and 2) do not make mistakes on the mound, in the field or on the bases, because they seize almost every opportunity given to them. And that is exactly what happened last night, as the Mets lost, 5-4, in 14 innings.
The game initially felt like a prize fight between two cautious heavyweight hitters, each circling one another, getting a sense of their opponent. The Mets were the first to slip up, though, and it wouldn’t be their last of the night. In the first inning, Michael Conforto misheard Yoenis Cespedes on a fly-ball in the gap.
“I thought I heard something, it sounded like, ‘I got it,’ so I pulled up,” Conforto said of the ball, which ricocheted off Cespedes’s shoe and resulted in a leadoff, inside-the-park home run. “I really don’t want to make any excuses. I had a shot to catch that ball. We’re in the World Series and it’s got to be caught. I had a chance to make the play and didn’t make it.”
The Mets held a 3-1 lead, but the Royals tied it up. The Mets again held a lead going in to the ninth inning. However, Jeurys Familia left a two-seam fastball up in the strike zone and Alex Gordon smoked it for a home run.
“Both teams were relentless, they were just a little more relentless,” David Wright said after the game. “Every time it seemed like we got momentum, they just clawed right back.”
Then, in a tie game going in to the 14th inning, a hot ground ball from Escobar hit Wright’s body and dropped to the ground. Knowing Escobar’s speed, Wright rushed his throw and the runner was safe. The door was slightly open, at which point Ben Zobrist singled, the Mets intentionally loaded the bases, and Eric Hosmer ended the night with a routine, very casual, very intentional fly ball to right field off Bartolo Colon. The game was over, with the Mets held scoreless over the final six innings.
“One of the things we know about them is they’re never down and out,” Terry Collins said of the Royals, talking to reporters after the game. “We’ve got to put them away. We’ve got to do a better job.”
The Royals pride themselves on their late-game heroics and ability to climb their way back in to games.
“This team just has a knack for finding a way to come back and finding a way to win,” Royals infielder Ben Zobrist explained after Game 1. “There’s something special inside of these guys.”
Again, I repeat, 1) to beat the Royals, you must score early, and keep scoring, because, if tight, they’ll needle you to death late in games until eventually their opponent can’t breath, and 2) do not make mistakes on the mound, in the field or on the bases, because they seize almost every opportunity given to them.
The Mets will not win this prize fight rope-a-doping the Royals in to mistakes and missed chances. That’s KC’s game plan and they’ve done it better than anyone the last two years. Instead, if the Royals are Muhammad Ali, sticking and moving, waiting to pounce, the Mets must be Evander Holyfield, punching and punching and punching until it’s over, relentlessly scoring and never giving an opportunity to blow a lead. Otherwise, the Royals are just toying with us, and the Mets are killing time…
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from Metsblog http://ift.tt/1P50fDS
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