Tuesday night in Kansas City, it was Game 1 of the 2015
World Series. Eric Hosmer’s sac-fly in
to bottom of the 14th inning snapped a 4-all tie. The Royals take
game one of the World Series with a 5-4 win. The match-up was Matt Harvey vs.
Edinson Volquez. In the bottom of the1st Alcides Escobar led off the series for
the Royals hitting the first pitch he saw for an inside the park home run that
fell between Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto in left-center. The two obviously
making a miscommunication as Escobar jetted around the bases for a 1-0 KC lead.
It stayed that way until the top of the 4th inning. Daniel Murphy singled and then with one out
against the shift, Lucas Duda singled to right to make it 1st and 3rd.
Travis d’Arnaud followed with infield single that was saved from being a double
by a diving Mike Moustakas brining home Murphy and tying the game at 1. In the
top of the 5th, the Mets took their first WS lead when Curtis
Granderson hit a solo homer, his first homer of the post season for a 2-1 Met
lead. In the 6th almost a carbon copy of the 4th inning.
Cespedes singled, Duda again singled though the shift allowing Cespedes to
easily go to 3rd. With one out, Conforto hit a sac-fly to make it
3-1 Mets. In the 6th the
Royals got moving and tied the game. Ben
Zobrist doubled down the right field line.
Lorenzo Cain then singled to make it 1st and 3rd
with no out. Eric Hosmer then hit a fly
to center that brought home Zobrist and it was 3-2. Cain stole second and scored on a RBI single
by Moustakas. Harvey left after the 6th. Going 6 allowing 5 hits 3 runs (earned)
walking 2 and striking out 2. Volquez left after 6 as well allowing 3 runs on 6
hits in 6 innings walking 1 and striking out 3. Addison Reed pitched a
scoreless 7th. In the 8th with 2 out Juan Lagares, who
came in for defense, had a huge at bat against Kelvin Herrera which culminated
with a single to center. Lagares then stole 2nd and he scored when a
hopper by Flores down the first base line was flubbed by Hosmer and the Mets
had a 4-3 lead. Tyler Clippard navigated
2 outs in the 8th and left with runners on 1st and 2nd. Jeurys Familia came on in the 8th
two attempted the 4 out save. But with 1 out in the 9th Alex Gordon
hit a home run to dead center field to tie the game at 4. The game went to
extras. Jonathon Niese came on in the bottom of the 10th and pitched
2 effective innings striking out 3. In the bottom of the 12th
Bartolo Colon came on and pitched into the bottom of the 14th. In
that inning, Escobar reached on an error by Wright. Zobrist singled to right to
make it 1st and 3rd with no out. Cain was intentionally
walked to load the bases with no out.
Hosmer then hit the winning sac-fly to right to score Escobar as the Royals
win it in 14. Colon takes the loss, former Met Chris Young, who pitched 3
sterling innings picks up the win. Daniel Murphy went 2 for 7 on the night
extending his hitting streak to 10 games.
David Wright went 2 for 7 Lucas Duda went 2 for 6. Lagares went 2 for 3
after coming in for Conforto. Zobrist went 3 for 6 for the Royals, Moustakas
and Salvador Perez each had 2 hits for KC. The Mets trail the series 1 game to
none. Jacob deGrom (3-0 1.80) goes for the Mets, Johnny Cueto (1-1 7.88) goes
for Kansas City.
12 comments:
My apologies this morning folks.
I am supposed to be working from home today but the laptop is dead and for some odd reason the charger cannot be found.....
So much for getting any work done. My apologies all!
Awful play on the inside the park homer-error in the first, awful pitch by Familia in 9th, awful play by Wright on the late bobble.
What I am most upset with, though, is Duda vs. Chris Young in the 11th. Two out, none on, 3-0 count, a HR is desperately needed, and he takes two absolute meatball fastballs right down the middle, then strikes out. Is he brain-dead? Swing, swing, swing, swing. Come on.
Cuddyer asked after the game to bat clean up - in the next old timers game. He looks like he is 50. Get Uribe in there.
Cuddyer could have EASILY obtained the Golden sombrero in that game....a game he didn't even start.....if not for Mets taking him out.
At this point Mets need to DH lagares or Conforto.
Let me add one point. Terry Collins is manager of the year, deservedly so, but he did not live up to it for the game ending play.
A lefty hitter vs. Colon, most likely to pull. He does, to Granderson, and it is a game winning sac fly - except Terry should have moved Cespedes to right and Grandy to left for just such an eventuality. Cespedes guns the guy down if he is out there. Game goes on.
They lost. It sucks. Jeurys gets 4 outs and it's over. Your second guessing is beyond pale
Thomas, that's insane to argue that he should have moved both corners to new positions at that moment.
To put that on Collins is grossly unfair.
In other news, he rolled out the same lineup he's been using vs. RHP since the end of July, can't fault him for that, but tonight I think Lagares needs to play CF and Conforto should DH.
Also: Cuddyer cannot play again. I thought we'd see an aging veteran give the Mets professional ABs. It looked like he'd never seen a curveball before. Kirkkkkk should not bat either in the AL park. Keep Conforto in for the entire game, please.
Oh, and it's kind of a problem that David Wright can't throw overhand.
James Preller
Yeah, should have swung at this ball, not swung at that is hindsight at its most acute.
But...
Lagares in CF catches that 1st pitch fly, and Conforto at DH could not possibly be worse than the Johnson, Cuddyer, Kirk trio. That should have been foresight. Those guys PH'ing in NY for the nth RP, fine.
Given the dimensions of KC and the need for the best defensive alignment against this club, Lagares should've (and should be) the CF with Conforto DH. It's not Monday Morning QB'ing, it's how I felt before the game - I never expected it to cost us such an important run on the first freaking pitch. Did Cespedes even know the inning had started?
I think Lagares starts in CF tonight.
Since the end of July, Lagares has sit against RHP because he put up a .599 OPS against them. Not bad. Terrible. Pathetic. It was part of the team's offensive turnaround -- putting that black hole on the bench where he belonged (given the way he was playing).
Meanwhile, Cespedes has shown himself to be a very capable CFer, and Conforto has been good in LF.
Cespedes failed all night long. But despite everything, if Familia does his routine job, Mets win 4-3 and we're telling a different story.
Hey James, switchingcGrandy and Cespy for the bags full, none out, lefty up certainly is not conventional baseball. But the NBA does it all the time...your team shoot in close game, time out, defensive specialist goes in. In hockey, down a goal, they pull goalie. Extreme measures for extreme situations. Etc.
Grandy was fine on that play, did his best, so I am not faulting him, but he throws maybe 80 MPH. Cespy throws maybe 98, with a quicker release. Cespy ball gets to plate when Grandy's still has 40 feet to go. Unorthodox move, sure. Maybe it shouldn't be.
Im not worried about outfield alignment. Lagares and Grandy both cant throw. Cuddyer. .....well I don't know what he can do anymore. And Kirk is in my opinion a liability offensively so the team has to go with the starters they have and play where they used to playing.
I hear ya tom on moving Yo but don't forget that obviously im sure Colon was purpose pitching for either a strikeout or to induce a groundball. Unfortunately a good hitter on a good hitting team hit the ball.
Its like saying a team should definitely over shift in infield. ....right up until guy hits it where they ain't. .....shit happens. Bring on deGrom.
DeGrom has the hair to weather hairy moments. We need Jake the Beast tonight.
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