Johnny Cueto of the Kansas City Royals warms up prior to Game One of the 2015 World Series against the New York Mets at Kauffman Stadium on October 27, 2015 in Kansas City, Missouri.
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After two games with the designated hitter in the American League ballpark, pitchers will have to hit for Games 3-5 at the Mets’ Citi Field.
The next time they see Eric Hosmer and his teammates may be in a parade.
If you thought Yordano Ventura was motoring down the line on a bunt during Game 3 of the World Series on Friday night in New York, your eyes didn’t deceived you.
The Royals said the team found about Volquez’s father’s death before the game. “If that*s the plan, I think that*s a stupid plan”, Escobar said. The Royals attacked early in counts and made both pitchers pay for mistakes in the strike zone-starting with Harvey’s first pitch of Game 1, an inexplicable in-the-zone fastball to Alcides Escobar that ended in an inside-the-park home run.
Ever since pitcher Tug McGraw stood up and shouted the rallying cry in 1973, “Ya Gotta Believe” has come to define the swirling mixture of anxiousness and never-say-die hopefulness that makes up the DNA of Mets fans. A few fans wore wigs resembling Cueto’s long, dark dreadlocks – including the Royals’ mascot, Slugerrr.
Forty-one of the 51 teams to take 2-0 leads in best-of-seven World Series have gone on to win the title, including nine straight since Atlanta stumbled against the New York Yankees in 1996.
“It all goes back to confidence”, Collins said.
So, I’m telling you there’s a chance.
Kansas City had the best contact hitters in the major leagues this season, missing on just 19.7 percent of its swings, according to STATS. The Dodgers and Cubs swung and missed 58 times in deGrom’s first three postseason outings; even though he threw at up to 98 miles per hour, deGrom got just three swings and misses against the Royals – his career low. He kept the ball down. While the pesky Royals swung and missed only eight of Harvey’s 80 pitches and three of deGrom’s 95, they swung past 16 of Syndergaard’s 104. Syndergaard, despite saying his intent was never to hit the batter, incited further drama by telling the Royals were they can find him: “If they have a problem with me throwing inside, then they can meet 60-feet, 6-inches away”.
It has been a roller coaster playoff run for Cueto, who pitched the Royals past Houston in a last-game showdown in the divisional playoff round.
The Royals had one real weakness, second base, and they turned it into a strength by acquiring Ben Zobrist.
The Mets take a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth on an Lucas Duda RBI single.
After Yoenis Cespedes flied to center for the final out, Cueto pointed to the sky and was congratulated by catcher Salvador Perez. The same heralded starting pitching that put the Mets in their first World Series in 15 years has been a disappointment over the first two games.
“Yeah, we’re not hitting”, manager Terry Collins said Wednesday night after a 7-1 loss to Kansas City dropped them into an 0-2 deficit.
DeGrom, 3-0 in the post-season coming in, allowed four runs, six hits and three walks over five innings in a hairy matchup of pitchers with contrasting long locks. Meanwhile, Harvey and deGrom have combined for 11 innings, seven runs, 11 hits and, surprisingly, only four strikeouts.
But with the tying run on second, Syndergaard got Alex Rios to ground out to short to end the threat.
That was all the offense needed by Cueto, although Kansas City scored three more runs in the bottom of the eighth on a double by Alex Gordon, a sacrifice fly off the bat of Paulo Orlando and a triple by Escobar.
So who likes the Mets?
“His name was mentioned to open up the World Series”.
“We love the roll the Royals are on, and we know that interest in this Series is sky-high in this area”, Jayhawks coach Bill Self said Friday.
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“We can’t think about the hole that we’re in”.
