Volquez tossed six shutout innings as he allowed just 2 hits, struck out 5 and walked 3. With the Royals leading 4-0, NY rallied for three runs off Joakim Soria in the eighth, and runners on the corners with one out against Wade Davis in the ninth.
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Salvador Perez followed with a single to end Harvey’s night as Mets’ skipper Terry Collins turned to Bartolo Colon to try and get out of the jam. Colon was greeted rudely by Omar Infante, who singled back up the box to bring home another run and extend the Kansas City lead to 4-0. A two-run single by Lucas Duda and fielders choice grounder by Neil Walker cut the lead to 4-3, forcing Kansas City to use Luke Hochevar, who got the Royals to the ninth, with a lead, courtesy of a strikeout against Asdrubal Cabrera.
Harvey (0-1) allowed four runs – three earned – and eight hits in 5 2-3 innings. They spent almost an hour before the first pitch reliving last year’s World Series defeat through a steady stream of highlights on the crown-shaped big screen, then had to watch the raising of the championship banner over the Royals Hall of Fame. Syndergaard buzzed Royals leadoff hitter Alcides Escobar with the first pitch of that start last October, prompting some sharp comments from Kansas City players at the time and some whispers of retaliation leading into the teams’ season-opening two-game series.
Smiles were a plenty as a sellout crowd of 40,030 enjoyed a World Series banner being raised, hardware handed out and a Royals 4-3 victory of the New York Mets on Opening Day. New York’s Matt Harvey has been dominant for stages in his young career, including a fourth place Cy Young finish in his second season. The last time these teams met the KC Royals celebrated a World Series win, so NY will be looking to exact a little revenge.
It was the first time in Major League Baseball history that teams that played in the previous year’s World Series met in a season-openers.
We’re only one night into the 2016 regular season and we’ve already got one uniform gaffe. Yost will turn to the former Met Chris young on Tuesday as Ian Kennedy’s start got mvoed back due to injury.
“We knew that they put the ball in play, they find holes, they put together terrific at-bats”, Mets third baseman David Wright said.
“The ball just fell out of my glove”, Cespedes said Monday “…The ball just fell.
After the Mets went down in order in the first, Matt Harvey took the mound. We are getting the Mets at -115 here and while it’s not terrific value being the away team and against the World Champions I still think the Mets are the solid play here. The Royals, in a pre-game ceremony on Tuesday, will receive their 2015 World Championship rings.
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The Mets still gave themselves a chance at the end. If the Mets needed any motivation they are receiving it here from the Royals. The Mets scored all three of their runs in the 8th inning.
