The 31-year-old lifted a pitch over the wall in center off of one of the best closers in baseball, Jeurys Familia. Young proceeded to throw five no-hit innings, honoring his father with the performance, before leaving to be with his family. It came courtesy of a radio station sports director in Volquez’s native Dominican Republic.
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When the Fox broadcasters returned, play-by-play announcer Joe Buck said, “Truck went out”, meaning the power to the network’s truck housing the production team and equipment was lost. Fireworks went off at Kauffman Stadium while Gordon rounded the bases to a roar from the sellout crowd here of 40,320. He appeared subdued in the early innings, at least in the context of the October backdrop.
One minute, he was making a crushing eighth-inning error that allowed what looked like the winning run to score. They matched zeros for two innings before the climactic 14th.
And that was all for Volquez.
Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom or another emerging ace striding in from the bullpen following pregame warmups, with pitching coach Dan Warthen right alongside – and the rest of that fearless rotation trailing just behind.
In the relatively mundane sense, as well. A Sports Illustrated reporter tweeted that Royals manager Ned Yost informed the team about Volquez’s father’s death after the game, but that Volquez had already left the ballpark and even his teammates didn’t know whether he had known during the game or not.
Volquez’s father is the third parent of a Royals player to die in the past three months. Murphy had two hits in seven at-bats, lowering his postseason batting average from.
The Mets never trailed during their sweep of the Chicago Cubs in the National League championship series. This time they’ll be playing the New York Mets. Escobar sent the pitch soaring through the rain to left-center field.
First, Escobar swings at everything.
Both deGrom and Syndergaard had almost identical fastball usage rates this season – 60%, give or take – so it’ll be interesting to see if they follow Harvey’s lead against a Royals lineup that makes no qualms about its swing-at-every-strike approach. Either way, both outfielders acknowledged that somebody needed to complete the play.
Strictly going off the first act, we can deduce two things: It may take another three decades for this series to crown a victor, and getting there is going to be a hell of a ride. Curtis Granderson then added a solo shot in the top of the fifth and Michael Conforto plated the Mets’ third run with a sacrifice fly to left field in the top of the sixth.
Conforto hit the ball shallow, but Cespedes’ speed helped him beat Alex Gordon’s throw for a two-run advantage.
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Escobar raced home and scored standing up for the first inside-the-park home run in the World Series since the Philadelphia Athletics’ Mule Haas did it in 1929.
