World Series!
I wasn't so sure that if Wright makes that play smoothly he gets the runner. Was that clearly the case? I also thought that the error given to the Royals 1B could have been ruled a hit, but the scotch may have had an effect by then.
I was so hoping Colon was going to get a win. Better than that, Famiglia a save.
I've turned on the tv, ready for a win!! But I'd like to discuss Fox broadcast. Is it just me, or are they using the football music as they go to and come back from commercials? I hate that!
KC is locked in at the plate. The only way to beat them is to out hit them but the Mets got nothing at the plate. Pathetic.
I actually switched to the debate while KC was batting. Least surprising summary: Donald Trump has nothing to say. It is laughable. Sorry for the thread drift.
Ok. Gonna be a long couple of days.
DeGrom had to come back to earth eventually I suppose. Hopefully he gets another shot in game 6.
Assuming the Mets even get back out of NY to begin with, there's no way they have a good shot if down 3-2. Which means they need a sweep. And to get there they have to beat a team that just refuses to miss. What was it, 24 straight two-strike pitches without a miss tonight at one point?? Oh, and can hit. And have. A lot. And they field. Well. Last night was an absolute dagger.
mrincredible said:
Well, it ain't over. I predict a 6-4 win for the Mets.
I may have been wrong.
Have I mentioned before the Mets need to start hitting?
Mets starters only had four strikeouts in the first two games so the season long Kansas City approach of aggressive at bats seems to be working...more contact means more opportunities especially if the defense hasn't been stellar. Anyone see any stats about how often Harvey and de Grom were ahead of batters in the count? Sounds like they aren't getting a chance to. Ive only watched a couple of innings over the two games but the Royals scouting seems to have done a great job...they are defensively positioned really well...one at bat Wright hit a ball that had base hit written all over it but the second baseman was shaded up the middle. Playoff baseball seems to rely on complete scouting almost as much as it does performance on the field.
hankzona said:
Mets starters only had four strikeouts in the first two games so the season long Kansas City approach of aggressive at bats seems to be working...more contact means more opportunities especially if the defense hasn't been stellar. Anyone see any stats about how often Harvey and de Grom were ahead of batters in the count? Sounds like they aren't getting a chance to. Ive only watched a couple of innings over the two games but the Royals scouting seems to have done a great job...they are defensively positioned really well...one at bat Wright hit a ball that had base hit written all over it but the second baseman was shaded up the middle. Playoff baseball seems to rely on complete scouting almost as much as it does performance on the field.
Well said. With two strikes the Mets have to try to get the Royals to chase a bad pitch. Except the Royals hit bad pitches really, really well. Which is a problem for the Mets (and for everyone else they face).
As noted above, the Mets are not going to be able to pitch themselves out of this one. They need to hit. But last night Cueto shut them down. Whenever it looked like he was getting tired and missing the zone, he dialed it up a notch.
Things looking dismal for the Mets in this series for all the above reasons. Hope they win a game or two when they resume play at home. Something's gotta give. Anyone think they will snap out of it? I would hate getting swept.
I'm certainly far more pessimistic now than I was three days ago, but you still have to give the nod to the Mets for the next two games...at home, with favorable pitching match-ups. But KC may just be that "team of destiny" this year. They're looking so good offensively. And the Mets aren't doing much with their bats.
Clearly, Friday night is the proverbial "must win."
KC does look very good and are out-playing the Mets. If this continues and KC wins I would resign my self to that. No more two hit games, please. eeks.
But if Famiglia closes Game 1, we're singing a completely different song.
mlj said:
KC does look very good and are out-playing the Mets. If this continues and KC wins I would resign my self to that. No more two hit games, please. eeks.
I won't ride Familigia. He was one of the horses that got the Mets through the NL playoffs and into the Series. If the Mets had put another run or two on the board in Game 1 we'd be doing the happy dance right now.
There was no way Murphy could keep up the power streak he was on, especially in that large KC stadium. It's time for some other batters to pick up the slack. And I count about three hits that Flores should have had in the Series so far where someone made a spectacular play to take it away.
I do like our pitching overall but it seems like the Royals are built to hit them. It's amazing. When the Mets go out and try to aggressively take their hacks they end up swinging at pitches in another zip code. When the Royals do it they're hitting the ball on the nose.
success in pro sports often gets copied, for better or worse. For quite awhile, the successful baseball teams were the ones who worked the count but this Royals team goes right to it in their at bats. Will it become a trend? The series is far from over...great pitching has historically beat great hitting but maybe the way to beat great pitching is aggressive hitting. Of course, you need batters good enough to not just go hacking without a purpose and without ability. Or is it not a potential trend and did the first two game success come down to analytics and scouting? I don't discount the importance of those in a multigame series with a season's worth of statistics to interpret. By the way, one of the Met's top numbers guys is a recent Columbia HS grad I learned this week...I'll attribute much of their success to him. 
The hitting disparity was worse than it looked. I don't think we hit a ball out of the infield until Duda's bloop to left and that was kind of cheap. Meanwhile, they launched a lot of solid flyballs that were caught.
Is Cespedes hurt? Is Wright hurting and in decline? I noticed that throughout the playoffs, Conforto is swinging under every pitch, hence the pop ups.
This series so far is (unfortunately for the Mets) playing out the way most pundits saw it: Royals hitting anything near the plate and putting it in play; Royals running the bases very well; Royals fielding very well; and the Royals' relievers shutting the Mets down. Meanwhile, the Mets have had decent pitching, as expected, but also have made some costly errors in the field, and their sometimes streaky bats have gone pretty quiet.
The Metsies have to figure out a way to break these patterns on both ends. It has to start with hitting the ball hard every at bat, which is certainly easier said than done.
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Respectfully, I think David's ok. No getting around the error in the 14th, or getting K'd by Madson. But he had a couple of hits, came within a centimeter of a potentially big stolen base late, made the routine plays plus this gem (https://www.clippituser.tv/c/wdxdd). I think overall he had a productive, involved game, not worthy of rest necessarily. That's just me.
Alternatively, and this is probably a less popular approach if winning is the ultimate goal...I for one think David has earned the right to see this through, win or lose. I want him at third, I want him near the top of the batting order, and I'll accept the consequences of both. #liveanddiewiththecaptain