The 2015 World Series had all the elements of a fantastic world series....
We saw blown saves, late inning home runs, come from behind victories, crucial errors that lead to game changing runs. We even had a little bad blood between the two benches as a result of a high and tight fastball to lead off Game 3.
I must say that after watching not just the World Series, but all of the Mets' postseason games, I am emotionally and mentally drained. The Dodgers series went the full five games and each game was tight. There was the drama with the whole Chase Utley slide...was it dirty? Was it just a bang bang play? Who knows? Bottom line, the Mets faced the Dodgers' aces four times and still won the series.
For as quick and easy as it may have seemed (the Mets swept the Cubs in the NLCS), I never got the feel that they fully dominated. None of the games were a blowout. They definitely out pitched the Cubs but outside of Daniel Murphy, who played out of his mind in the NLDS and NLCS, and Curtis Granderson, I never really saw any of the other Met bats get hot. The cold bats became a trend in the World Series.
A major statement was made on the very first play in Game 1 of the World Series. It was a foreshadowing of what was to come in the rest of the series. Matt Harvey gave up a long long fly ball to left-center to Alcides Escobar. It was a tough play but definitely should have been caught by center fielder Yoenis Cespedes. Instead it dropped between Cespedes and Michael Conforto and Escobar rounded the bases for an inside the park home run, the first of this kind in World Series history. This, along with many plays in the series showed the Mets deficiencies in the field.
The Royals are a young, athletic team. They get a lot of base hits. They run the bases well and play great defense, though in this series they did make some errors. But anytime the Mets made an error or a mistake, the Royals took advantage of it. It was unbelievable to watch. No matter the score, the Royals were never out of the game. Not as if the Mets had any huge lead, but they did have the lead in all four of their losses, and three leads in the 9th inning.
The Mets just could not conjure up any consistent offense. Murphy went cold. Cespedes cooled off considerable since the end of September and seemed to look worse each at bat, swinging at countless balls in the dirt. David Wright, while he had strong at bats hitting in the two hole, batted less than .200 throughout the postseason. Wright did however have a huge first inning home run in Game 3 that seemed to set the tone for the team's only win of the series. With the way the Mets swung the bats, they were lucky to have the leads they had. The only consistent bat was Curtis Granderson, who also played a great right field in the series. Even shut down closer Jeurys Familia had three blown saves in the series. The stat line doesn't look good for Familia but his Game 1 blown save, which he gave up the tying home run to Alex Gordon in the ninth, was the only game that was exclusively his fault. The other two probably had more to do with defensive miscues, in particular by Daniel Murphy and Lucas Duda.
But their were some positives in the series. Noah Syndergaard showed us the type of player he is in Game 1. His first pitch of the game was high and tight, and knocked Alcides Excobar to the gournd. The Royals dugout definitely did not like it but it showed them that he wasn't afraid to throw inside and it took away their agressiveness.
The other positive was Matt Harvey. Yes. Matt Harvey. Who else?? The guy who always seems to have some sort of drama or controversy surrounding him.
Matt Harvey was dominant on Sunday night. In an elimination game, with zero room for error and only 2 runs of support on the board, Harvey delivered the game all Met fans have been waiting for. He was the ace. He was the bulldog. He was Orel Hershiser in 1988. He was Curt Schilling vs the Yankees with the bloody sock.....at least through 8 innings. With the manager ready to go to his closer, Harvey demanded the ball for the ninth inning and Terry Collins obliged.
I had no problem at all with that move. If Harvey gets 3 outs there, it goes down as one of the best World Series pitching performances of all time. We all know what happened next. Harvey gave up some baserunners, Terry Collins was a batter too late going to his closer, a bad Lucas Duda throwing error, and all of a sudden the game is going to extras.
At that point, the Mets were done. The Royals were so good at playing from behind this series that once the game was tied, I had no confidence the Mets would win the game.
Much credit is due to the Kansas City Royals. They play the game the right way. They are clutch. And they were very much the superior team in this series.
We'll see what the future holds for this Met team. They gave the fans and the people of this city a great ride. The future is bright with our young starting pitchers. There are a lot of decisions to be made in free agency but I do like the young core of this Mets team. It's not easy to return to the postseason or the World Series. We'll see if the Mets can build on their success from 2015 and move forward in 2016.
BNolan
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