Should the New York Mets be concerned about the many miscues and missed opportunities from their Game 1 loss in the 2015 World Series?
By Aniello Piro
Well, Game 1 of the World Series was interesting to say the least. In a game filled with dramatic plays, missed opportunities, and strategy the Kansas City Royals defeated the New York Mets in game one of the World Series.
Throughout the course of the game the Amazins’ missed numerous opportunities to firmly solidify a lead.
The Mets did not start well out of the gate. The Mets first three batters were all retired in order with ease to say the least.
The Mets struggles immediately smacked them right in the face on the first pitch that Matt Harvey threw. It was a well known fact that the Kansas City Royals lead-off man Alcides Escobar likes to swing at a first pitch fastball over the plate and has been notorious for inflicting damage on that specific pitch.
So what does Matt Harvey do? In typical Mets form Matt Harvey throws a fastball right down the middle in the lethal part of Escobar’s strike zone. Alcides hit the ball to left center field where a confused Yoenis Cespedes misplayed a ball that could have and should have been the first out of the inning. Instead the ball rolled along the fence allowing the speedy Escobar to fly around the bases with ease and score easily.
And so it begins…
The biggest miscue of the game was the Mets offense (as a whole). As a team, in Game 1 of the World Series, the Mets went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. A mark which gives Mets fans horrible nightmares of the dog days of May, June and July.
The first missed opportunity with RISP came in the bottom of the third. The Mets had runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs. David Wright came to the plate with an opportunity to get some runs on the board. Wright was thrown nothing but junk and ended up fanning leaving two critical runners on base to end the third.
The missed opportunities did not stop there by any means. As a matter of fact they continued the very next inning. Travis d’Arnaud came to the plate with runners on the corners and one out. Travis got his job done scoring the Mets first run of the game via infield single however, the Mets failed to further capitalize stranding more runners on the base paths.
Another huge aspect of the Mets offensive struggles in game one was the teams inability to get base hits in hitter friendly counts.
In the 6th Travis d’Arnaud had a hitter friendly count of 3-1 with runners on the corners and no one out. After letting good pitches go by d’Arnaud went fishing and chased a junk ball out of the strike zone sending him back to the dugout with a lot to think about. The Mets did snag a run that inning however, they were presented with an opportunity to get more than one run.
In the top half of the 7th the Cuban Slugger Yoenis Cespedes came to the plate with two men on and two out. After getting ahead in the count Cespedes chased the high and inside fastball pitchers love to throw to him when they are behind in the count. The next pitch Cespedes hit a weak fly ball ending the Mets half of the 7th once again leaving runners on base.
However, despite all the missed opportunities the Mets had a 4-3 lead heading into the 9th. Jeurys Familia was called upon to finish off the game. He recorded one out ,but then tried to get a quick pitch by Alex Gordon. Well, it backfired big time! Gordon took Familia deep making the game even at four runs a piece in the 9th. The run surrendered by Familia was his first of the postseason and first blown save since July 30th. Cripes.
On to extra innings!
The Mets offensive struggles continued in extra innings.
Michael Cuddyer had numerous opportunities to advance or drive in runs in extras ,but failed to do so every chance he had. Cuddyer was a guy brought on by the Mets to serve as a viable option off the bench for offensive purposes. However, he has been absolutely horrid in virtually every appearance with the team. From dropping an easy out against the Dodgers to chasing pitches three feet out of the strike zone it is clear the Michael Cuddyer should not be seen for the rest of the year unless necessary.
Although Cuddyer did not come up big many other Mets had opportunities to give the team the lead and failed to do so.
In the 12th the Mets lead off the inning with Murphy, Cespedes, and Duda three of their best bats. All three batters were retired with ease and put up no fight what so ever.
The Royals were so desperate for innings that they called upon game four starter Chris Young to make a relief appearance. Young retired all six Mets batters he faced. Of those six batters Young struck out five making him look not like Chris Young, but CY Young.
The bottom half of the 14th was the end of the saga. The first ball hit into play was hit right at David Wright who failed to field the ball cleanly allowing KC to get the lead off man on with no outs. The Mets began to fall apart when Ben Zobrist hit a single in the gap advancing the runner from first to third. Playing numbers the Mets opted to walk Lorenzo Cain to get to Eric Hosmer with the bases loaded. Hosmer hit a pop fly to left field scoring Alcides Escobar ending game one of the World Series via sacrifice fly.
After five plus hours of baseball the Mets earned a much need reality check.
After the catastrophe that occurred last night the Mets offense is in need of a reboot. The offensive performance from the Mets last night is a definite cause for concern and needs to be addressed and fixed swiftly.
Game 2 will be played tomorrow.
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