New York Mets

Down 0-2 to the Kansas City Royals in the World Series, the New York Mets will need to play desperate as they come home for Game 3.

By Kevin Wiltse

The Royals have dominated the New York Mets during the first two games of the World Series. They’ve had no problem coming up with good at-bats off the high velocity pitches thrown by the Mets top two horses (Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey).

Still though, coming Game 3 will be a entirely new level of velocity. Starting for the Mets on Friday night will be rookie sensation Noah Syndergaard, who averaged the second highest velocity of any starter in MLB this season (97.3 mph). Not only has he thrown extremely hard but this postseason, but he has been great with a 2.77 ERA in 13 innings.

Adding onto the Mets showcasing a flamethrower, the Kansas City Royals are going to hand Yordano Ventura the ball in Game 3. He registers an average velocity of 96.8 on his fastball, which is 3rd in the league among starters right behind Syndergaard. Ventura has not been quite as good as Syndergaard this postseason, registering a 5.09 ERA in four starts. That being said, with his velocity, he is always a threat to have a dominant game.

With the series moving back to New York, the Mets need to do a better job utilizing the home run ball. Although Citi Field is known for being a large stadium, it is nothing compared to Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Here is an overlay of the two stadiums, (the red line is the fence at Citi Field, the baseline field is Kauffman Stadium).

With the stadium being smaller ,Yoenis Cespedes needs to step up and utilize his power. So far in the World Series he has just one hit. In order for the Mets to succeed they need him to do what they got him here to do, which is hit home runs and get RBIs.

With that being said, it is not all on his shoulders. Lucas Duda is someone who is an all or nothing type hitter. If the Mets are going to win this series they absolutely need Lucas Duda to step up big time at home and hit the ball out of the ballpark.

Game 3 X-Factors:

The x-factors for the Mets in this game will be whether or not Syndergaard can get the pesky Royals hitters to chase pitches out of the zone, and if Cespedes can get it going early and get RBIs for this team by hitting the ball deep. For the Royals on the other hand it is all about Ventura throwing strikes and these Royals hitters continuing to not let the Mets young guns get the best of them.

If the Mets lose this game the series can pretty much be considered over. However if they can win game 3 and build some momentum at the plate, they could get right back in this series and have a legitimate chance to tie the series up on Saturday.

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