The Kansas City Royals won the World Series championship that just escaped their grasp last season, beating the Mets 7-2 in a 12-inning epic Sunday night to seize the franchise’s first title since 1985.
It was a classic Royals victory, typical of the way this team has won during the past two seasons, clawing back, never quitting, and ultimately overwhelming the competition. Should Kansas City have win this World Series title any other way? It almost wouldn’t have seemed right. This is how the Royals do it. And it paid off with the final win of the postseason.
Facing elimination, the Mets took a first-inning lead on a leadoff home run by Curtis Granderson, his third of the series. Had the Mets stayed alive in the series and overcome that three-games-to-one deficit to win the series, there’s a strong chance Granderson would have won MVP honors. As it stands, he just had a strong series, providing one of the Mets’ few offensive threats.
But really, the Mets had a chance to win in Game 5 because of Matt Harvey. Jacob deGrom was the team’s best starting pitcher in the postseason, and Noah Syndergaard wasn’t far behind. But Harvey and most Mets fans consider him the ace of the starting rotation, and he absolutely pitched liked it on Sunday night. He held the Royals scoreless for eight innings, allowing only four hits, looking like the guy who was going to keep his team in the series all by himself.
However, with the Mets only scoring two runs for Harvey going into the ninth inning, their lead just didn’t feel safe. Not against these Royals. They’ve rallied too many times late in the game during the postseason.
The most pivotal decision in the game came after eight innings. Mets manager Terry Collins had apparently decided to take Harvey out of the game. He’d thrown 102 pitches and had gone through the Royals lineup four times. To go out there for the ninth was surely testing Harvey’s limits. But he was in total control of the game, and with the swagger of an ace, Harvey convinced his pitching coach and manager to let him stay in and decide the outcome himself.
Whether or not Collins made the right decision in following Harvey’s wishes is something that will likely be agonized over through the Mets’ entire offseason. Harvey began the ninth by walking Lorenzo Cain, who fought back after falling behind on a one-ball, two-strikes count. With left-handers Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas due up next, that probably should have been it for Harvey. But Collins kept him in there.
Cain subsequently stole second base to move into scoring position. Then Harvey hung a slider in the middle of the plate and Hosmer sliced it to left field for a double to finally put the Royals on the scoreboard. Harvey was finally pulled from the game for closer Jeurys Familia, who had to get three outs with a runner on second base to save a 2-1 lead and push the World Series to Game 6.
Familia got Moustakas out on a grounder to first base. One away. He then got Salvador Perez to hit a chopper to third base. Throw to first and that’s two away. But then the Royals did what’s been so successful for them during the past two seasons. They aggressively forced the other team to make a play, which so often results in that opponent making a mistake. Mets first baseman Lucas Duda saw Hosmer trying to score and threw home. But his throw sailed wide from Travis d’Arnaud, allowing Hosmer to score the tying run.
Hosmer was credited by many with smart, aggressive baserunning. But watch the replay again. Maybe even one more time. Had Duda made a good throw to d’Arnaud, Hosmer would have been out — and easily so. Credit Hosmer and third base coach Mike Jirschele for their aggressiveness, for putting Duda in position to make a sure throw. Maybe the pressure of the moment freaked Duda out and he sailed his throw. That’s exactly what the Royals try to do: Get the opposition to mess up.
Was there really any doubt the Royals would win after that? Maybe so. The Mets certainly had a chance to win in the ninth. But allowing two runs to score in the ninth, when the game was in their hands, was disheartening. Recovering from a gut punch like that was going to be tough. And the Mets went meekly in the ninth on three straight outs.
The Royals and Mets battled through the 10th and 11th innings, each putting a runner on base but not scoring. Then came the 12th inning, where it all fell apart for the Mets and the inevitable ending came. Facing Addison Reed, Perez led off with a single. Pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson easily stole second base and moved to third on a groundout by Alex Gordon. Next up was Christian Colon, who hadn’t made an appearance for the Royals in the postseason. For this team, that made him an ideal hero.
Colon actually fell behind on a 0-2 count, before drawing a ball and fouling off a pitch. Then on that one-ball, two-strike count, Reed hung a slider down the middle and Colon smacked it into left field to score Dyson and give the Royals their first lead of the game. But it didn’t end there. Reed got Paulo Orlando to hit a groundball to second, but Daniel Murphy booted it. His home run heroics of the postseason were such a distant memory. Alcides Escobar fought out a seven-pitch at-bat, resulting in a RBI double. Royals 4, Mets 2.
But it didn’t end there. Ben Zobrist was walked to load the bases and set up a double play. Bartolo Colon replaced Reed. Cain hit Colon’s second pitch to left field for a double, driving in all three baserunners. Royals 7, Mets 2, and if the game wasn’t already over before then, it most certainly was after that. No way were the Mets going to score five runs against Wade Davis.
Michael Conforto did hit a two-out single off Davis in the bottom of the 12th. And Wilmer Flores fouled off four pitches, trying to keep the Mets all-but-flatlined hopes alive. But Davis finally caught Flores looking on a 95 mph inside fastball and that was it. The Royals were the champions.
There will be plenty of talk in the hours and days to come about the chances that the Mets blew in this game, most notably in the sixth inning when they had the bases loaded and could only score one run. And as mentioned above, Collins will be second-guessed plenty for letting Harvey pitch the ninth and stay in the game after walking Cain. But that just takes away from the Royals’ persistent, relentless effort. They made the plays when they counted. They didn’t make the mistakes in crucial moments. And that’s why they’re holding that World Series trophy.
Luke Hochevar earned the win in the championship clincher. Cain drove in three runs. Perez was named World Series MVP, batting .364 with two doubles and two RBI. And the Royals have their first championship in 30 years, after coming oh-so-close to winning last year.
Kansas City had its eyes on the prize all season long, not suffering from the hangover that sometimes plagues teams that lose in the final round. Woefully underestimated by many analysts and observers, the Royals were the best team in the American League through the entire season and played like a team that just wasn’t going to be denied its glory once the postseason began. The Royals never quit and it paid off with the ultimate prize.