It’s almost as though every angle and storyline has been covered already. There are 377 assigned seats in the Citi Field press box (including auxiliary seating), and plenty more media members offering perspectives from afar. The World Series doesn’t lack ink, electronic or otherwise.
But this is baseball. There’s always something more to write, because you never know what you’re going to see.
What happened on the first pitch of tonight’s game was presaged yesterday. Asked about how he might combat Alcides Escobar’s recent – and scarily good – first-pitch success, the Mets starter said he “had a few tricks up his sleeve that was going to pull out.”
On Halloween Eve, Escobar stepped into the box and was immediately treated to a 98-mph fastball that sent him sprawling. A few pitches later, the Royals lead-off hitter went down swinging.
At which point things started to go downhill for Thor. Ben Zobrist doubled over Yoenis Cespedes‘ head in center field and he eventually came around to score when the Mets couldn’t turn a 3-6-3 double play. Syndergaard getting tangled up with Lucas Duda near the bag didn’t cost the out – Wilmer Flores‘ throw was off line – but the play had snafu written all over it.
An inning later, Syndergaard gave up four hits and a pair of runs, one of them scoring on a pitch that skipped to the backstop. Were it not for an overturned safe call at third base – the baserunning boo-boo belonged to Alex Gordon — the damage could have been worse.
Yordano Ventura started off even shakier. Curtis Granderson led off the bottom of the first with a single and David Wright followed with a blast over the left-center field fence. It was the first for the Mets captain this postseason, and the 16th for the team. Home run #17 came in the third inning when The Grandy Man went yard after a Syndergaard single. With his base knock, the righty with the long, blonde locks became the eighth pitcher in Mets history to get a hit in the World Series.
In the top of the fifth, Kansas City’s Raul Mondesi became the first player in history to make his major league debut in the World Series. Pinch hitting for Ventura, he went down meekly against Syndergaard’s heat.
On Thursday, Zobrist told reporters that certain teams will “do some stuff” to get into the emotional Ventura’s head. In the bottom of the fifth, they did stuff to chase him from the game. Duda started the frame with a shift-beating grounder. Travis d’Arnaud then rang a two-bagger. Michael Conforto, mired in an 0-for-20 slump – “very good at bats and nothing to show for it,” according to Terry Collins – then plated New York’s fifth run with a something-to-show-for-it infield hit. Ventura, who failed to cover first on the right-side chopper, was bound for the showers.
Unlike his flame-throwing counterpart, Syndergaard refused to turn into a pumpkin. Instead, he turned into a middle-innings beast. Beginning with the last out of the second, he set down 12 straight, six by way of the K.
Escobar told me yesterday that he “really wants to win a Gold Glove.” In the sixth inning, Flores showed that he’s pretty good too. With the bases drunk, the slick-fielding shortstop ranged up the middle to throw out Alex Rios, just nipping him at first. The under-the-radar play essentially quash Kansas City’s chances.
A four-run bottom of the sixth sealed the deal. It was meltdown city for the visitors, epitomized by a Franklin Morales brain cramp. The lefty fielded a fist-and-third comebacker, whirled, whirled again… and held the ball. He might well have spun himself into the ground, because by inning’s end, the score stood 9-3.
It ended that way. Any hopes the Royals had of putting the Mets in a 3-0 hole were long gone. Tomorrow night is Steven Matz versus Chris Young – it’s also Halloween – and New York is very much alive.
