There will be no sweep in this year’s World Series. The New York Mets won Friday night’s Game 3 9-3 over the Kansas City Royals, cutting Kansas City’s lead to 2-1 and ensuring that a Game 5 will be played on Sunday at Citi Field.
The early innings of this game were chock full of action. In the top of the first, Alcides Escobar didn’t swing at Noah Syndergaard’s first pitch of the game – because it was up and in, knocking Escobar off the plate.
After Syndergaard struck out Escobar, Ben Zobrist doubled over the head of Yoenis Cespedes in center and scored on an Eric Hosmer fielder’s choice following an infield single by Lorenzo Cain.
The Mets immediately answered back in the bottom of the first off of Yordano Ventura. Curtis Granderson led off the New York half of the frame with a single, and David Wright followed up with a homer, putting the Mets in front 2-1 and sending Citi Field into hysterics.
But if you thought the Royals were going to simply let that homer go unanswered, you would have been wrong. They started the top of the second with three straight singles against Syndergaard, with the third one coming off the bat of Alex Rios and scoring Sal Perez to tie the game at two. On the play, Alex Gordon was thrown out at third by Michael Conforto on a call decided by a replay review.
Rios moved up to second on the throw that eliminated Gordon, advanced to third on a bunt by Ventura, and scored on a Syndergaard wild pitch to put Kansas City in front again 3-2.
Ventura set down the side in the bottom of the second and Syndergaard did the same in the top of the third, but the bottom began to fall out for the Royals in the bottom of the third inning. Syndergaard led the frame off with a single, and Granderson belted a homer to right to give the Mets a 4-3 lead that they would end up not relinquishing over the course of the evening.
2015 World Series
Meanwhile on the mound, Syndergaard was in cruise control. After Escobar singled with two outs in the second, the man they call Thor started to set down the Royals without flinching. Kansas City was set down in order in the third, fourth, and fifth innings, and Syndergaard didn’t get into trouble again until the sixth. After retiring the first two batters in that inning with no issues. Mike Moustakas reached on an infield single. Syndergaard then walked Perez and Gordon to load the bases with two outs for Rios, but he couldn’t bring his club back into the game, grounding out to Flores to end the inning.
The Mets offense tacked on more insurance in the bottom of the sixth. Franklin Morales retired d’Arnaud to lead the inning off, but then allowed a pinch hit single to Juan Lagares and plunked Flores to bring up pinch hitter Juan Uribe. Uribe singled to right to score Lagares and extend the lead to 6-3. Granderson then grounded back to the mound for what should have been an inning ending double play, but Morales froze, threw wildly to second, and everyone was safe.
Kelvin Herrera replaced Morales on the mound and gave up a two-run single to Wright, upping the lead to 8-3. Herrera then walked Daniel Murphy and gave up a sac fly to Cespedes, making it a 9-3 game.
New York’s bullpen picked up where Syndergaard left off, setting down all nine batters they faced in order over the final three innings of the game while throwing a total of just 36 pitches.
Kansas City’s offense couldn’t get on track during Game 3. Zobrist’s first inning double was the lone extra base hit by the team, and they tallied just one hit after the second inning. Hell, the only inning after the second in which they had men on base was the sixth, and they came away empty handed. It didn’t matter what their pitching staff did – the offense gave them very little to work with.
Ned Yost was also forced to burn through six relievers on Friday. Chris Young starts on Saturday in Game 4, and he hasn’t exactly been known or going deep into ballgames. A piggy back outing between him and Kris Medlen could be a possibility to avoid burning out Morales and Herrera in the event of another early exit.
Young will be opposed in Game 4 by Steven Matz of the Mets. Game time is 8 PM, as usual.
