The Kansas City Royals are just two wins away from capturing the 2015 World Series title, but to pad their lead, they must now leave the comforting confines of Kauffman Stadium for the hostile stronghold that is the New York Mets’ Citi Field.
Game 3 is essentially a must-win for the Mets. No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the World Series. The Mets lost Game 1 5-4 in 14 innings on Tuesday, then completely lost the plot against Royals pitcher Johnny Cueto, who threw a complete-game two-hitter in a 7-1 Royals victory on Wednesday.
Kansas City has a rested bullpen thanks to Cueto‘s brilliant start, while the Mets have to contend with a tired staff and the prospect of waking up some dormant bats.
It should be known that only 11 teams have come back from down 0-2 to win a World Series. The 1986 Mets were one of them, the MLB reminded:
Here is the live stream and TV info for Game 3, followed by a roundup of what both sides are saying heading into Friday’s pivotal contest.
2015 World Series Game 3 Viewing Info
When: Friday, October 30 at 8 p.m. ET
Where: Citi Field in New York City
TV: Fox
Live Stream: FoxSportsGo
Tickets: ScoreBig.com
Kansas City’s Yordano Ventura (0-1, 5.09 ERA in 2015 postseason) and New York’s Noah Syndergaard (1-1, 2.77 ERA) are the probable starters on Friday. It’s yet another matchup between two hard-throwing pitchers. The Mets are hoping that the home crowd can rattle Ventura, who’s had a lackluster postseason thus far.
“Our fans are pretty tough,” manager Terry Collins said Thursday, per USA Today‘s Gabe Lacques. “They’re tough. They’re strong and they’re tough. I’ve been on the other side of the field, not in the World Series, but on the other side of the field in New York City in a big series and it’s hard. It’s tough.”
Ventura‘s been a bit wild in four playoff starts this year. He’s allowed 20 hits and walked eight in 17.2 innings pitched, to the tune of 10 earned runs. Still, the Royals have won three of the games he’s started, and in his last outing, Ventura gave up just one run in 5.1 innings pitched.
While Kansas City hopes Ventura doesn’t get too riled up on Friday, the Mets legions would be happy to see Syndergaard, aka “Thor,” hammer the Royals with his own nasty heater.
“Syndergaard has to be who he is. You cannot go out there and reinvent yourself in Game 3 of the World Series,’’ said Bobby Ojeda, who pitched for the Mets in the ’86 World Series, per the New York Post‘s Kevin Kernan.
For a pitching staff predicated on blow-your-house-down stuff, Ojeda was disappointed to see Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom seemingly shy away from what they do best in the first two games.
“I’m being analytical, not critical,’’ said Ojeda, via Kernan. “What I’ve seen in Harvey and in deGrom is they are going to plan B before they even attempt plan A. In other words they are pitching to KC’s weakness rather than pitching to their strength.”
Harvey and deGrom combined for just four strikeouts in Games 1 and 2. While that suggests they weren’t attacking the Royals bats enough, it could be that in this instance, good hitting is beating good pitching. Per ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark, the Royals swing at fast pitches, but they do not miss:
On Tuesday, Harvey threw 30 fastballs. The Royals swung at and missed two of them. On Wednesday, deGrom threw 54 fastballs. The Royals swung at and missed none of them.
But wait. There’s more. On Tuesday, Harvey threw 18 pitches with two strikes. The Royals swung at and missed one of them. On Wednesday, deGrom threw 28 pitches with two strikes. The Royals didn’t swing at and miss a single one of them.
“Me? Personally? I saw deGrom real well, windup and stretch,” Royals center fielder Lorenzo Cain said, via Michael Powell of the New York Times. “Guys just lock in, you know?”
When a lineup has laser-like precision against one of the faster pitchers in the league, it certainly seems like an insurmountable obstacle. Syndergaard is undeterred, citing the Citi Field faithful and his team’s character as reasons to believe the Mets can make a comeback, per ESPN.com’s Adam Rubin:
Obviously we didn’t plan this to happen to be down 0-2. Coming back home is a big thing for us — having the Mets faithful behind us and the greatest fans in baseball. Part of the reason our team has had so much success this year is being to handle the resiliency and come together as a team, overcome and win some ballgames.
The Royals will look to stymie any sort of a Mets fightback on Friday. They came within one game of winning the 2014 World Series. To suffer the same fate this year would likely be too great to bear for many of these players. Plus, as a smaller-market team with a mostly sad history, there’s little guarantee the Royals will make it back to such lofty heights again. Belief in what they can do now is key.
“Our confidence level hasn’t changed since the first day of spring training to today,” Royals manager Ned Yost said, via UPI.com’s Alan Eskew. “Our confidence has been high all year long. We expected to be here. We expected to compete for a world championship against a tough team.”
Kansas City is in control in this series. All it has to do is stay the course, keep swinging early and often in counts and play the same tight defense that’s been a boon to the squad all year. Syndergaard is just a rookie after all. The Royals have the experience to not let the moment overwhelm them.
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