Unhappy Recap: Royals 5 Mets 3

Starting pitching is important. Timely hitting is essential. Defense is imperative. But relief pitching is the most important thing in the playoffs.

And the Mets bullpen has not done the job. And of course Terry Collins makes it work with his mishandling of the pen. I do not know why he insists on going to Tyler Clippard. Reed was going well. Why not let him start the 8th and if someone gets on bring in Familia.

I cannot stand guys who come into games and walk guys. That's why hard throwers are so important. Clippard is afraid to let guys hit his pitches, so he's too fine, and he walks guys.

Also, why the fuck did he bring in Familia last night? Knowing he might need him tonight.

You absolutely, positively cannot blow games, and the Mets blew a 9th inning lead in Game 1 and an 8th run lead in Game 4. And that is why they will not win the World Series.

That, and an absolutely choke job by the two biggest reason (offensively) that the Mets have even gotten this far, Daniel Murphy and Yoenis Cespedes.

And if their horrible hitting weren't enough both of them made horrible, inexcusable mistakes, Murphy's error, Cespedes's bone-headed base-running that probably bought each of them a ticket out of town.

The Mets had their chance to retake control of this series, and they blew it.

Congrats to the Royals. They are just an incredible team that capitalizes on your mistakes and gets hits in bunches when the need to. And their bullpen doesn't blow leads.

Happy Recap: Mets 9 Royals 3

The Mets bats finally woke up!

Huge home runs by Wright and Granderson.

This game started like the others ended with the Mets making mistakes and the Royals slapping hits all over the field.

Then Syndergaard finally got some swinging strikeouts and cruised for long enough for the Mets hitters to get some hits and the Royals to make a mistake the Mets had been making.

Franklin Morales gets the ground ball he needs, but has no idea what to do with it. Funny thing is, they ruled it a fielder's choice. If he had made that bad throw to second right away, it would have been an error. But because he waited and then made a bad throw, it's not an error?

Conforto throwing out Gordon in the second inning was a huge out as it turned out. The Royals could really have broken the game open.

But Conforto has been hitting so poorly and Lagares so well, I think Lagares needs to start, even against right-handers. Also, this is just a really awesome picture of Lagares sliding in with the 6th run of the game.

Funny thing is, even with a 9-3 win, two of the Royals runs were still gifts, the botched double play by the two giants (Syndergaard and Duda) and then a wild pitch that d'Arnaud couldn't find.

The opening pitch by Alcides Escobar is not nearly as big a deal as everyone is making it out to be. I'm sure the Mets just knew he had been jumping on every first pitch and Noah wanted to make him uncomfortable. And Harold Reynolds is dumb as shit for saying it "woke the Royals up." First of all, it's the World Series. They don't need to be woken up. Second, they did exactly what they did for the first two games. I hate dumb "analysis" like that. Just words that mean nothing but are so abstract they can't be disproven. And people actually buy into it.

I don't agree with pitching Familia in the 9th. The next two games are must wins for the Mets. And using him for an inning with a 6-run lead could possibly limit his effectiveness or ability to pitch two innings in one or both of the next two games.

While this was a good first step, the Mets are still along way from having a real shot to win this series. They must win both of the remaining games and CitiField.

And they are not going to do it if Cespedes, Conforto and Wilmer don't get some hits. And postseason hero, Murphy has joined them in having a horrible World Series.

How Tall This Fall

2015:

2014:

2013:

2012:

2011:



2010:



2009:



2008:



2007:

Unhappy Recap: Royals 7 Mets 1

Maybe there is something to this thing about the long layoff. The curse of sweeping the LCS, or just too many days off, but this is not the same Mets team that swept the Cubs.

It has a lot to do with the Royals of course. deGrom just couldn't strike those fuckin guys out. And even though he sailed through four innings (mostly, barring a couple bad/unlucky defensive plays) once they got hits, they came in bunches and put the game away.

And the Mets hitting has just been atrocious. Cespdes, Wright and d'Arnaud all of them, awful. Conforto seems to have a huge hole in his swing.
He's got a big loop and is popping everything up. If he even makes contact, and doesn't just swing at bad pitches. The Royals have an entire lineup of guys hitting singles. The Mets have half a lineup of automatic outs.

There were no dramatics, no subtleties, just one big inning and a team that just cannot hit.

This series is starting to remind me of the 2000 World Series where the Mets had a lead going into the 9th and their closer blew it. They lost in extra innings, lost in Game 2 and were basically not a threat for the rest of the Series.

Song of the Week

"Night Train" - Jimmy Forrest
You may know this song from the version of it performed by Marvin Berry and the Starlighters in Back to the Future.

Unhappy Recap: Royals 5 Mets 4

What a crazy way to start off a World Series, with an inside-the-park home run. Just a crazy fluke play. I'm still not sure if Cespedes really lost the ball, or there was confusion between him and Conforto, and he pulled up thinking Conforto would catch it. But I do think Lagares makes that play 99 times out of 100.

Also, given Lagares's performance, I think there is a pretty good chance he starts the rest of the Series in center with Conforto at DH.

Kelly Johnson is 1 for 7 in the playoffs. Michael Cuddyer is 1 for 11. Unfortunately, Conforto is 1 for 17.

But the game was really lost by Jeurys Familia. I don't blame him. He's been lights out and you can't expect him to be perfect. But in a short series against a good team you just can't afford to play a game in which you took a lead into the 9th inning. Especially because of how unlikely it seems the Mets would be able to do the same against Wade Davis.

The Mets need better production from Cespedes, Duda and d'Arnaud if they are going to win this series. Cespedes looks terrible at the plate right now.
The Mets bullpen pitched well, Reed, Clippard and even Colon, but they just couldn't hold out that long.
As Reissberg pointed out, so many, rare, unusual, downright crazy things happened in this game: the inside-the-park HR, a run-scoring error, a game-tying HR, the longest game in World Series history (tied), a TV power outage, and the death of the starting pitcher's father before the game.
But here's the bottom line: the Royals are an excellent team. They are great at building rallies because they make contact and cut down their strokes to hit singles, instead of swinging like Cespedes trying to hit the ball 500 miles. They play great defense and their bullpen is spectacular (thought I can't figure out how soft-tossing junk-baller Chris Young so thoroughly dominated the heart of the Mets order.
In a short series between two evenly-matched teams, each game means so much. You never know when a bad bounce or a lucky break will turn against you (like a ball hitting third base with your slowest runner chugging down the line) so you never want to be in the position of having to play must-win games.
But as I always say, momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher. Jacob deGrom has been great in these playoffs, Johnny Cueto has been bad.
If that holds to form in Game 2, the Mets will come home with the advantage again.

Let's Just Win

The New York Mets are in the World Series.
I couldn't possibly be more excited. I can barely sit still or keep a thought in my head.
The Kansas City Royals are an excellent team. Unlike the powerful sluggers of the Cubs who were shut down by the Mets, the Royals have a lineup of pesky hitters who keep rallies alive with singles and walks.
They take extra bases and they don't make errors. There will not be dropped fly balls like the ones Schwarber gifted the Mets in the NLCS.
Also, the Royals have Wade Davis. He is virtually unhittable. Since becoming the Royals relief ace last season he has a sub-1.00 ERA.
But the Mets have Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz.
The Royals will be starting (in order) Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto, Yordano Ventura and Chris Young.
Do this thought experiment: take the four pitchers for each team, add them to an otherwise identical roster of 21 other players. Computer-simulate 1000 7-game series. How many do the Mets win?
Reissberg and I each speculated the number would be between 800 and 900.
It is with that reason, that I believe the Mets will win the 2015 World Series.
Let's Go Mets.

Everything Sounds Better with Soul

Anthony Hamilton's rendition of Silento's "Watch Me", better known as "Whip, Nae Nae."

Weekly Picks

Tough week as the Patriots robbed us of a 5-pointer by allowing those late points to the Colts. We also missed a perfect Poop game Thursday night as the Seahawks were an obvious choice to pound the 49ers. Some good games I like on the schedule this week though, so let's see if we can get back on track.

atlanta -6 TENNESSEE
The Falcons coming off their first loss of the season. The Titans using Zach Mettenberger. We could fall into the backup QB trap here, but I think the Falcons will score more points than the Titans can.

minnesota -1 DETROIT
I stand by my man Teddy and think the Lions are a pretty awful team. And I like to pick against bad teams coming off wins.

INDIANAPOLIS -4 new orleans
If Andrew Luck is healthy enough to play, I think he will be good enough to put a lot of points on the board. I always fear Drew Brees, but they are coming off a big win over the Falcons and of course I am always looking to pick against teams that pull off upsets the previous week.

NEW YORK GIANTS -3 dallas
Another one of our corollaries is that teams that do poorly on Monday Night Football are viewed more skeptically by the oddsmakers than had their bad performance occurred on a Sunday. How could the Giants be only 3-point favorites at home against a team quarterbacked by Matt Cassell? The backup QB trap could be at work again here, but generally it applies to backups who never play. We have plenty of evidence to suggest that Cassell is not a good NFL QB.

BEST BET
CAROLINA -3 philadelphia
The Panthers are a good team. The Eagles are not. The only thing that concerns me is that last week was a huge win for the Panthers. As we always say, teams in the NFL don't always play consistently week-to-week.

Last week: 3-2 (2 points)
Season: 18-12 (18 points)
Best Bets: 0-1 (3-3)
Home Favorites: 1-0 (6-4)
Home Underdogs: 0-0 (1-1)
Road Favorites: 1-2 (8-6)
Road Underdogs: 1-0 (3-1)