2015 MLB Season

[rgdeuce]

Daniel Murphy. Good lord

[Irish27]

Murphy is going to score a huge contract this of-fseason.

[FreeSpiritCat]

You know what's funny. I'm so used to losing it's expected and it doesn't even bother me at all any more. I moved on after game two, and only casually observed what was going on. This doesn't hurt in the slightest.

[UAEebs86]

Mattingly gone.

[azgreg]

Mattingly gone.

[rgdeuce]

You know what's funny. I'm so used to losing it's expected and it doesn't even bother me at all any more. I moved on after game two, and only casually observed what was going on. This doesn't hurt in the slightest.

They'll be back and around for years. Invaluable big game experience for the kids and Maddon coming up short again is only going to make him hungrier. Need another big arm or two in that rotation to push them to that next level, whether that comes from the farm system, free agency or trade. They have a stockpile of young talent in the field to dangle as trade bait if needed.

[the real dill]

[rgdeuce]

two balls six inches off the plate being called strikes completely changed two 9th inning at bats and the outcome of that game. Wow. Feel bad for the Jays and thats tough luck but u still gotta get that run in

[Irish27]

Royals win game one against the Mets in an epic 15-inning game.

[rgdeuce]

Fell asleep on the commercial break before the bottom of the 14th. Epic game, Mets got to be kicking themselves after letting that one slip away. I'm expecting this to be considered one of the all time great world series when all is said and done.

[Irish27]

Most thought deGrom would dominate game 2 but Cueto was the dominant pitcher as the Royals win 7-1. The Mets will need to get the bats going in game 3 or this series is over.

Btw, congrats to former Cat Mark Melancon on winning the Trevor Hoffman NL Reliever of the Year award. One Cat giving his award to another. Bear Down!

[rgdeuce]

DeGrom has thrown well this postseason, but he had been playing with fire in several of his recent starts and pitching out of jams quite a bit. Royals just aren't missing any mistakes right now, and in that one big inning he was leaving a lot of pitches over the heart of the plate. You can't rule out the Mets but they really needed one game in KC with the way the royals have been playing and the way they win. The way they blew game one had to damage their psyche a little too. Mets can only afford one more start where their starter isn't completely dominant, and even then, I don't know, because you figure the royals are still going to figure out a way to win another game when a mets starter is dominating.

Mets finishing the Cubs so quickly rested their young arms, but cooled off their momentum and their bats.

[rgdeuce]

Terry Collins is an idiot. Do or die game and only up by one run and he pulls the, "oh lets try Clippard, and if he lets two guys on THEN we go with Familia." You can ride with him for six outs in the NLCS but not the world series?

[JMarkJohns]

Terry Collins is an idiot. Do or die game and only up by one run and he pulls the, "oh lets try Clippard, and if he lets two guys on THEN we go with Familia." You can ride with him for six outs in the NLCS but not the world series?

Closers have a long history of blowing 6-out saves in the playoffs. Hell, the 2001 World Series had 3 incidents including Rivera in game 7. There's no guarantee there, either. Davis got in trouble tonight.

Familia was used last night in a six run game. That was Collins' mistake.

[UAEebs86]

Should have taken Harvey out in the ninth.

[UAEebs86]

Addison Reed blowing a game. Shocked.

[FreeSpiritCat]

Should have taken Harvey out in the ninth.

Agreed, especially after the walk. The game was too important to stroke someone's ego. Murphy's error opened the barn.

[Coop Cat]

Of course after the fact but this falls on Collins. You can not let a pitcher talk you out of a decision that you already have made. Especially not a pitcher with an ego like Harvey has.

Once the game got tied in the ninth it was only a matter of time until KC put it together. Combine their hitters and runners with a Mets catcher that cannot throw and pitchers that cannot hold runners. That is just playing with fire.

KC is cocky as F but I love it (outside of Ventura). Lots of offseason decisions for them but I have been fired up to watch them win this thing since the playoffs started.

[Irish27]

If Duda doesn't throw wild to home, the series would be going back to KC for game 6 and no one would be second guessing Collins. There was no Met fan who did not want to take Harvey out after he blew the Royals away in the 8th. Collins should of pulled him after that walk but like I said, Duda makes the throw home, the Mets win. I'm just glad the Royals won and Reed does not pitch for the Diamondbacks anymore.

[Coop Cat]

If Duda doesn't throw wild to home, the series would be going back to KC for game 6 and no one would be second guessing Collins. There was no Met fan who did not want to take Harvey out after he blew the Royals away in the 8th. Collins should of pulled him after that walk but like I said, Duda makes the throw home, the Mets win. I'm just glad the Royals won and Reed does not pitch for the Diamondbacks anymore.

What I texted my buddies after the Duda debacle was "That was pure Little League right there. Make the other team make a play"

Does not matter what any Mets fan wants. Collins is the Captain of the ship. You cannot let a passenger (horrible comparison but whatever) over rule you. Give the ball to Familia who was a Top 5 closer this season and move onto the next two games in KC. Harvey and Collins are gonna get all kinds of shit for this. Harvey was already on a short leash with the fans and newspaper.......oooooffffff

[Coop Cat]

[rgdeuce]

Terry Collins is an idiot. Do or die game and only up by one run and he pulls the, "oh lets try Clippard, and if he lets two guys on THEN we go with Familia." You can ride with him for six outs in the NLCS but not the world series?

Closers have a long history of blowing 6-out saves in the playoffs. Hell, the 2001 World Series had 3 incidents including Rivera in game 7. There's no guarantee there, either. Davis got in trouble tonight.

Familia was used last night in a six run game. That was Collins' mistake.

You are right, there is no guarantee, and he even gave up a 9th inning home run to blow one save in that series. However, when your back is against the wall, you ride with the absolute best horse you got in that situation. You cannot afford to lose that game. Absent one appearance I believe, Clippard had been shaky that entire postseason, and even in a few scoreless appearances, a lot of the outs were loud outs. Everyone was nervous when that dude took the bump that entire postseason. You saw him throw him out there with a short least and yank him, Familia immediately started warming up as soon as Clippard ran to the mound. That shows little confidence, so why throw him? You throw short leash guys out there with bigger leads, not a one run lead, especially with the way the Royals had been swinging and ESPECIALLY considering their late game heroics all season and postseason. Like I said, you can do that with the Dodgers and the series not being do or die, but not here when it is do or die AND it is the world series? And yea Davis got in trouble, but he had been getting in trouble quite a bit recently and just found ways to wiggle out of it.

2001, I only remember the two. The second Kim blown save he only came out the 9th, right after pitching 3 innings the game before (huge mistake and much different than running Familia out in the 9th in Game 3, another mistake like you said). And then Rivera, but how many two-inning saves does he have to offset the one blown save? Blown saves happen and were bound to catch up w him eventually, think it was more of a case of the odds catching up to him rather than him being run out an extra inning. And I believe his pitch count in the 8th was nil.

[rgdeuce]

Of course after the fact but this falls on Collins. You can not let a pitcher talk you out of a decision that you already have made. Especially not a pitcher with an ego like Harvey has.

If Duda doesn't throw wild to home, the series would be going back to KC for game 6 and no one would be second guessing Collins. There was no Met fan who did not want to take Harvey out after he blew the Royals away in the 8th. Collins should of pulled him after that walk but like I said, Duda makes the throw home, the Mets win. I'm just glad the Royals won and Reed does not pitch for the Diamondbacks anymore.

It is easy to second guess things when the move turns out to be the wrong one. Not singling you out Coop because I do it myself, but too often people are too quick to want pitchers pulled or too quick to say, closer in the 9th. I'm sure everyone remembers Pedro talking his skipper out of pulling him, and then he proceeded to let the Yankees be his daddy. That gets second guessed, but guess what, it's Pedro. Irish is right. Harvey threw eight shutout innings, and he mowed down the royals in the 8th. Hes your ace. You want guys like that to want that ball in the 9th. Sometimes it backfires, sometimes guys get the complete game win. Collins had mismanaged his bullpen throughout the series, but I don't think he mismanaged it there. With that said, again I agree with Irish in that Collins should have pulled Harvey after he walked Cain. It's the fresh arm against their hottest clutch hitter, and it is the much better matchup, as Familia has that devastating sinker that is a needed pitch against a left-handed bat. You want a guy with a plus pitch that moves down and away from a lefty.

Bottom line, Duda needs to make that throw. It was terrible base running by Hosmer and he was dead by a mile, and with that much time, that is a throw most first baseman aren't going to make 99 times out of 100. May not be perfect, but not like that.

But that throw is just a testament to the fortune/luck/whatever you want to call it all postseason for the Royals. They were dead in the Astros series and crazy stuff happened. There was a ton of that crap in the Blue Jays series. You figured that would run out in the world series, but you got an un-hittable guy in Familia deciding to speed up his delivery and PIPE a non-sinking sinker and blow a save off a homerun. You got the umpires in two different games bailing KC relievers out of trouble and completely changing the complexion of at bats and innings (and ultimately games) on balls six inches outside of the zone being called strikes. The Murphy error. The Duda error. Just a few examples. It was one thing after another, huge breaks. I have never seen that in all my years of watching baseball. This was late-90s Yankees fortune times 100. You have your games when things bounce ur way, but over the course of three series and multiple times in each series, most of their wins too? It can only be explained by two things: 1) this was simply the Royals year. 2) the importance of putting the ball in play and making things happen. Rather than taking the strikeout with no chance for the team to beat themselves, they put the ball in play and watched teams implode and beat themselves. Their postseason was a clinic in that.

The Royals are a very good team that are also the luckiest team I have ever seen. However, you cannot take away this World Series from them in the slightest degree based on that good fortune, because they fundamentally played the game the right way in order to put the pressure on their opponents to make that good fortune possible. Even without all of those breaks I still think they win that series in 7. It was a great series, its just a shame it didn't go a full 7 games or it would have been considered among the all time greats.