Joe Buck summed up this matchup between the Kansas City Royals and New York Mets most poignantly, as is he forte. He said that the Mets have to hit home runs to score runs, where as the Royals just need a baserunner. Those words spoke loudly throughout this entire World Series, and especially tonight. Matt Harvey was nearly unbeatable, and yet he was beaten. Credit must be paid to the Royals, who had been unrelenting in their at-bats, speedy on the base paths, and steady on defense. Their errors, not as crucial.
It was a great year for the New York Mets, but it came to a sad, crushing end on Sunday night. There are plenty of reasons for why things ended the way they did. The Mets simply didn’t play that well. Lack of power production, a leaky bullpen, dreadful base running, these were all painfully obvious faults through the series. And the Royals simply were the better team. They pitched Daniel Murphy perfectly. They took advantage of Travis d’Arnaud‘s poor throws to second. All around, the Mets were outplayed.
I don’t really know what else to say. It was a very fun year, but this ending is incredibly sour. The Mets went further than anyone really expected, but still I’m disappointed. Because they had the ability to go further. But they stumbled. I think that word pretty much sums it up.
Patrick, we all saw many games together and although we are proud of their accomplishments, we wanted a better showing. However the team we saw tonight, we all recognized.
Congratulations to KC because they truly took it from the Mets, but we could have been just a little better, smarter, sharper, and we win.
It was an unexpected, exciting run to the World Series in 2015 for the Metsies. Seriously did not expect it. Unfortunately, it all broke down at the end there. As you said, Patrick, the teams’ flaws that we all knew existed were magnified on the national stage.
Still, the only thing this team could have done to more directly give KC the championship was to literally hand to the trophy to them. As Frank Thomas said after the game, “The Mets have nothing to hold their head downs for, except they didn’t play that well and they gave away this World Series.”
Now, we’ll need to endure six months of articles on this “relentless” narrative. Oh well. Get em next year.
Patrick,
A disappointing end to a season that came as a delightful surprise.
Let me take this opportunity to thank Brian, Patrick and all the other writers for enhancing this season. Just as it’s more enjoyable watching the Mets with GKR at the microphone, it’s doubly so with the writers and regular commenters at Mets 360.
Have a healthy off-season.
Nine batters had at least 10 PA in the series and only two of them – Granderson and Conforto – had an OPS above .600
Maybe the KC pitching is better than we expected, maybe the long layoff hurt our timing, maybe the hitters picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
Everyone focuses on the pitching and defense, which certainly could have been better. But with this lineup the pitchers weren’t supposed to have to win games 2-0 anymore. If two more hitters showed up this series – leaving only half the lineup as inept – the Mets would still be playing.
At the end of the day, we went from mocking the idea of shooting for meaningful games in September to playing meaningful games in November. And I hope that’s what everyone takes away from the 2015 season.
I was hoping that Collins would start Lagares in place of Cespedes last night, figuring that Juan had as good a chance as Cespedes of not wasting an AB, plus he could be relied upon to make the normal centerfielder’s plays. Not that I expected Collins to do it.
If the Mets had managed to win last night, the Royals would have had to beat deGrom a second time, or else face Thor again. It just might have changed the momentum.
Ah, regrets; I admit that I felt the game was slipping away when Collins left the injured Cespedes in to finish that at bat.
“The Mets went further than anyone really expected, but still I’m disappointed”.
Poor defense sabotages good pitching.
Thirteen KC ground balls resulted in only two double plays (ESPN stat) in the series.
Wright game #1 error, Murphy game #4 error and Duda game #5 throw (no error?) were the obvious miscues. There were quite a few other defensive lapses also.
Walking the lead off batter in a inning and unable to then stop the Royal running game was a common theme which is also related to defense.
I hope the Mets address their defensive short comings in the off season.
Congrats to the Royals who kept the pressure on and forced the Mets to crack.
It was a great season and a lot of fun.
Thanks to everyone here at Mets 360 for giving me a place to come, nearly every day, for Mets info, insights, and conversation.
To me, given the way the Mets are built, this was a failure of the offense; they needed to hit.
We can debate the team models, but I think there’s a number of ways to win a World Series. Clearly, the Mets strategy is to sacrifice speed & defense for hitting & power. When the hitting goes away, they are left with a team built around pitching that fails to defend adequately, a poor combination.
Cespedes lost $50 million this postseason. Just a horrible no-show in every facet of the game. Wright is, sadly, toast, and could become a serious albatross in the future. Duda didn’t show up; Travis has been swinging poorly for 6 weeks at least. Maybe he’s worn down, too.
Wow, Matt Harvey.
One takeaway: TC made the wrong call in the 9th by not going to Familia, and yet the overwhelming majority of fans wanted Harvey to start the 9th. If he went to Familia, we would have been disgusted — and yet, in retrospect, that was the correct move. Yes, he could have pulled Matt after that first walk, just as he should have pulled Clippard after that first walk. Alas, alas. The players have to perform and they did not. Some of the most pathetic ABs I’ve seen in a long time. Horrible.
But back to the beginning: Thanks, Brian!
Did you see the New York Rangers’ coach statement on Cespedes??
He is both an extreme talent and a pouting, jealous temperamental head case who I think is a net negative, overall. He can hit a 450 home run, and then refuse to hustle out a pop up. He weighs himself down with jewelry and colored items, and this, psychologically, carries right out to performance: he puts on a show in the outfield and as we saw, it does not always work out. The hot dogging catches up to players sometimes.
Boston hated him.
He will play 16 rounds of golf no matter what.
He struggles to celebrate his team mate’s accomplishments when he, himself is not playing well.
Arrogant, talented, streaky and a diva who takes himself out of a game and sets the record for the longest lay down on an injury and not be removed from a game, I think whoever signs him will regret it.
We have a lot of good team players to root for, from Wilmer, to Grandy (who won me over) to Uribe and Cuddyer’s support of younger players, we do not need Cespedus’ nonsense.
The final straw was when he threw a rookie under the bus. It is just not done.
As Brian pointed out and as I blogged on Friday, the lineup is the biggest culprit. The errors, mental mistakes and bullpen failures are perhaps more glaring, but the margin of error would not have constantly been so small, nor the pressure so great, if this team didn’t hit .192 in the series. That’s understandable against Kershaw and Grienke, but not acceptable against Volquez, Cueto, Ventura and Chris Young.
I enjoyed this unexpected ride immensely, have worn my hat proudly and have loved exchanging insights and frustrations with my fellow Mets360 writers. The good news is this young core team is poised to give it another go next year. Management has a lot of decisions to make and work to do in the offseason and we’ll all be there to consider the many possibilities.
I wish I could feel a bit more positive. Perhaps when I come out of the fetal position. This season just seemed destined and our performance in the WS was just so very disappointing.
I agree with all of this, Matty. I saw a headline that the Mets flaws were finally revealed in the WS, but I don’t think that’s true. Their flaws have been known and clear for a long time. They lost because one of their core strengths — the ability to hit — abandoned them completely.
I agree. Also, KC was a much deeper team.
We had them in starting pitching, but once that did not pan out, their depth and our lack thereof, was the difference.
I have hope for next year.
Did we, as a site just indicate Joe Buck is good at something? I disavow any public endorsement of Joe Buck or Tom Berducci as announcers.
I was at the game and it was bad. The Mets took countless pitches they should have swung at. Terry Collins made countless mistakes (I don’t think leaving Harvey in was one of them). The Royals showed them Mets where they were still deficient. We need speed, defense and better bullpen pitching.
Dilson Herrerra and Gavin Cecchini should provide some of that but the Mets will still need a big right-handed bat (no Cuddyer doesn’t count) and more high-leverage relievers.
Daniel Murphy played his way into a contract vs. the Cubs and out of a contract vs. the Mets.
Yoenis Cespedes is not the player I would target most highly in the off-season.
Great Teams can generally win Games that are not played to their main strengths. The Mets are not yet a Great Team.
I’ll save the rest of the analysis for a day at least one day closer to Hot Stove.
For now…. Baseball Season is always Great…and this season was fantastic! Great Surprises…Great Joys…Great Performances…and Great to share it with some knowledgeable Fans ( who know just a bit less than I).
😉
Eraff
How many days til Pitchers and Catchers?