After Matt Harvey left at the end of the sixth inning the Mets bullpen was left with the task of enduring eight innings of relief work. Tied at 3-3, Addison Reed entered first delivering a quick inning and retiring the Royals in order.
In the top of the 8th, the Mets took the lead and had themselves exactly where they wanted to be to close out this game and take the first game of this series. Enter Tyler Clippard. The Mets’ set-up man gave up a lead-off double to Ben Zobrist but was able to fan the next two batters before walking Kendrys Morales.
Terry Collins had seen enough brought in his shutdown man Jeurys Familia. The Mets closer made quick work of Royals pesky hitter Mike Moustakas, and the Mets were now three outs away from taking a one game lead in the World Series.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, the unthinkable happened. Familia made quick work of Salvador Perez, and everything seemed to be going well. Up to the plate stepped Alex Gordon and at that moment a 4-3 win, became a 4-4 tie as he blasted one over the center-field wall.
“One thing, he doesn’t give up is home runs,” Collins said of his closer. “So we were all shocked by it. We liked where we were at.”
The last blown save Jeurys Familia had came at the lowest point of the New York Mets season as the they squandered a 7-1 lead to the San Diego Padres on July 30th. La Familia has been lights out since then and this entire postseason to this point.
“It’s part of the game. I just left my fastball up in the zone,” Familia said. “He made the swing. That’s it. I missed the zone a little bit. I wanted to go away, down. I left it in the middle, a little up.”
The Mets would go on to play 14 innings in this game, and the bullpen did a great job keeping this team in the game and giving them a chance to score.
Jon Niese, on his birthday entered the game and pitched two scoreless frames. Niece struck out three while only allowing one hit and one walk in his relief appearance. The rest of the game was left in the very capable hands of Bartolo Colon. Big Sexy pitched in and out of trouble through his appearance until it go to the fourteenth and then the magic slipped away.
The Royals led off the inning with what should have been an out when Alcides Escobar hit a hot shot to David Wright who couldn’t handle it as the wheels began to fall off. Ben Zobrist then singled, bringing Escobar to third. Lorenzo Cain was intentionally walked to load the bases and it all came down to Eric Hosmer. He got his pitch to hit and lifted it to right, tagging Escobar to plate the fifth and final run of a thriller in the World Series opener.
In a night where saves usually aren’t blown, the bullpen still did a formidable job to keep this game going. This team knows this is not a usual occurrence for their closer and hope to get things right when the next opportunity arises.
“I’m not surprised. I can make mistakes. Familia said. Everybody makes mistakes in this game. You just try to move forward and that’s it.”
The Mets look to move forward tonight at 8:07 PM EST as RHP Jacob deGrom takes the mound in Game Two. He will be opposed by Royals RHP Johnny Cueto. So cheer up Mets fans, I like our chances tonight.
