For a disinterested baseball fan, without a rooting interest of either team, the 2015 World Series between the Kansas City Royals and New York Mets was about as good as you could get for a 5-game series: two extra inning games and three games that turned in the final two innings.
For me personally, as a Mets fan, this was a thrilling post-season, despite the agony of how it ended. If you had offered me a “bargain” on July 24th of a losing World Series appearance, I would have gleefully accepted. On that date, the New Yorkers were sitting just one game above .500 (at 49-48) and had lost 6 of 8 contests after the All-Star Break. However, because the division leading Washington Nationals were having a mediocre season themselves, the Mets were only 3 games out of first place and General Manager Sandy Alderson began making a series of moves that bolstered the roster and added more veteran leadership to the clubhouse, picking up Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe, Tyler Clippard and Yoenis Cespedes in less than a week. The Mets turned their season around while the Nationals imploded, leading to an easy romp to the NL East title.
Unfortunately, there are six people who all were integral parts of why the Mets made it to the World Series in the first place who collectively let the team down during the five-game series loss: Cespedes, Clippard, Daniel Murphy, Jacob deGrom, Jeurys Familia, and manager Terry Collins.
First, let’s start with the Cuban slugger Cespedes, who thrilled Mets fans with a bunch of missiles for 17 home runs during his two months in Gotham, adding another two against Los Angeles in the NLDS. But on the very first pitch of the World Series, he whiffed on a catch-able ball that turned into an inside the park home run by Alcides Escobar. At the plate, he went a mere 3-for-20 (all singles) with no walks and just one RBI (the lone RBI coming on a bases-loaded sac fly in Game 3 with the Mets already up 8-3). He was caught napping off 1st base in the 9th inning of Game 4, getting doubled off when Lucas Duda hit a soft line drive to third for the final out of the game. The season ended for Yoenis when, in a crucial bases no out, bases loaded situation in the 6th, he fouled a ball off his knee and fell to the ground as if he’d been shot. He bravely stayed in the game long enough to pop out to 3rd; the Mets only scored one run afterwards and Cespedes’ game and season (and likely career in a Mets uniform) were done.
Next, let’s look at deGrom: he was the hero of the Division Series against the Dodgers, winning games 1 and 5 with one brilliant and one gutty performance. In Game 2 of the World Series against the Royals, deGrom was mortal, giving up 4 runs in 5 innings in the one game that the Mets didn’t have a chance to win late. The Mets’ best pitcher this year deserved a chance to redeem himself in Game 6 but was denied it because of some of the other culprits.
Next up is Murphy, who re-incarnated Babe Ruth in the first two rounds of the playoffs with 7 home runs (6 of them in consecutive games). He single-handedly won Game 5 against the Dodgers with a an RBI double, a solo home run and an alert base-running play which led to the Mets’ third and decisive run. Against Kansas City, like Cespedes, Murph went 3-for-20 (although he did draw five walks) with no extra base hits and no RBI. But most damning was the error he made in Game 4 which allowed the Royals’ tying run to score in the 8th inning (followed by another boot in the miserable 12th inning of Game 5).
And finally, let’s put Clippard, Familia and Colins together because their stories are intertwined. Clippard was Amazin’ for the Mets in his first 20 outings (just one earned run allowed) but seemed to hit a wall in early September; he allowed 10 earned runs in his last 12.2 regular season innings and was shaky in four of his eight post-season efforts. Sometimes relief pitchers just run out of gas, especially when they’ve been used and abused out of the bullpen for seven straight high-leverage seasons as Clippard has.
In the Division Series, you could tell that Collins really didn’t trust Clippard with the game on the line. In Game 5, he brought rookie starter Noah Syndergaard out of the bullpen for the 7th and then used Familia for a 6-out save to close out the game and the series.
In Game 1 of the Fall Classic, with the Mets clinging to a 4-3 lead, Clippard came in to start the 8th inning, gave up a double to Ben Zobrist, struck two batters before throwing a wild pitch and issuing a walk to Kendrys Morales. Collins brought in Familia for a 4-out save; he got the job done in the 8th but gave up a solo home run to Alex Gordon to tie the game in the 9th, leading to a crushing 14-inning loss. It happens, closers blow games sometimes but the way Familia was used thereafter really wasn’t fair to the big guy.
Wanting to restore the confidence of Jeurys, Collins brought in Familia to finish a 9-3 victory in Game 3, a total waste of a valuable asset with two more games the next two nights. In Game 4, with a 3-2 lead and in a situation crying for a Familia six-out save (as in the Dodgers series), Collins brought in Clippard to start the 8th. Clippard walked two so Familia had to come in early anyway (with one out) but now in a tough situation with the tying run already at 2nd. Then came the Murphy error, a ground-ball hit and a solid single by Salvador Perez, paving the way for a 5-3 Kansas City win. Notably, Royals manager Ned Yost did bring in his best (Wade Davis, who has been doing a great Mariano Rivera impersonation for the last two years) for a 6-out save. After the game, Collins said he felt that if he used Familia for six outs he would not have been able to use him for Game 5. OK, fine, then why use him in Game 3 with a six-run lead??
Which leads us to Game 7. Matt Harvey was absolutely brilliant for 8 innings, allowing no runs on four hits and one walk on 102 pitches. The Mets had a 2-0 lead. Familia had been warming up throughout the 8th inning and was ready to come in. But the crowd was chanting “Har-vey,” “Har-vey”, caught up in the moment, while the Dark Knight argued with Collins to stay in the game; the Mets manager acquiesced and Harvey raced out to the mound to the roar of the faithful at Citi Field. It was the wrong decision. Harvey, one year removed from Tommy John surgery, only faced 24 batters all season long when he was over 100 pitches. In his third time around the batting order (all season long), his opponents’ OPS was 140 points higher than in the first or second run through the opposing lineup.
Anyway, Lorenzo Cain worked a 7-pitch walk to lead off the inning. At the very least, Harvey should have had a short leash and been pulled right there. There was no way he would realistically finish the inning after those seven pitches. But Collins left him in for one more batter: Cain promptly stole 2nd base on the first pitch and then, Mr. RBI Eric Hosmer delivered an run-scoring double to left, pulling the Royals within one run and putting the tying run on 2nd with nobody out.
Now, Collins finally summoned Familia but, instead of a clean start with a 2-run lead, he was asked to perform a Houdini act with the tying run already in scoring position and nobody out. Moustakas moved the runner to 3rd on a ground ball. Then Perez his a grounder to 3rd baseman David Wright, who looked Hosmer back to the bag. However, as soon as the Mets’ Captain threw to 1st for the out, Hosmer raced home for the tying run, scoring on a wild throw from Lucas Duda. It was Royals baseball to a “T.” When they put runners on, they put the ball in play and good things happen for them. So for Familia, it was a third blown save in a row (though he didn’t deserve this one for sure) and for the Mets, a blown season; three innings later Kansas City erupted for 5 runs and an easy 12-inning, 7-2 victory.
In all three save opportunities this series, Familia was asked to bail out another pitcher (Clippard twice and Harvey last night) in the middle of an inning. That is just not normally how relief pitchers are used these days. In 78 appearances during the regular season, Familia entered with a runner on base only 14 times (and only 7 times with a runner in scoring position). Not one time was he asked to strand a game-tying runner on 2nd base with nobody out. He did nothing wrong in Game 5, he faced six batters and recorded six outs.
Even the greatest relief pitchers of all time routinely allowed runners to score when they were asked to bail somebody else out of a jam. Look at the “inherited runner” statistics for the following Hall of Fame pitchers (including Rivera, who is a lock to join them in Cooperstown. Remember, this is for ALL situations, including a runner on first with two out.
Percentage of inherited runners allowed to score (career):
Dennis Eckersley 26%
Mariano Rivera 29%
Rollie Fingers 29%
Bruce Sutter 31%
Goose Gossage 33%
The point is that it happens. When runners on base, lots of things can happen to allow them to score, especially when your opponents are tough to strike out and are good, aggressive base-runners.
Anyway, it was a great season overall for the New York Mets. They arrived in the Fall Classic a year or two earlier than anyone predicted. Citi Field, for the first time in its seven-year existence, is booming with excitement. With a trove of absurdly good young starters (deGrom, Harvey, Syndergaard, Steven Matz, and Zach Wheeler coming back from Tommy John surgery), the Mets future looks good for the next several years. But blowing these three leads is painful because, with five teams in the playoffs in each league every year, there’s no guarantee they’ll get back. The Gooden-Strawberry-Hernandez-Carter Mets only made it to the World Series once (in 1986) and they delivered in the classic of all Fall Classics. Hopefully, this edition of the Mets will follow the Royals’ lead, get back to the Series and finish the job next year.
Thanks for reading,
Chris Bodig