Game 1 of the 2015 World Series is in the books, and what a wild one it was. The New York Mets visited the Kansas City Royals in Kauffman Stadium, and the two combatants took 14 innings to decide a winner. Kansas City took round 1, 5-4, and we fans got a good long look at these two elite baseball teams. So what did we learn in Game 1?
The Royals’ ballpark is deep enough to slow down the Mets – but not to stop them
Daniel Murphy didn’t hit a home run. That shouldn’t be remarkable, but thanks to his recent postseason heroics, it is: he homered in seven straight games leading up to this one. So perhaps the pre-series chatter about the Royals’ deep park containing the Mets’ homer-happy offense was true.
Not so fast. Curtis Granderson hit one out in Game 1, and several other Mets came very close with foul balls and warning-track flies. With Lucas Duda finding his swing while Murphy and Granderson stay red-hot, it’s easy to imagine that the Mets can make our predictions look very silly against a lesser pitcher than Edinson Volquez.
Jeurys Familia is hittable
The Mets knew they had a disadvantage in middle relief going into this series, but they thought that they could lean on closer Jeurys Familia in order to make up for that weakness. Perhaps they’d even use him in two-inning situations in order to avoid putting struggling setup man Tyler Clippard in the game, observers reasoned. Well, Game 1 saw the Mets use Clippard in the 8th anyway – only to pull him before the inning was up and put Familia into a pressure-pitching situation. Familia got out of the 8th but took his first blown save of the postseason in the 9th, allowing Alex Gordon to hit a home run and tie the game.
The Mets defense is a problem
At least one of the pre-series narratives played out exactly as we expected it to: it’s true that the Royals contact hitters can put the ball in play against the elite Mets pitchers, and true that the Mets defense is a liability. We saw that on the very first pitch of the game, when Alcides Escobar crushed a Harvey fastball into left-center and a miscommunication between LF Michael Conforto and CF Yoenis Cespedes let to a missed catch, a kicked ball, and an inside-the-park home run.
These young Mets pitchers are remarkably mature
Matt Harvey did not have his best stuff in this game. Edinson Volquez did. And yet when Harvey left the game, the score was tied 3-3. That’s a testament to Harvey’s ability to pitch through adversity: Harvey altered his game plan to avoid exposing the sharp Royals hitters to too many poor fastballs, and it worked relatively well. Of course, the Mets will always hope that their pitchers are zeroed in on the days of their starts, but both Harvey and DeGrom have proved this postseason that they can give their team a chance to win even when they don’t have their best stuff.
This will be a long series
One thing about this game stands out above all others: it was really, really close. The game lasted 14 innings, tied for the longest World Series game (by innings) ever. Every piece of the puzzle was present, and the result was little more than a stalemate. Sure, the Royals won, but they needed a miracle home run off of a tough closer to do it. Sure, the Mets looked sloppy in the field, but Harvey still had a solid performance against a relentless Royals lineup, despite clearly not having his best stuff. This was the quintessential Mets-Royals game, and it was a one-run extra-innings marathon. Get ready for a long and hard-fought World Series.
