Here’s the game report:
Final thoughts
Well that will do it for us tonight, but the Guardian World Series liveblog will return on Friday as the series heads to New York, where the Mets, now down 0-2, have a lot of work to do if they want to keep their championship dreams alive. Thanks to everyone who followed along tonight, especially those who contributed their thoughts throughout the game. Ciao!
Updated
@HunterFelt What's it like to liveblog a World Series game that doesn't end in the middle of the night?
— DJ Gallo (@DJGalloEtc) October 29, 2015
I’m pretty okay with it, to be honest. Thank you for the gift, Johnny Cueto
The Kansas City Royals have taken a 2-0 lead in the World Series!
Royals win!
Mets 1-7 Royals, FINAL
Murphy takes second for no reason. Cueto falls to 2-0 before Cespedes flies out to end the game. The Royals win!
Mets 1-7 Royals, top of the 9th
Daniel Murphy works a full count and then takes a walk. Cespedes is up with one on and two out.
Mets 1-7 Royals, top of the 9th
Cueto working on a two-hitter. Wright grounds out. And he just needs one more to do it.
Mets 1-7 Royals, top of the 9th
Hey, Granderson is leading things off. Shocker. Hey he grounds out quickly! Even bigger shocker!
Mets 1-7 Royals, top of the 9th
WM Rine:
Reed didn’t look that bad but those were six very expensive pitches
Not a bad out to run ratio for Kansas City. Hey, Cueto is back out there.
Updated
Mets 1-7 Royals, bottom of the 8th
Sean Gilmartin gets Zobrist to ground out without allowing Escobar to score and gets Cain out right after but this one is OVER. The ninth inning is just going to be about if the Mets put up any sort of fight.
RUN! (Royals)
Mets 1-7 Royals, bottom of the 8th
And Escobar hits a triple, scoring Gordon. Okay that was impressive. Reed is out.
Run! (Royals)
Mets 1-6 Royals, bottom of the 8th
This Royals team wins games in the most annoying, least impressive ways possible. None of those runners should have been on base really.
Addison Reed come into the game and gets Paulo Orlando to hit a flyball out but it’s a sacrifice fly that gets a run in.
Run! (Royals)
Mets 1-5 Royals, bottom of the 8th
Gordon out here with runners on second and third and zero outs. He hits a ball that Flores can’t deal with and it’s a run-scoring gift double for Gordon. Niese’s night is over.
Mets 1-4 Royals, bottom of the 8th
Salvador Perez is up next with one on and nobody out. Feels like this is already sorted out, but gotta think the Royals wouldn’t mind tacking on insurance insurance runs.
Oh hey, he hits a double. Looks like they’re on their way.
Mets 1-4 Royals, bottom of the 8th
Niese is still out there, to face Moustakas who hits a grounder that Duda really, really should have gotten. He gets credited a single anyways. Home cooking.
Mets 1-4 Royals, top of the 8th
Cueto back out for the 8th, as you could have probably guessed. Conforto flies out to Cain. Flores lines out to Moustakas (to a chorus of “Mooooooooooose”). Legares grounds out. That was too, too easy. Three more outs stand between the Royals and a 2-0 series lead.
Mets 1-4 Royals, bottom of the 7th
Morales strikes out. To the 8th!
Mets 1-4 Royals, bottom of the 7th
Lorenzo Cain, who was my favorite 90s USA Network action show hero, takes a walk and up comes Hosmer who hits a routine fly to Cespedes.
Mets 1-4 Royals, bottom of the 7th
Ben Zobrist is up to face, oh hey, there’s Jon Niese! Zobrist hits a chopper to Wilmer Flores who quickly gets the throw off to Duda for the out.
Seventh inning stretch!
The modern day composer refuses to die on the outfield grass.
Mets 1-4 Royals, top of the 7th
D’Arnaud lines out to the Cain in CF and there we go that’s seven innings of one-run ball for Cueto.
Mets 1-4 Royals, top of the 7th
Lucas Duda works a 3-2 count, not a bad idea to work the count here as the Mets need baserunners and it’s getting late. He ends up hitting a routine fly, unfortunately for New York.
Mets 1-4 Royals, top of the 7th
Cespedes leads off this inning, still kind of amazed at that play. Cueto gets ahead of Yo, as Terry Collins calls him apparently, 0-2 before he fouls off a few pitches (including one swing that causes him to lose his bat).
Then there’s a ball outside. The rain falls a little harder.
Cueto throws an offspeed pitch that Cespedes cannot make contact with. One down.
Mets 1-4 Royals, bottom of the 6th
Escobar grounds out to Wright to end the inning. That could have been worse for the Mets, but the Kansas City bullpen awaits them. Gonna be hard for them to score three runs off of them.
Mets 1-4 Royals, bottom of the 6th
Oh my. Alex Rios almost hits one super-super-super deep but CESPEDES JUMPS UP AND ROBS HIM! That would definitely have been extra bases, most likely a home run. Just an out. A pants-wetting-ly scary out.
Mets 1-4 Royals, bottom of the 6th
Hansel Robles, sounds like “Robeless,” is out to start the 6th for New York, he gets Alex Gordon to flyout for his first out.
Mets 1-4 Royals, bottom of the 6th
WM Rine:
Does Collins have no faith in his bullpen or too much faith in his hot starters?
Yes.
Mets 1-4 Royals, top of the 6th
Granderson leads off another inning. It feels like it’s been all of them. Cueto is still pitching, as you’d imagine. A light rain is beginning to fall. Zobrist hits a ball that bounces off the grass that Zobrist is able to sweep up and toss for the first out. Wright flies out to Cain. Daniel Murphy falls to 0-2 but takes two outside. At 2-2, Murphy stays still and gets rung up. Another half-inning ends in a blink.
Mets 1-4 Royals, bottom of the 5th
DeGrom is STILL in the game. Salvador Perez is up now, he grounds out to David Wright to end the inning but the damage is done. To the 6th!
ANOTHER RUN! (Royals)
Mets 1-4 Royals, bottom of the 5th
Runners on first and third, and DeGrom is still in the game to face Moustakas? This seems interesting, is Jon Niese just not ready yet to come in the game for New York?
DeGrom falls behind 2-0. A Moustakas swing makes it 2-1. DeGrom throws the next one quite, quite high. 3-1. Gotta think THIS will be his last batter.
Oh man, Moustakas hits one JUST foul, that would have been extra bases. He fouls off the next pitch. 3-2 still. Niese is all but folding his arms and going “well?”
Moustakas fouls another one off. Oh man this is exhausting just to watch. 3-2. Moustakas swings and it’s a RBI SINGLE! 4-1 Kansas City!
Mets 1-3 Royals, bottom of the 5th
Morales hits a base hit and Hosmer will make it to third base! DeGrom has to be close to finished here.
RUNS! (Royals)
Mets 1-3 Royals, bottom of the 5th
Email from WM Rime:
The outlines of the strike zone seem to be changeable inning to inning, maybe to keep the pitchers’ duel more exciting. Last inning very tight, this inning Cueto was getting the corners again.
Seems more consistent than what we’ve seen earlier this postseason, but that might not be saying anything.
Eric Hosmer comes in and... HITS A BASE HIT AND RIOS AND ESCOBAR WILL SCORE!
Mets 1-1 Royals, bottom of the 5th
Lorenzo Cain with runners on second and third, with just one out. A perfect opportunity to take a lead here. Cain keeps hitting balls foul before taking a DeGrom offering that’s just out of the strike zone.
Cain pops up one in foul ground, but it goes into the stands. 1-2 still.
Cain hits on into shallow center and it’s just not deep enough to score the runner from third. Two down.
Mets 1-1 Royals, bottom of the 5th
Rios is at second. Zobrist hits into a force, moving Rios to third with just one out. Escobar is out at second. Again: productive outs don’t mean bunting.
RUN! (Royals)
Mets 1-1 Royals, bottom of the 5th
Escobar squares up a bunt which- NO WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? Ugh. He bunts the first pitch foul. 0-1. Hopefully the Royals take the bunt sign off now.
Nope. HE BUNTS ANOTHER ONE FOUL. What the hell Ned Yost? What the hell, why are you deciding to give the Mets an out?
Instead, he hits a liner, Gordon scores and Kansas City has tied it! There you go: JUST HIT THE FREAKING BALL AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED!
Mets 1-0 Royals, bottom of the 5th
Next comes Rios, who can be dangerous, but also sometimes useless, with one on and nobody out. He... He lines a single to the outfield. Something’s definitely brewing.
Mets 1-0 Royals, bottom of the 5th
Now DeGrom will face the Alexs. Alexi? He walks Alex Gordon on a slider outside on a 3-2 pitch. This feels like the inning Kansas City equalizes things.
Mets 1-0 Royals, top of the 5th
The World Series, first Knicks game and a GOP debate has turned my timeline into a deranged hailstorm of snark, panic and joy.
— Robert Silverman (@BobSaietta) October 29, 2015
I think Andrea Bargnani has won the GOP Debate? Can someone confirm?
Cueto retires Conforto and Flores in the time it takes me to post that tweet. I guess that’s okay rebounding. Here comes Legares with two already out. On Cueto’s 69th pitch, Legares takes a ball. That’s 3-1 count, not so nice, but he then flies out to Cain to end the inning. To the bottom of the fifth!
Mets 1-0 Royals, top of the 5th
Okay we have finally run into our first real drama of the game. Will be interesting to see how the starters rebound (or fail to rebound) this inning.
Or maybe it will be boring as heck. What do I know? Maybe we used up all of our interesting last night.
Mets 1-0 Royals, bottom of the 4th
Salvador Perez can become a Kansas City legend here with one swing but he instead hits a chopper to short to end the inning.
Mets 1-0 Royals, bottom of the 4th
Morales grounds out, which moves Zobrist to third, but with two outs now. DeGrom then walks Moustakas and the bases are loaded here. Trouble, I mean obviously trouble.
Mets 1-0 Royals, bottom of the 4th
The Duda abides, the Duda taketh away or something
— Mike Gianella (@MikeGianella) October 29, 2015
Lorenzo Cain is up next and he grounds out on a 1-2 count, it’s almost a double play but Zobrist dives back just in time.
It’s looking like DeGrom’s going to maybe get an easy second with a Hosmer fly, but the ball drops in front of Lagares.
Updated
Mets 1-0 Royals, bottom of the 4th
Ben Zobrist leads off the fourth inning, he grounds out to Duda who boots in and the Royals now have the leadoff runner.
Mets 1-0 Royals, bottom of the 4th
Email from Roger Kirkby:
In most sports, the manager/coach seems to always want to shout at, scream at, cajole, talk to or finesse his/her players. But in baseball the players spend 50% of their time sitting near the coach in the dugout and you never see the coach coaching them. I wonder why?
There’s a lot of reasons, I think, but the main ones are that baseball isn’t a physical game. It’s not really one where players need that kind of encouragement. What are they going to say? “Try to hit that ball better, you gotta want to get a hit more!”
Mets 1-0 Royals, top of the 4th
D’Arnaud flies out to end the inning but the Mets have scored first.
Run! (Mets)
Mets 1-0 Royals, top of the 4th
The Royals decide not to challenge. Two runners on and Lucas Duda at the plate. He hits a blooper that falls in and Murphy scores!
Mets 0-0 Royals, top of the 4th
And Cueto falls to 2-0 once again, this time to Cespedes. This feels like a possible tipping point. Cespedes swings away, as he sometimes is wont to do, to make it 2-1. The chanting starts again at Kauffman. No dice this time. Cueto misses with a fastball. 3-1. Again.
Cespedes ALMOST hits into a double play but the wide throw pulls Hosmer off the bag and he’s ruled the safe. The Royals might challenge here.
Mets 0-0 Royals, top of the 4th
Daniel Murphy, who has hit all of the home runs ever in the first two rounds of the postseason, is up next. Cueto falls behind once again, 2-0, before Murphy fouls ones off. 2-1. The next pitch is off the plate. 3-1.
The next pitch is a tad bit high, apparently, and that’s the second walk of the inning and here comes Cespedes.
Mets 0-0 Royals, top of the 4th
And Cueto falls behind 3-0 to David Wright. This is looking like the Cueto who got hammered in the ALDS. He throws a strike and then Wright fouls off the next offering. Full count and the crowd starts to make noise hoping to will an out.
And Wright pops up in foul territory for the first out of the inning. Hey it worked!
Mets 0-0 Royals, top of the 4th
Curtis Granderson is up to start the 4th for the Mets. Cueto falls behind 3-1, but Granderson takes strike two. But, but, finally he throws his first ball four of the game. New York has a leadoff baserunner. Slugfest starts now?
Mets 0-0 Royals, top of the 4th
I hope the writers realize that by constantly tweeting about no hitters, the game is going to be a slugfest by the 11th.
— Becky Baseball?! (@rebeccapbp) October 29, 2015
Noted.
Mets 0-0 Royals, top of the 4th
We have a pitcher’s duel brewing, which is sort of baseball for “nothing is happening, but it’s also kind of awesome because of that.”
Mets 0-0 Royals, bottom of the 3rd
Escobar is up with a man on first. Can’t imagine he’ll be swinging at the first pitch here.
Nope he instead takes strike one. He swings at pitch two, and that’s 0-2 already. DeGrom tries to get Escobar to chase a high fast one but he doesn’t bite. 1-2. Escobar grounds out to short to end the inning.
Updated
Mets 0-0 Royals, bottom of the 3rd
Alex Rios strikes out in what feels like one and a half pitches.
Mets 0-0 Royals, bottom of the 3rd
DeGrom actually has thrown a full balls off of the plate this inning. I’m disappointed. And he walks Alex Gordon, who is... a better No. 8 hitter than what the Mets have. This brings up Alex Rios.
Mets 0-0 Royals, bottom of the 3rd
Salvador Perez leads off the third for the Royals, he hits a flyball to Cespedes that the Kansas City crowd, perhaps a bit restless and ready for offense, thinks is more dangerous than it actually is.
Mets 0-0 Royals, top of the 3rd
Wilmer Flores is up, and he’s down as he grounds out to get the pitcher. Then Juan Lagares flies out to Cain in the outfield and Cueto has faced the minimum through three.
Mets 0-0 Royals, top of the 3rd
Michael Conforto, who has the most swashbuckler name of all the current World Series participants, gets his first at-bat of the game. He’s 1-17 this postseason.
Cueto falls behind 3-1, but throws a weird breaking pitch that Conforto fouls off. 3-2. Conforto fouls off the next pitch as well, trying to stay alive. He does it again becoming the first hitter to really get Cueto to work a bit.
But he comes up empty with his next swing. One down in the inning.
Mets 0-0 Royals, bottom of the 2nd
Kendrys Morales swiftly flies out. Mike Moustakas falls into an 0-2 count, takes a few pitches before hitting one back to DeGrom who’s retired all six batters he’s seen.
Mets 0-0 Royals, bottom of the 2nd
Eric Hosmer gets a loud ovation when he comes to bat, as you could probably surmise. He takes strike looking though. That quiets the crowd a bit.
Mets 0-0 Royals, top of the 2nd
Well that baserunner didn’t last long. Travis D’Arnaud hits into a double play to end the inning. Cueto has faced the minimum.
Mets 0-0 Royals, top of the 2nd
Lucas Duda with the first hit of the game! Also an excuse to reuse this tweet from yesterday:
although he ended up being a successful pro baseball player, Lucas Duda's best sport was the Camptown Race
— Dick Synonym (@AnthraxJones) October 28, 2015
Mets 0-0 Royals, top of the 2nd
Yoenis Cespedes! One of the most fun players in the game is up to bat for the Mets. He grounds out to short. That’s not really fun, more routine. He’ll be more fun next time out I swear.
Mets 0-0 Royals, bottom of the 1st
Elisabeth Axel emails to ask
How do I watch? Thanks.
Well, if one doesn’t have access to FOX television, there’s Fox Sports Go or MLB.TV (if you subscribe to their package that includes the postseason) but you will need a password from a cable account, I believe.
Mets 0-0 Royals, bottom of the 1st
And Lorenzo Cain flies out to Curtis Granderson, who makes his third straight outfield putout.
Too early to make a “perfect game in progress” alert?
Mets 0-0 Royals, bottom of the 1st
Alcides Escobar, who hit the first pitch for an inside-the-park home run to start the bottom of the 1st in game 1, just swings at the first pitch and this time just flies out harmlessly. Ben Zobrist flies out as well. That’s two down.
Mets 0-0 Royals, top of the 1st
That brings up Daniel Murphy, who falls behind 0-2. Well at least he’ll make Cueto throw a third pitch this at-bat.
Which is a ball. 1-2. There’s another ball and then Murphy takes strike three. He um, doesn’t not completely agree with that outcome but it’s a 1-2-3 for Cueto.
First pitch!
Mets 0-0 Royals, top of the 1st
It’s a strike. Cueto to Curtis Granderson, who takes strike one. On the next pitch he grounds out to first. And just as quickly, David Wright lines out to Ben Zobrist at second. That’s two outs on four pitches.
Updated
Sadly, FOX is trotting out Joe Buck and Harold Reynold again to do the commentary. Couldn’t we have the international feed once again?
National Anthem
Well, um, she tried?
In any case here’s an orchestral version from last year’s World Series that’s much better:
And now an observation from my favorite Ghost Of Baseball Past:
The great Republican A. Lincoln knew some mighty truths. One of them was do not participate in a debate during the god damn World's Series.
— Old Hoss Radbourn (@OldHossRadbourn) October 28, 2015
Oh I suppose it might be a good idea to actually show how Game 1 ended. With bases loaded, and nobody out, Eric Hosmer hit a long sacrifice fly. It looked something like this:
So long, locks: @Mets' Jacob deGrom plans to cut hair after #WorldSeries -->https://t.co/rqJKUdAanp pic.twitter.com/39jcLAsUaZ
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 28, 2015
First no Bartolo, and now this. This is starting to become a bummer.
I feel like I should spend more time trying to talk about what happened in the game last night, but I feel like there’s no real way to get into everything. It’s like as as soon as I get into one aspect I’d have to bring up a billion other things. It’s like trying to explain the plot of a prog rock concept album: it’s confusing and long and impossible to summarize and wouldn’t make sense if you could and all that really matters is that it was fun but also really exhausting.
I should all that the extra innings meant that Bartolo Colon is NOT, I repeat NOT, available out of the bullpen tonight. Which makes me sad.
@HunterFelt Watching the #Gulp debate #UGH enjoy the game Hunter!
— ColleenK.Ernst (@cke5) October 28, 2015
Well, you can follow along with this liveblog. Or watch the game and follow along with our debate liveblog. Either way works for us.
Prediction
They say that nobody can predict baseball but this liveblog presupposes: what if you could? Now, I have a massive man-crush on Jacob DeGrom and his shiny, shiny hair but... I already predicted the Royals would win this in 5 games and if they lost tonight I don’t see them winning three straight on the road so I have to say that the Mets will lose this game (but it will be the Mets’ overtaxed bullpen’s fault.)
Your predictions? You can tweet them to @HunterFelt or email them to Hunter.Felt@theguardian.com.
Updated
Kansas City Royals lineup
The Kansas City Royals Game 2 lineup card. https://t.co/KtgP3kRck8 pic.twitter.com/af470utDqb
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) October 28, 2015
New York Mets lineup
The New York Mets Game 2 lineup card. https://t.co/XVElG2Tb9t pic.twitter.com/Yo7w4RZQ67
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) October 28, 2015
Preamble
I have never been more happy not to liveblog the first game of a World Series. Don’t get me wrong, these are my absolute favorite things to write but yesterday’s game 1, or today’s game 1 if you happen to be on the East Coast, was one of the longest in history: a 14 inning affair which ended with the Kansas City Royals beating the New York Mets 5-4 thanks to a walk-off sacrifice fly off the bat of Eric Hosmer.
It was a dramatic game which also featured the network’s television feed going out, a ninth ending home run that sent the game into extra innings and the tragic death of Royals starting pitcher Edinson Volquez’s father hours before first pitch (something Volquez, per a family request, was not made aware of until after his outing).
The Mets had their chances, but once things got weird, they had no chance. The Royals thrive on winning crazy games. Tonight’s game 2 at Kauffman Stadium, the Mets’ Jacob DeGrom is facing the Royals’ Johnny Cueto. The matchup would seem to favor DeGrom and his gorgeous fastball and even more impressive hair. DeGrom has been one of the best pitchers in the league for the Mets while Cueto has been, um, not for the Royals. New York will need a vintage performance from him, as teams that fall behind 0-2 in a seven game series... well, they tend not to fare well:
Teams to win the 1st 2 games of a best-of-7 MLB postseason series go on to win the series 83.3% of the time (65-13) - via @EliasSports
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 28, 2015
We want to hear from you throughout today’s liveblog. No seriously, we do. You can tweet @HunterFelt or email Hunter.Felt@theguardian.com throughout the game and you can be our color commentator, Greek chorus and/or wisecracking MST3K robot. It’s the New York Mets vs the Kansas City Royals for Game 2 of the World Series at Kauffman Stadium. The game is supposed to start 8:07pm EST, but we’ll be back way before that with lineups, predictions, and all sorts of nonsense well before then.
Updated
Hunter will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Sean Keeler’s Game 1 report:
