The Guardian will have further coverage of the Kansas City Royals’ World Series run in the upcoming days, but that will do it from us tonight. Thanks to everybody who followed along with this liveblog, particularly everybody who contributed tweets and emails (sorry I couldn’t include everyone). Ciao!
Salvador Perez is your World Series MVP!
THAT MVP SMILE! The 2015 #WorldSeries MVP: @SalvadorPerez15! pic.twitter.com/cePM7VFx86
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) November 2, 2015
Sure, why not?
They're not in Kansas (City) anymore. Congrats to the Royals, Kings of Queens and World Series champions. pic.twitter.com/n3s7dQOv8k
— David Lengel (@LengelDavid) November 2, 2015
The parade will be on noon at Tuesday. Starts on Grand in Power and Light and goes to Union Station.
— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) November 2, 2015
We’re just going to stick around for the MVP presentation and then we’ll sign off here. It’s hard to think of an obvious answer, this was a true group effort.
George Brett is happy pic.twitter.com/TG0H8jZSQ5
— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) November 2, 2015
Looks like ur prediction of royals in game 5 came true @HunterFelt
— Isaac Murphy (@imurphy86) November 2, 2015
I also said “expect the New York Mets to drop at least two games where all logic says they should win, turning what feels like it should be a six or seven game series into a shorter, stranger one.” Which is exactly what happened, the Mets had a really good chance of winning three of the four games that they lost. That’s not because the Mets are a bad team, far from it. They’re a talented young team who probably overachieved this year. It’s because these Royals are that good. They will take advantage of every single mistake. They are the best team in baseball, it’s impossible to argue otherwise.
The Kansas City Royals are world champions! They have eliminated the New York Mets in five games!
Updated
Royals win!
Royals 7-2 Mets, FINAL
Flores is up and is immediately in a 0-2 hole. The Royals are a strike away again. Flores takes ball one. Conforto goes into second, just to be annoying probably. Flores fouls off another pitch. Nobody wants to be the last out of a World Series. It’s a pride thing.
Flores fouls off another. But the next pitch is called strike three! It’s over!
Royals 7-2 Mets, bottom 12th
Davis gets Conforto down 0-2. His next pitch is high upstairs and then Conforto is able to clobber it for a base hit.
Royals 7-2 Mets, bottom 12th
D’Arnaud is up next. Davis falls behind 3-1, but the Mets catcher fouls the next pitch off and then swings and misses.
Two down.
Royals 7-2 Mets, bottom 12th
Wade Davis here to close things out, although obviously there’s no save here. He puts Duda in a 0-2 hole and then strikes him out.
One down. Royals fans are starting to congregate over the visitor’s dugout.
Email from rocket:
As someone who follows both cricket and baseball I can tell Graeme Jamieson that Major League Baseball players throw the ball much faster and flatter than international cricketers, and would cause many run-outs if let loose on a cricket field.
Good to know.
Royals 7-2 Mets, top 12th
Moustakas flies out and that’s it. The Royals are three outs away from winning the World Series.
Royals 7-2 Mets, top 12th
Ya Gotta Believe...#Mets fans filing out early. @HunterFelt pic.twitter.com/3hfYKH6Juj
— David Lengel (@LengelDavid) November 2, 2015
Hosmer grounds out to Murphy, finally the second out! Cain moves to third, but nobody cares by this point.
3 Run Double! (Royals)
Royals 7-2 Mets, top 12th
Instead, Cain hits a double! THREE RUNS SCORE! This inning may never end.
Royals 4-2 Mets, top 12th
@HunterFelt why did reed load the bases ?
— Isaac Murphy (@imurphy86) November 2, 2015
To try to set up a double play with only one out, to try to limit the damage. Bartolo Colon is in the game now against Cain trying to do just that.
Royals 4-2 Mets, top 12th
The Mets intentionally walk Ben Zobrist. Terry Collins is in to make a pitching change.
The Royals are a rollicking in the dugout, jumping, pointing, screaming. It's intimidating: they know they're going to win. @HunterFelt
— David Lengel (@LengelDavid) November 2, 2015
Run! (Royals, who else)
Royals 4-2 Mets, top 12th
Mets fans are leaving. I wouldn’t stick around either. Escobar is up to bat with two on and one out. On a 2-2 count, Escobar hits a double that scores Colon!
Royals 3-2 Mets, top 12th
Now Orlando is up, and there’s still just one out. He hits a ball to Murphy AND OF COURSE MURPHY BOBBLES IT BECAUSE OF COURSE! Everyone is safe!
RUN! (Royals)
Royals 3-2 Mets, top 12th
I have no idea who this person is but they’re about to drive in the winning run of a deciding World Series game.
Christian Colon is the name. He falls behind 0-2. He’s not going to see a strike here is he? Reed’s next ball is in the dirt, the Mets are lucky it doesn’t get away from the catcher. Colon fouls the next one off. AND HE LINES A BASE HIT! THE ROYALS LEAD!
Royals 2-2 Mets, top 12th
Alex Gordon at the plate, he takes two straight balls. Then, on pitch three, a strike, Dyson has second stolen easily. Gordon fouls off the next pitch. 2-2. Reed’s next pitch is a ball. 3-2. Gordon swings again, fouling off.
It feels like Mets fans are just begging for anything to just end this game. A “get it over with” vibe. I could be projecting.
Gordon hits a groundball to first, sacrificing himself to put Dyson on third with less than two outs.
Royals 2-2 Mets, top 12th
Addison Reed is pitching for the Mets. Perez hits a single off of him and Ned Yost brings in a pinch-runner, Jarrod Dyson.
From Graeme Jamieson
Hi Hunter,
I hope the Mets somehow stumble through this, but it’s hard to feel they’d deserve it with the kind of comic misfielding we’ve seen the last two nights. Would Murphy (last night) or Duda (tonight) get picked again for a 50-over Sunday cricket team? Maybe to carry drinks.
I wish I could answer this, but I cannot figure out cricket at all. I’d have better luck trying to understand Japanese translations of Philip K Dick novels.
Royals 2-2 Mets, bottom 11th
Lagares, who you recall is only in the game because Cespedes suffered a bruised knee, is now up. He takes a strike and then grounds out to Hosmer.
To the 12th!
Royals 2-2 Mets, bottom 11th
Daniel Murphy hits the first pitch he sees into foul ground, out of play. He was a tad overeager, but can you blame him? 0-1. Hochevar’s next pitch is out of the zone. 1-1. He takes the next pitch as well, 2-1. Hitter’s count. Orlando is super-deep.
Murphy takes, good take, and it’s 3-1. Next pitch is... outside. He takes a walk.
Royals 2-2 Mets, bottom 11th
David Wright is next, gets into a 2-1 count and gets a good swing but it’s a routine flyball to Orlando.
Royals 2-2 Mets, bottom 11th
Hochevar is back out there, and he gets Granderson in a 0-2 hole before getting him to pop up to Escobar.
Updated
Seven hits in two games. It's an ugly view from here. @HunterFelt pic.twitter.com/1XhkgwRAYN
— David Lengel (@LengelDavid) November 2, 2015
@HunterFelt nine, that is...
— David Lengel (@LengelDavid) November 2, 2015
Keeping track of anything in this crazy game is impossible. Which is not good news for me, the person who is supposed to be keeping track of things.
Royals 2-2 Mets, top 11th
And here’s Moustakas. We know how this movie ends. Niese’s first pitch is a ball but he gets two quick strikes. 1-2. Niese throws ball 2 in the dirt and guess what: Hosmer takes second.
Niese throws ball 3. It may not matter. At 3-2 it’s a shallow flyball and.... OH WOW, for the first time this series, that doesn’t find a hole! Conforto actually hauls it in. I’m actually somewhat confused.
Royals 2-2 Mets, top 11th
Eric Hosmer hits one foul. 0-1. He takes a ball, 1-1. I don’t think I need to say he’s a dangerous hitter. Niese throws a curveball that’s outside, 2-1, and there’s a base hit for Hosmer.
It’s happening again.
Royals 2-2 Mets, top 11th
Jon Niese is into the game and he immediately gets Zobrist to ground out to Wright, and he gets Cain to fly out to Granderson.
@HunterFelt Extra innings: Where livebloggers earn the big bucks.
— DJ Gallo (@DJGalloEtc) November 2, 2015
In retrospect, “I’ll grab food after the game” was a Terry Collins-sized mistake.
Royals 2-2 Mets, bottom 10th
Flores grounds out to shortstop and here’s Kelly Johnson pinch-hitting. He pops up to Hosmer.
THIS ONE GOES TO ELEVEN!
Royals 2-2 Mets, bottom 10th
Luke Hochevar is the new pitcher for Kansas City. Michael Conforto is up, everyone in Citi Field is trying to will him into hitting another home run. Conforto falls behind 1-2, but he takes a pitch outside and fouls one off to stay alive. 2-2.
He fouls another pitch off. Just barely staying alive. At 2-2, it’s a ball just inside. 3-2. Solid at bat here. At 3-2 he hits a ball high in the air but not deep and that’s an out. It was a cookie too.
Royals 2-2 Mets, top 10th
Escobar is up, it feels like he’s always up. He falls to 1-2 and then strikes out on the very next pitch. Familia has done his job this series, it’s a shame his manager and defense haven’t done theirs.
Royals 2-2 Mets, top 10th
I really didn’t think we would see Orlando bat again this game. He breaks his bat on a slider and falls to 0-2 as well. Orlando doesn’t swing at a pitch outside. 1-2. He fouls off another tough pitch to stay alive. Finally Orlando hits a breaking bat roller to first for the second out. He’s turned everything into splinters.
Royals 2-2 Mets, top 10th
Kendrys Morales is up pinch-hitting, Familia is still in the game. He gets ahead of Morales 0-2, and then gets him to swing and miss on a sinking fastball.
Heading into this series, Ned Yost was supposed to be the laughing stock of the two managers, but Terry Collins has made the SAME EXACT BULLPEN USAGE ERROR in two straight games and it’s cost him one World Series game and could cost him this final one.
Royals 2-2 Mets, bottom 9th
D’Arnaud is out here trying to prevent extra innings. He doesn’t, he flies out to shallow LF.
Extra innings in a potential elimination game time!
Royals 2-2 Mets, bottom 9th
Lucas Duda, Today’s Mets Goat, hits a long flyball but that’s all it is. Out two.
Royals 2-2 Mets, bottom 9th
Herrera is out to face Lagares, who grounds out to Escobar.
Email from William M:
scoring on Harvey was sweet! There was so much fetishization of that pitcher and his no-hitter—that he, and the crowd, would overrule the manager is outrageous.
It really did feel like it was an emotional decision rather than a rational one. If (when) the Royals come back to win this one, Harvey-in-the-ninth is going to become a baseball cautionary tale.
Royals 2-2 Mets, top 9th
Familia falls behind Alex Gordon 3-1. Gordon fouls a pitch off. 3-2. He fouls another off. At 3-2, he grounds back to the pitcher but this game is tied and we’ll see the bottom of the 9th.
Run! (Royals)
Royals 2-2 Mets, top 9th
Infield in for Perez. The Royals can tie this while making an out. Perez grounds out to Wright who looks the runner back and throws to Duda for the out but Duda’s throw to the plate is awful and Hosmer scores! Tied game!
Royals 1-2 Mets, top 9th
Hosmer’s the tying run on second. Moustakas is at the plate against Jeurys Familia. He falls behind Moustakas 2-0 before grounding out to Duda, moving Hosmer to third. There is only one out.
Royals 1-2 Mets, top 9th
There’s a not insignificant chance that not handing a clean inning over to Familia and instead going with the sentimental choice of bringing Harvey back in could sink the Mets season. So there’s that.
Run! (Royals)
Royals 1-2 Mets, top 9th
Collins is sticking with Harvey. Hosmer takes a strike. 0-1, but Cain steals second on the pitch. On 0-1, Hosmer hits a double! The Royals are on the board. Harvey’s coming out, Familia’s coming in.
Royals 0-2 Mets, top 9th
Lorenzo Cain is up first. Matt Harvey gets Cain in a 1-2 count and the crowd noise rises. The next pitch is a ball. Cain then hits one foul, just out of reach. 2-2.
There’s a fastball up and away. 3-2. And then it’s a slider away and that’s a leadoff walk.
Email from Chuck Combes:
Ok, you asked for humor. If the Mets bring in Colon, you could refer to him as “the baseball player who most resembles J. Edgar Hoover.” If you run out of other things to say....
Thanks again!
I think it Colon ran out there instead of Harvey it would have been the funniest moment in World Series history.
Matt Harvey will pitch the ninth!
This could be a roll of the dice for Collins, but it’s great drama for the rest of us.
Royals 0-2 Mets, bottom 8th
Daniel Murphy is up now. The rumor is Harvey will be back out to start the ninth and the “We Want Harvey!” chants have become deafening.
Oh and Murphy is still batting, that’s right. It’s 2-2. No wait, 3-2 after he checks his swing. And... it’s a strike three called! Is it going to be Familia or is it going to be Harvey?
Royals 0-2 Mets, bottom 8th
David Wright is up , and he falls 0-2. It feels like everyone is just eager to get to the ninth. He strikes out.
Royals 0-2 Mets, bottom 8th
Herrera is pitching the bottom of the 8th. He strikes Granderso out. One down.
Email from Marcus:
terrific comments on bottom 6th. really appreciate the glimpses of crowd response. feel for cespedes. brave guy. hope he’s ok. wonder what the speed of the ball was
that’s the physics i missed. it’s a great game. can the mets pull this off?
They’re three outs from it so... well, it’s quite possible my Royals in 5 prediction is kaput.
Royals 0-2 Mets, top 8th
Ben Zobrist. This is going to be the biggest out of Harvey’s career so far. The first pitch is outside. 1-0. The next one is also high. 2-0. He hits the inside corner with the next pitch. 2-1. And with the next pitch, Zobrist flies out to Lagares to end the inning and Matt freaking Harvey’s gone eight straight innings of no run baseball.
Royals 0-2 Mets, top 8th
And Escobar pops one up. And that’s two down.
Royals 0-2 Mets, top 8th
Matt Harvey back out there. Orlando attempts to bunt and it goes just foul. 0-1. Every strike feels precious. Harvey’s next pitch is high. 1-1. Orlando hits a shallow fly to Granderson. That’s out number one.
Would it be rude to mention that this is where things fell apart last night?
From Richard Woods:
I second Marcos Waddington’s comments. As an Englishman living in China but spending some of my year in my wife’s native Canada , I started watching the Blue Jays this year. While that was enjoyable enough - as far as it went - I’m a neophyte as far as the finer points of the game are concerned. Your commentary adds flavour as well as being informative. Thanks. Hopefully there won’t be too much of a time lag between the end of this game and the start of day two of the Test Match. I need something to keep me going at work.
Thanks for the compliments. I always love hearing the places that this game has spread. The Toronto Blue Jays playoff run clearly has helped.
Royals 0-2 Mets, bottom 7th
Conforto hits a single to right, which is now being patrolled by Paulo Orlando. Flores, however, hits into a double play.
And Matt Harvey is hitting for himself, so he will at least start the 8th. He grounds out to Moustakas and that will be that.
Royals 0-2 Mets, bottom 7th
@HunterFelt volquez looks distracted at times, maybe this was too soon to get him in, what do you think?
— Isaac Murphy (@imurphy86) November 2, 2015
It feels like Ned Yost kept him in too long, they were lucky that the Mets only got the one run in the 6th. In any case, his night’s done. Herrera is in now for Kansas City.
Seventh inning stretch
Royals 0-2 Mets, top 7th
Alex Rios is up, nope he’s actually down, as he grounds out to Wright. That was quick.
Royals 0-2 Mets, top 7th
Alex Gordon hits a substantial flyball, but Lagares is underneath it. That’s out number two.
Royals 0-2 Mets, top 7th
Perez is up with Moustakas on first. Nobody out. Harvey has to be thinking double play here. Instead, he gets Perez to pop up for the first out.
Royals 0-2 Mets, top 7th
As one would expect, Juan Lagares in in the center for Cespedes. Matt Harvey is back in and Moustakas welcomes him back from a long layover with a single.
Email from Marcus Waddington:
great stuff. really helps me understand this game better. i laughed out loud 3 times.
you put me right at the game. im in vancouver. big rain today and tonight. the americans play this game well. and so integrated! this is by far their best export. send baseball over there instead of the whatever bombs.
i hope there’s a next game.
Thanks for the kind words. I like that idea: Baseball Not Bombs. We should trademark it. Make it a Thing.
Royals 0-2 Mets, bottom 6th
D’Arnaud is up with two outs, runners on the corners, and he grounds out. The Mets get an extra run, but they may have lost Cespedes in the process.
Run! (Mets)
Royals 0-2 Mets, bottom 6th
@HunterFelt let's see how the mets handle cespedes injury
— Isaac Murphy (@imurphy86) November 2, 2015
He’s limping off the field. I cannot see how he could return to this game.
Lucas Duda is up with bases loaded, one out. If they don’t get at least a run from this inning, they don’t deserve to win this game. They will have nobody to blame.
On 1-1, Duda hits a long flyball, it scores Granderson from third and moves Wright to third! It’s 2-0 Mets!
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 6th
None of this looks good. I would be thoroughly surprised if Cespedes continues...
No, nevermind, I guess he’s going to try to complete this at-bat. Volquez throws a few warm-up pitches here. Everything is happening.
Volquez throws a breaking ball outside. 1-2. I would be surprised if Cespedes got anything in the zone. Cespedes... pops up on the infield.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 6th
The bases are loaded with nobody out for Cespedes. Volquez throws a strike. 0-1. That’s not ideal there. Cespedes then fouls a ball right off of himself, the knee it looks like, and he’s in pain. The ballpark goes quiet and the training staff sprints to the field.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 6th
There’s action in the Royals bullpen, Kelvin Herrera is throwing. Volquez is facing Daniel Murphy who hits a ball off of Hosmer and, well here’s some parallelism, he can’t make the play and the bases are loaded and nobody is out.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 6th
So, the Royals have allowed a leadoff walk and their pitcher is clearly upset. That’s not the best combo. David Wright hits a sharp single and now there’s two on without nobody out.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 6th
An increasingly frustrated Volquez falls behind 3-0 to Granderson. He is very much not happy with the umpire’s call on the third ball, but he likes the next call, a borderline strike. 3-1. Then Granderson fails to check his swing and it’s 3-2. Volquez might just get out of this.
Or not. Called ball four. Perez has to run out to calm his pitcher.
Old friend Aram M writes in:
I want the royals to win, I just don’t want your prediction of 5 games to come true?
This is a tough one for me.
It’s starting to look like Harvey might be single-handedly making my prediction look foolish, so you might get your wish.
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 6th
And here’s Hosmer, who grounds out to Hosmer. Inning over.
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 6th
With one on and one out, here comes Cain. Harvey falls behind 2-0 to Cain. Cain takes a rip, and it’s 2-1 and then fouls off Harvey’s next fastball. That evens the count at 2-2. Cain fouls off the next one. Still 2-2.
And Cain swings and misses at a ball in the dirt! Harvey’s ninth strikeout and it’s a big one!
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 6th
Ben Zobrist gets a base hit after falling behind 1-2. Mets fans sound almost baffled that this is possible.
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 6th
Matt Harvey is back out there. Again, obviously. He’s only thrown 69 pitches so far, which is nice.
Escobar is back out there, but not for long. He grounds out to third.
I’m just going to take this time to remind everyone that I’m taking your thoughts, jokes, comments and questions throughout this liveblog. You can email them to Hunter.Felt@theguardian.com or tweet them to @HunterFelt.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 5th
If Harvey could somehow hit an extra-base hit here with runners on first and second and two out, he’ll do a lot to justify the Dark Knight nickname.
Volquez’s first pitch is away and he’s clearly having command issues. Harvey grounds out to Escobar on the next pitch though, so nothing comes of that. Something to watch next inning however, the KC bullpen’s coming in sooner rather than later.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 5th
After a brief mound visit, they decide to intentionally walk Flores to face the pitcher Harvey. Not that Flores has been hitting much better than a pitcher this series.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 5th
Here comes Conforto with one on and one out. Volquez’s first pitch is a ball. He seems out of sorts. 1-0. Called strike. 1-1. Volquez needed that call and the very next pitch is a very clear strike and Conforto is in a 1-2 hole.
Volquez’s next pitch gets away from him a bit. 2-2. Conforto grounds into a force play, he’s out at first but Duda moves up to second.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 5th
Volquez, who looks a bit rattled, throws two pitches outside to d’Arnaud and Perez goes to the mound to talk things over. 2-0 to the Mets catcher, who swings away but can only foul the next pitch off. 2-1. Volquez’s next pitch is in the dirt. 3-1. D’Arnaud swings away but it’s just a routine fly and the inning’s first out.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 5th
I almost feel bad for Volquez who has been really great, just not NSFW levels of pitching porn. He’s facing Duda, who takes three straight balls before swinging at 3-0 for some unfathomable reason. It doesn’t hurt the cause, as Volquez stumbles a bit and throws one out of the zone for ball four.
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 5th
Alex Rios, a home run threat, is up with Gordon at 1st. He’s also a strikeout threat, so it’s not surprising that Harvey gets him to fall behind 0-2. The crowd starts trying to egg on a third strike here. Instead, Rios starts fouling off pitches. Then he takes a ball before Harvey finally freezes him for strikeout number 7.
Harvey then gets his counterpart Volquez to strikeout to end the inning.
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 5th
Alex Gordon is up here, with the goal probably “not to strike out.” It doesn’t look good early, as he too falls into a 1-2 hole. Gordon doesn’t bite at a ball upstairs. 2-2. Then he takes a real close pitch. 3-2. And Harvey’s next pitch is also called outside.
Alex Gordon is Harvey’s first walk of the night.
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 5th
Cespedes is a free agent, by the way. His agent might be the only person groaning more at his World Series performance than Mets fans right now.
Harvey is back out for the 5th, as I think you’ve already assumed. Perez is the batter. Harvey’s first pitch curveball misses outside. On 1-0, Perez hits a dangerous looking foul home run. Just a scary strike, as they say in the broadcasting world. Harvey throws one by Perez’s hands, a ball that Perez inexplicably swings at, before getting Perez to strike out. That’s 6 k’s now for Harvey.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 4th
Cespedes is probably thinking home run here. Of course, Volquez knows that Cespedes is thinking home run here. We’ll see how this plays.
Cespedes takes ball one and then swings at the second pitch and grounds into a double-play. That answers that question.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 4th
Volquez has five strikeouts too here now. But he falls behind Murphy 2-0, nope make that 3-0. Oh and 4-0.
Murphy’s on first, Cespedes is up with one out and one on.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 4th
Volquez has been pretty good too, the Granderson home run notwithstanding. He’s facing David Wright, who takes a strike, then swings and misses, then fouls off a pitch before taking a close pitch for a ball. 1-2.
And Wright guesses wrong, swinging and missing one more time to end the at-bat.
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 4th
That’s five strikeouts in four innings for Harvey. He’s only allowed two hits and has walked nobody. Not bad right?
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 4th
Moustakas is up and HE takes a strike. Moustakas swings at the next pitch and comes up empty. Jeez, is Harvey’s stuff nasty. And HE SWINGS AND MISSES. Harvey has struck out the side. My lord.
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 4th
Eric Hosmer swings and misses before he’s barely in the box. 0-1. He takes the next pitch. And that’s a strike. 0-2. Hosmer takes a ball, fouls another off and takes a pitch inside before Harvey can put him away with a curveball. Another strikeout for Harvey.
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 4th
Harvey faces Cain to start the fourth and falls behind 3-1. He gets Harvey to swing at a somewhat wayward pitch to make it 3-2. Cain swings again and gets himself out. One down.
@HunterFelt we are now living in a parallel universe in which Alcides Escobar doesn't swing at the first pitch.
— Paul C (@TheSlowRun) November 2, 2015
Obviously it’s because Noah Syndergaard “set the tone” two games ago.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 3rd
Granderson is back up. He gets a bit of applause, as you’d expect. He takes a ball and a strikes. On 1-1, Granderson hits a ball foul. 1-2. Then he swings and misses to end the inning. This is going speedily.
I fear this means that we have a 54 minute inning coming in the near future.
Updated
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 3rd
Volquez gets Flores to pop out into foul ground, Moustakas has just enough room to make the play for the quick out.
Matt Harvey is up and he has to be thinking there’s no way that the AL pitcher is going to be the one to get a base hit in this game.
Instead he hits a chopper to Escobar for the second out.
Updated
The troubles with postseason baseball ceremonies:
Twitter should fix it so that octogenarian celebrities are never trending. So relieved that Tony Bennett is still alive.
— Frank Conniff (@FrankConniff) November 2, 2015
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 3rd
Ben Zobrist, sneakily the Royals secret weapon, is up with bases empty and two out. Zobrist shows his patience by working a full count, getting Harvey’s pitch count up should be a major part of Kansas City’s strategy, but he pops up to Granderson to end the inning.
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 3rd
Even the Royals’ pitchers make contact. Volquez hits a single, but he’s quickly erased when Escobar hits into a double play. No harm, no foul.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 2nd
Volquez strikes Confroto out to end the inning. That was, um, not nearly as dramatic as what he did yesterday.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 2nd
Travis d’Arnaud grounds into a double play to wipe the bases clean. Michael Conforto, who hit two home runs last night, is up with two out and nobody on.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 2nd
Volquez is back out for the second inning, facing Lucas Duda. The Royals shift on the pull-hitting first baseman. It doesn’t matter, he doesn’t put anything in play, instead he checks his swing on ball four and takes his base.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 2nd
The view from Mets fans:
Oh thank goodness.
— Eric Simon (@AmazinAvenue) November 2, 2015
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 2nd
Alex Rios takes a ball and then fouls off a pitch from Harvey. 1-1. Rios takes a ball. 2-1. Rios fouls off the next one. 2-2. The crowd gets loud again. You can tell that every strike feels life and death. Harvey’s next pitch is ruled outside. 3-2. The stadium fills with groans. Rios grounds out and Duda *just* makes the tag at first to end the inning. This is going to be a long night at the ballpark for those who have made the trip.
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 2nd
Salvador Perez hits into what looks like it should be a double-play, but ends up just being forceout after a poor throw by Murphy. Moustakas is out but Perez is safe at first.
Gordon then pops up for the second out of the inning. Can the Mets actually work around these miscues?
Royals 0-1 Mets, top 2nd
So that’s two strikeouts apiece for Harvey and Volquez. Is it too early to say pitcher’s duel? (Realizes the game is only one inning old.) Okay, yes, it’s way way way too early.
Mike Moustakas takes a called strike to start the second then hits a groundball right to Wright who, because this is Mets/Royals, can’t make the play. Moustakas is safe on first, Wright is charged with an error.
It is happening again.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 1st
Here comes Yoenis Cespedes, who really, really needs a good game here for the Mets to save their season. He grounds out on the first pitch here, though, to end the inning.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 1st
Daniel Murphy, possibly looking for redemption here, comes up next. Instead he falls behind 0-2 and eventually strikes out. That’s two straight k’s for Volquez after the leadoff home run.
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 1st
And that gets the crowd loud. David Wright is up next, Volquez’s second pitch nearly hits Wright, upsetting a crowd over-sensitive to the possibility of intent. Wright takes ball two and then swings away to even the count. 2-2. And Wright swings away at the next pitch and he’s out of there. That went a little better for Volquez.
Home run! (Mets)
Royals 0-1 Mets, bottom 1st
So, two strikeouts in the first inning for Harvey is a good sign. Keeping the Royals from making contact is really the only way to guarantee that they won’t hurt you.
This sounds really kind of stupidly simple when I say it like that. Sometimes this game is simple, though.
Edinson Volquez is out for the Royals, facing Curtis Granderson. He gets ahead of the sometimes free-swinging Granderson 0-2, but his luck runs out as Granderson swings away at the third pitch of the at-bat and knocks it out of the stadium!
Royals 0-0 Mets, top 1st
Eric Hosmer is up with two down and Cain on first. Harvey throws to first while “Let’s Go Mets” chants start. Cain is safe. Cain takes off on the next pitch and has second stolen easily.
Harvey turns his attention back to Hosmer, the count is 0-1. Then it’s 0-2, a slider right at Hosmer’s hands. The Citi Field crowd gets loud again. Hosmer doesn’t offer at Harvey’s next pitch. At 1-2, Hosmer fouls one off. That’s also what they’ve been doing all series: make contact, stay alive.
But Hosmer can’t stay alive for much longer, he whiffs on the next pitch to end the inning.
Royals 0-0 Mets, top 1st
Lorenzo Cain hits a single past Flores, the kind of hitting they’ve been doing all series long. All postseason long, really.
Royals 0-0 Mets, top 1st
Ben Zobrist is next, he swings and hits a flyball to centerfield, there’s a hushed silence, until Cespedes makes the grab, which is met with cheers. Two down.
Royals 0-0 Mets, top 1st
Matt Harvey throws the first pitch of the game to Alcides Escobar, it’s a slider that Escobar fouls off. Harvey’s next pitch is outside. 1-1. Pitch 3 is called low. 2-1. Escobar swings at a slider out of the zone. 2-2. Swing and a miss! Harvey strikes him out and the Citi Field crowd is LOUD AS HECK.
Email from Petter Settli:
Prediction
i have no idea. i don’t even know why I’m still up, (live outside Oslo) following this, except i love baseball.
Agreed on that last statement and it’s kind of bittersweet that the possible last game of the year is about to start.
Mets are pulling out all the stops tonight, as Darryl Strawberry, Mookie Wilson and Cleon Jones emerge to throw out the first pitches.
— Jared Diamond (@jareddiamond) November 2, 2015
National Anthem
We’re a day late on this, but Lovato did a great job last night. First pitch is coming soon here.
Tony Bennett singing America The Beautiful. Royals already down three runs.
— Brian (@BrianMcGannon) November 2, 2015
But they’ll make a comeback before he finishes with the anthem.
About to perform at the World Series on @FOXTV with some very talented young musicians!
— Tony Bennett (@itstonybennett) November 2, 2015
This? This is exciting. Beats Billy Joel, at least.
Email from Sam in Edinburgh:
Super cruel Hunter. I can’t allow myself to believe that they’ll go down that limply. 8-6 Mets (what the hell!) with an early Mets lead whittled down by the usual Missouri backwoods 8th inning rally. One or two of Murphy, Cespedes, Duda and d’Arnaud to wake their bats the hell up.
Ya gotta frickin believe dammit.
The only thing I like more than being right are series that go six or seven games, so I would be perfectly okay with this turn of events as well.
While we’ve been focusing mostly on the game, I feel that it’s important to point out the most unexpected development of the MLB postseason: The fact that Alex Rodriguez has actually been.... likable as a baseball commentator? I don’t know how I feel about this either, maybe it’s just because anyone comes across well when compared to, say, Harold Reynolds.
But maybe it’s because he’s stopped trying to pretend that he’s anything other than a weird and entirely uncool person. Exhibit A:
.@katienolan gets some VERY serious baseball advice from @AROD! https://t.co/BU7morzrLE
— Garbage Time (@GarbageTime) November 1, 2015
Predictions
Let's go Royal take the crown! @Royals @HunterFelt
— Isaac Murphy (@imurphy86) November 2, 2015
Obviously, that’s what I’m predicting here. If anything, the fact that the Mets know they’re playing without any margin of error won’t do anything to help the mental and physical mistakes that seem to be plaguing them. I’m guessing like a 5-2 Royals win, giving the Mets just enough hope to wish for a comeback that ultimately never surfaces.
Man that sounds cruel when I say it.
Agree? Disagree? Email your predictions to Hunter.Felt@theguardian.com or tweet them to @HunterFelt and we’ll post them throughout this blog.
New York Mets starting lineup
1. Curtis Granderson, RF
2. David Wright, 3B
3. Daniel Murphy, 2B
4. Yoenis Cespedes, CF
5. Lucas Duda, C
6. Travis d’Arnaud, C
7. Michael Conforto, LF
8. Wilmer Flores, SS
9. Matt Harvey, P
So, Cespedes is still in there.
Kansas City Royals starting lineup
1. Alcides Escobar, SS
2. Ben Zobrist, 2B
3. Lorenzo Cain, CF
4. Eric Hosmer, 1B
5. Mike Moustakas, 3B
6. Salvador Perez, C
7. Alex Gordon, LF
8. Alex Rios, RF
9. Edinson Volquez, P
And it’s also hard to let Yoenis Cespedes off the hook after he got caught off the basepaths to make the final out of Game 4:
That being said, Daniel Murphy’s error was pretty egregious:
Emails
William Middleton sent me a series of emails last night that I couldn’t fit in to the Game 4 liveblog but I think are pretty solid in explaining why he believes the Royals are fun to watch and how their style of play has translated so well to the playoffs:
I’m a Royals fan, so, as you said, for me it’s a blast. But for all baseball fans: isn’t it a kick to see players do whatever it takes to move around the bases?
....
Also, check out this column from today’s Kansas City Star: It begins with an analysis of that Murphy error in the 8th, suggesting that the Royals’ aggressiveness helps to create these errors. Interesting, I think.
It’s definitely a different style of play than what we’re used to back in the height of Moneyball. Maybe that’s why I’ve been reluctant to embrace it. I will definitely agree that their style of play forces the Mets defenders to play perfect defense and that’s not their strength at all.
Updated
I wouldn’t call myself a fortune teller. No, that’s too modest of a term. I’m more of a prophet. Before this series started here was my prediction:
It’s going to be Kansas City, right? At this point, every time the Royals have looked finished they’ve mounted an improbable comeback... Expect the New York Mets to drop at least two games where all logic says they should win, turning what feels like it should be a six or seven games series into a shorter, stranger one. Royals in five
Well, after yesterday’s latest comeback win, their seventh of the postseason, it looks like the Royals are just one win away from making me look brilliant. (Okay so mistakes by Mets manager Terry Collins and second baseman Daniel Murphy also helped.)
The Royals just have to beat Matt Harvey at home. No big deal right? Kansas City are starting Edinson Volquez, just back from his father’s funeral (you may remember his untimely passing as the sad backstory to this series’ utterly surreal Game 1).
If the Mets do win today, they still would have to win two straight at Kauffman Stadium. They may just be putting off an inevitable fate, but they can’t worry about that. They have to treat this game as if today is all they have.
And so do we. This very well be the last Guardian liveblog of the baseball season. So, if you wanted to contribute to one of these, you can’t assume there will be another time. You can send us emails to Hunter.Felt@theguardian.com or tweets to @HunterFelt. It’s Game 5 of the World Series between the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets at Citi Field. Opening pitch is scheduled at 8:15pm EST, but we’ll be back well before that with starting lineups, predictions and random tomfoolery.
Hunter will be here shortly, until then here’s Bryan Graham on Mets infielder Daniel Murphy’s horrific Game 4:
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