The Flushing Blues
I approach this from the Mets point of view because I lived in the New York area for a long time, and have several friends who are Met fans. I rooted for them until last night, when the oppression of their bad karma caught up with them. They are kid brother of New York teams, usually taking second place to the Yankees, with a long history of lovable losers, going all the way back to their forming in 1962. Of course they have had great teams in the meantime, winning two world championships, but mostly they are known for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. That was the case this year.
The Mets run was an improbable one. I remember talking to my friend about them early in the year. Bob is a fan in good standing, a lifer. He told me that the team could not hit. Then they made some deals and suddenly had a super offense. They added Yoenis Cespedes, called up Michael Conforto, Curtis Granderson shook off old age, David Wright fought through injuries. They pulled ahead of the bumbling Washington Nationals and cruised to a division title. Then they muscled past the Dodgers, on the strength of great pitching, both starting and relieving, and the batting heroics of Daniel Murphy, who had 14 home runs during the year but would hit half that many in the post-season. They swept the Cubs, and Met fans couldn't help but dust off Tug McGraw's old slogan from 1973: "You Gotta Believe!"
Meanwhile the Royals had their own magic going. Just two innings away from elimination, they pulled a five run inning out of their hats and beat the Astros, They dominated the Blue Jays. They would go on be the kind of team that seemed to toy with their opponents, coming back in late innings to win games routinely. They scored an astounding 51 runs in the sixth inning or later, compared to 11 for their opponents. They don't strike out much, and hits come in bunches, like fireworks.
But! The Mets could have easily won this series. Jeurys Familia, the normally unbeatable closer, blew three saves in the series. Only one was his fault, but if the Mets had held serve in those three games, they would have won in five games. Familia cost them the first game, hanging a breaking ball to Alex Gordon in the bottom of the ninth, allowing the game to go into the wee hours and fourteen innings. In game four a ground ball skidded under Murphy's glove, allowing the tying run to score, and the Royals went on to win. In game five, Familia got his man to saw off a grounder, but David Wright, wracked by back pain, lollipopped the throw to first, allowing Eric Hosmer to make a legendary dash to home plate, and Lucas Duda's throw sailed past the catcher, allowing the Royals to tie the game, ruining a great performance by Matt Harvey and ending any necessity to go back to Kansas City.
The Royals had an inevitability about them. No matter what the Mets did, the Royals figured out a way to win. Games four and five were the encapsulation. In game four, not only did the once-heroic Murphy make an error, but as the Mets rallied in the bottom of the ninth, with two on and one out, Cespedes made a huge mental error by being caught off first base on a soft liner to third, ending the game. Murphy's error made most of the headlines, but I thought Cespedes' boner was more egregious--it was a mental error, made by a player who was having a terrible season (I suspect that the injury to his shoulder sustained in the Cubs series was behind all this, but not the reason for a mental miscue).
In game five, the decision by skipper Terry Collins to leave Harvey in the game in the ninth will be discussed in Met lore for years. And believe me, Mets fans know how to chew over old gristle. Harvey was going to come out, but talked his way into staying in. He seemed invincible, and Collins, an old softie, listened. But Harvey walked Lorenzo Cain. Perhaps now was the time to take him out. But Collins stuck with him, and Hosmer doubled over the left-fielder's head. Now Harvey was gone, and Familia got the ground ball he needed, but Wright failed to securely freeze Hosmer at third and sidearmed the ball to first. Duda's throw--would it have got him at home?--didn't matter, because the ball sailed, and Hosmer was in. Into extra innings again, and when you get into a battle of bullpens with KC, you usually lose.
I have no stance on whether Harvey should have stayed in. A manager should know his players. I suppose he should have held him on a shorter leash and taken him out after the Cain walk, but of course hindsight is 20/20. But Met fans will be talking about it forever.
What may be lost in all this is how great the Royals are. They didn't win this thing going away--you can't say that when they came back in late innings to win three of the four games--but they were a great show, a disciplined bunch who rarely made the kind of mistakes the Mets did. Hosmer made a few key errors, but made up for them with key hits later in the game. Wade Davis, their closer, was imperturbable. When it came time to name the MVP it went to backstop Salvador Perez, who had the most hits, including a key single in the top of the 12th that turned out to be the winning run, but it coul have been anyone. They were a blitzkrieg in royal blue, an unstoppable machine.
I felt the Mets run this year was very much like the Tigers' run in 2006, when they came out of nowhere, defied odds to win the pennant, and then ran out of magic in the World Series. The Mets came down to Earth particularly hard, though, in a cruel and brutal fashion. They leave behind a good young nucleus of players (although Murphy and Cespedes will likely not be back), but it's so tough to get back to the World Series now, with all the layers of playoffs.
Flushing is blue today, and will be for a while.
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