Royals Come from Behind to Beat Mets 5-3; Go Ahead 3-1, One Game Away from Taking World Series

By Nicholas Stix

Rookie Mets hurler Steven Matz stood to win the game, and knot the series at two games apiece, but it was not to be. A series of collapses gave the game away.

Mets set-up man Tyler Clippard got the first batter in the eighth, before walking two consecutive hitters, including Lorenzo Cain, whom he had had down 0-2. Mets skipper Terry Collins removed Clippard at least one hitter too late. Mets closer Jeurys Familia induced a ground ball, but second baseman Daniel Murphy butchered it, game tied. Familia then gave up two consecutive singles. 5-3, Royals.

In the bottom of the ninth, after David Wright went down swinging at a breaking ball in the dirt from Royals’ closer Wade Davis, Daniel Murphy and Yoenis Cespedes hit consecutive singles. However, Mets slugger Lucas Duda then hit a soft line drive right into the glove of Royals third baseman Moustakas—he’s Greek to me—and Cespedes, paying no attention to the play in front of him, blindly ran towards second. By the time Cespedes noticed what had happened, it was much too late. As announcer Joe Buck said, he “was out by a mile.”