World Series Game 1

The World Series certainly got off to an exciting start last night and demonstrated how close the games can be between the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets. The Royals defeated the Mets 5-4 in a marathon Game 1 that went 14 innings. Both teams continued to battle and the Royals edged the Mets just a bit to win the game on a walk-off sac fly by Hosmer. Taking a look at some of the things that went and things that went wrong, this blog will put together a compilation of those.

Starting with the negatives (since it's always better to end with a positive), let's long at the things that went wrong last night. (The technical difficulty of FOX in the broadcasting of the game is clearly a negative, but let's focus on the team instead.)

Harvey's First Pitch. The first pitch that left Matt Harvey's hand was hit like any normal fly ball to center field, but a misplay and miscommunication by Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto caused it to not be caught, and instead, it knocked off of Cespedes' leg, rolling away enough for Alcides Escobar to motor his way around the bases and have an inside-the-park homer. Not the way you want to start a game, and in turn it did matter in the end. Things may have ended differently if that was caught.

Familia. Jeurys Familia has been outstanding throughout the Postseason. Last night, there was a speed bump. Two outs away from the win, he surrendered a home run to Alex Gordon that was hit to dead center. Unfortunately, the Mets didn't come back to win it for him, but despite that one bump, he's been fantastic. Hopefully they can get him back into Game 2 tonight.

Wright's Error. David Wright had a crucial error in the 14th inning last night that ended up being the  winning run for Kansas City. A ball hit quickly to third took an in-between hop on the third baseman, causing a bobble. He recovered and then threw side-armed to Lucas Duda at first, but pulled him slightly off the bag, allowing the runner to be safe. This was followed by a single, intentional walk, and then the sac fly that ended the night.

Missed Opportunities. There were lots of instances where the Mets could have scored last night and failed to. They were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. 11 LOB. Not the numbers you want in a tight World Series game, but they weren't able to convert.

Rough night for the DH. This isn't in reference to the original DH, Kelly Johnson. He was 0-for-1 with a HBP. However, Cuddyer replaced him later in the game and he certainly had a rough night, going 0-for-3 with 3 strikeouts. Not the numbers you want to see, especially from a batter that's supposed to give an advantage.

Okay, so, those are the negatives and things that went wrong. Let's now focus on the positives of the game.

Wright's Leaping Catch. David Wright made a leaping catch to end the 4th inning last night that would have been a double down the line had he not made it. It was similar to a play Wright made in a previous game this postseason. Very nice defensive play.

Granderson. Granderson had a nice night both defensively and offensively. He hit a solo homer in the top of the 5th off Volquez to give the Mets the lead. In the bottom of the 11th, he made a very nice grab to prevent what would have been a leadoff double off Jon Niese. And also, despite it not making a difference, he made one of the closet throws we've seen him make on the sacrifice fly that ended the game. Closer than everyone thought it would have been.

Harvey Battles. Harvey might of not had his lights out stuff for the game, but he pushed through and battled, matching Volquez of the Royals. He did give up 3 ER, though it really should be 2 ER due to the misplay in the 1st. Not the shutout you would've liked him to pitch, but he kept them in the game, and that's what you need your SP to do.

Jon Niese. The birthday boy had a great relief appearance pitching the 10th and 11th, surrendering only one hit and striking out three. His stuff was on and if he can keep that up, he could be a key asset later in games coming out of the bullpen. Good to see from Niese.

Mets Never Say Die. Although they lost in the end, they came back multiple times throughout the game to stay even with the Royals. Unfortunately, they couldn't come back in extras, but even after the inside-the-parker in the first, they fought back. That's the sort of thing you want to see, but with a different outcome.

There's your look at what went wrong and what went right in Game 1. Jacob deGrom squares off against Johnny Cueto as the Mets try to even the series. Lineups are out and the Mets have switched Lagares to CF, Cespedes to LF, and Conforto as the DH, which is the best lineup they can have out there. Time to bounce back from the game and errors of last night and play a good ballgame. Game 2 begins at 8:07 PM on FOX.

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