World Series Game 5

The Kansas City Royals are World Series Champions. That's the only way to start out this post.

The Mets surrendered the 3rd game they should have won of the series, and Kansas City's 4th win, allowing them to clinch the championship.

I was there. I experienced it in person. The night was a crazy one. Multiple emotions, ups followed by downs, but the atmosphere was incredible. The fans themselves, the ones that stuck around till the very end, showed this team just how thankful we are to them. More on this later on, but also in a separate post.

Curtis Granderson led things off in the best way possible to get the crowd going: a homer. The one run lead doubled to two on a Lucas Duda sac-fly in the bottom of the 6th inning. Unfortunately, nothing more was gained in what could have been a very big inning for the Mets and could have helped them secure the win.

Matt Harvey pitched the game of his life. The crowd was behind him. They wanted him back out there for the 9th inning. Harvey wanted that ball to start the 9th. He had an outstanding outing. That's lost in what occurred in the 9th and eventually the 12th. He deserved the ball in the 9th. You can argue whether that was the right decision or not, but he was dominating. The one thing that could have been done differently was taking him out after the walk. It was a given the base would be stolen. It's been a given that the Royals can run on d'Arnaud. Throwing down to second is something Travis needs to work on in the offseason. So maybe bringing in Familia after that walk would have had a different outcome, but the Mets would have still won the game if not for a throwing error by Lucas Duda. 

David Wright picked up the ground ball to the left side, looked Hosmer back, who was on third base carrying the tying run, and then threw to first for the out. In a risky move that benefited the Royals, Hosmer broke late to the plate. A good throw would've had him dead out. It would have been an inning ending double play. Duda's throw wasn't on target and sailed past d'Arnaud, allowing Hosmer to score. A costly error made by Duda and a reoccurring theme throughout the entire World Series for the Mets.

Eventually, it was the 12th inning that led to the Mets end. Addison Reed came in after Terry Collins took Jon Niese out. Niese was pitching well and because the game was tied and in extras, it was surprising for him to not be left in to pitch longer. There aren't many arms in that bullpen that can give you length, which would be a reason to keep Niese in. He was taken out and things fells apart. The Royals had hit after hit, and piled it on with both Reed and Colon pitching.

The Royals capitalize on every mistake. They make the plays they need to make, and even when they missed them, the Mets didn't capitalize nearly as much as the Royals did. The Mets didn't play to the caliber they're capable of playing. Errors hurt. Misplays hurt. Decisions that should have been made and weren't made hurt. Missed opportunities hurt.

A good number of fans stuck it out. Even when it got ugly in the 12th, 'Let's Go Mets' chants sounded throughout Citi Field, even if they weren't as loud as they were in the beginning of the game. Fans were rewarded for this. The Mets came out after the Royals had their time to celebrate. A classy move by the Mets, led by the Captain. "Let's Go Mets!" and "Thank you, Mets!" chants broke out for the team as they said their own "Thank you" to the fans who have supported them all season long. What's to come is exciting.

The Royals are an outstanding team. Fans have to give credit where credits due. It's hard to sit back and not say, "This is where we went wrong. We could've done this... We should've done that." Things that went wrong are facts of the game, but to play the game of 'What If?' is harder. No one knows what would have happened if different moves were made; if the errors weren't made. Maybe the Mets would have won the 3 games they led and seemingly gave away. Maybe the Royals still would have found a way to win. What happened happened. So, Congratulations to the Royals. They played hard, put together hits, and rallied when they needed to. How many days till Spring Training? Now we shift to the off season, but Spring Training is a little over 4 months away. Time will fly. We'll see what happens in the off season, and it should be interesting. The sting is there for the loss, but what's to come is so bright. See you in 2016, baseball.