Kuzul

The Kansas City Royals jumped out to a 2-0 lead at home over the New York Mets in the 2015 World Series, but the Mets took Game 3 in New York with a 9-3 win. The teams will play two more games at Citi Field, so this series is far from over.

Rookie Noah Syndergaard gave the Mets six innings, during which he scattered seven hits and allowed three runs while striking out six hitters. Meanwhile, New York got hot at the plate and chased Royals starter Yordano Ventura after 3.1 innings. Ventura gave up five runs while striking out two batters.

The game started with a bit of controversy. On the first pitch, Syndergaard came high and tight on Royals leadoff man Alcides Escobar. As Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com reported, he knew what he was doing.

“My intent on that pitch was to make them uncomfortable, and I feel like I did just that,” Syndergaard said. “I think in every postseason game that Escobar has played in, he’s swung at the first-pitch fastball. I didn’t think he would want to swing at that one.”

The Royals were clearly unnerved though they managed to get a run across in that first inning. They got two more in the second, but then Syndergaard settled into a groove, and he and the Mets bullpen didn’t allow another run.

The team will send another rookie, this time Steven Matz, to the mound for Game 4. Kansas City will counter with Chris Young, who threw three strong innings in relief in the 14-inning Game 1 marathon. You can catch Game 4 on Fox at 8:07 p.m. ET.

If Young pitches like he did in Game 1, the Mets will be in trouble. They failed to even get a hit against Young in his three innings of work, and four batters went down on strikes.

Young’s height may have had something to do with it. At 6’10”, he has a high release point, which makes it difficult for hitters to track the pitch. Batters aren’t used to seeing the pitch come from so high, and the Mets were clearly caught off guard by him in Game 1.

However, now the Mets hitters have seen Young, so they will have a feel for his pitching style. If they can carry over their success at the plate from Game 3, the team will have a good chance to knot this series at two games apiece.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The New York Mets picked up a critical win Friday night in Game 3 of the World Series to avoid the death sentence of falling behind to the Kansas City Royals 3-0 in the series.

Now it all comes down to this final week of baseball, as the Royals will look to get over the hump after coming one win away from hoisting the trophy last year, while the Mets will aim to cap off their impressive push back to contention with a title of their own.

While there are a number of players performing at a high level on both sides right now, there are also some notable guys who need to improve their play before it’s too late.

What follows is a look at three players from each team who need to right the ship quickly in order to give their team its best chance of winning it all.

Begin Slideshow

The New York Mets pounded the Kansas City Royals in Game 3 of the World Series Friday night and will look to even the series at 2-2 Saturday night. In an interesting pitching matchup, 36-year-old Chris Young will face off against 24-year-old Steven Matz.

We’ll identify three keys to Saturday night’s game in the article below. Will Matz follow Noah Syndergaard‘s blueprint of pitching the Royals tough inside? How do the Mets match up with against Young and his lack of ground-ball contact? Will the Mets be able to make good use of their bench advantage? 

Make sure to stir up the conversation in the comment section below. What do you think is important for each team to be successful in Game 4? Mets and Royals fans: What’s your confidence level heading into the pivotal game? 

Let’s dive in!

Can Steven Matz Pitch Inside Effectively? 

In Game 3, Noah Syndergaard established himself on the inner half of the plate early in the contest. The ethics of his strategy have been questioned, but its effectiveness can not. 

“My first words to Travis (d’Arnaud) when we walked in the clubhouse today were, ‘How do you feel about high and tight for the first pitch and then a curveball for the second one,'” Syndergaard told Jerry Crasnick of ESPN. “So I feel like it really made a statement to start the game off — that you guys can’t dig in and get too aggressive because I’ll come in there.”

Syndergaard‘s plan of being the aggressor worked in Game 3, and it’s a blueprint that Matz must follow in Game 4. It’s particularly important against left-handed hitters, as Matz was great at limiting contact on the inner half to same-sided hitters this year. 

Matz, while arguably just as nasty, isn’t as reliant on velocity as his fellow rotation-mates. He normally sits in the mid-90s and throws his nasty curve ball whether he’s ahead or behind in the count. The Royals have feasted on high velocity in this series but will have to readjust their strategy in Game 4.

What Can We Expect From Chris Young? 

The Mets are a patient team by nature, ranking 25th in chase rate this past season. That willingness to lay off bad pitches resulted in the lowest first-pitch strike percentage in baseball. 

That will come in handy against Young. The right-hander’s entire game is predicated on generating soft contact because he doesn’t have the strikeout stuff he once did. 

Young had success in 2015 being predominately just a two-pitch pitcher. He throws his fastball the majority of the time, never breaking 90 mph this season. His slider has a 13 mph range to it, so he’s going to try to keep Mets hitters guessing throughout the night. 

A surprising note on Young is his lack of ground-ball outs. The 36-year-old ranked dead last in MLB in ground-ball rate among pitchers with at least 120 innings. New York ranked fifth in fly-ball rate, so there could be plenty of opportunities for the Mets to drive the ball against Young. 

Will the Mets Take Advantage of Their Bench Advantage? 

It makes sense that the National League team would have the better of the two benches in this series. With the series shifting to Citi Field and NL rules, the Mets can take advantage of that. 

The Royals are already behind the eight ball, having to sit out Kendrys Morales and his 106 RBI due to the lack of the designated hitter. Morales gives the Royals a solid pinch-hitting option, but the light-hitting Raul Mondesi Jr. and Jarrod Dyson won’t scare Mets pitchers late in games. 

The Mets, on the other hand, are loaded with proven veterans who can help off the bench. Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe have experience entering games in the later innings, and will present tough at-bats depending on the matchup. Despite his recent struggles, Michael Cuddyer is also capable of putting together a quality at-bat. 

Kansas City doesn’t need an elite bench playing in the AL, but more decisions have to be made playing under NL rules. The Mets have a clear advantage in that aspect, and it will only improve if they can knock Young out of the game early on. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

NEW YORK — Measured against the New York Mets’ staff of flamethrowers, Chris Young’s fastball can be timed with a sundial.

His fastball is soooo slow, Kansas City infielders often excuse themselves for dinner as he winds up and then return to their positions before the ball crosses the plate.

His fastball is soooo slow, it makes Kansas City’s award-winning, slow-cooked barbecue seem like fast food—the ribs smoking in so much less time than Young’s non-smoking “heater” moves.

His fastball is soooo slow, rumor has it that manager Ned Yost does his taxes in the Royals dugout while everyone waits for the ball to get to the batter.

Listen. Don’t mention any of this to the man himself. The velocity topic grows old with Young, and you can’t blame him.

Because here he is again, ready to start Game 4 Saturday as the Kansas City Royals look to re-establish their momentum in this World Series, and there is so much more to the man than his 6’10” height and pedestrian fastball jokes.

In making his first World Series start at age 36, Young will pitch with his father in his heart and his college coach in the stands.

He will pitch after missing the entire 2013 season, part of a three-year battle to overcome shoulder problems.

He will pitch seven seasons after an Albert Pujols line drive drilled him square in the face, which sent him toward surgery and an uncertain future.

And he will pitch, as always, with the smarts and determination that have allowed him to throw that fastball right by the skeptics for most of his career.

“It’s very cool to be here,” Young told Bleacher Report during a conversation in the Royals dugout recently. “It’s very rewarding.”

It also is bittersweet, finally stepping into a World Series for the first time in his 11-year career. Because his father, Charles, 70, passed away in late September from multiple myeloma.

Charles always was Chris’ biggest fan, and this summer he loved watching the Royals. They are the best team Chris ever played on. The two talked often, and his father was excited over what October would bring.

Now, Chris will take the ball for Game 4, just as he did for three shutout innings of relief while earning the win in Game 1, feeling his dad’s presence even closer than usual.

“I like to think that he’s here,” Young said. “It’s life. He took so much enjoyment watching our team play. He will be in the stadium.

“It’s just different.”

The relief outing the other night to finish a wild, 14-inning Game 1 makes your blood run cold just thinking about it. A couple of hours before the game, Kansas City manager Ned Yost quietly approached Young and told him he may need the right-hander to make an emergency start.

There’s a personal situation with Edinson Volquez, Yost told Young.

Volquez’s father had died earlier that day, at home in the Dominican Republic. His wife had asked the Royals to hold the news from Edinson until after he made his start. Yost honored that request, though with today’s social media, you never know. That’s why Yost put Young on notice. Had Volquez somehow found out and not been in an emotional state to pitch that night…

“I know the pain he’s going through right now,” Young said that night after working three scoreless relief innings in a 5-4 victory that Volquez did start. “It’s hard. It’s really hard.

“I feel his pain.”

That Young is even here on baseball’s biggest stage is one of those remarkable hardball stories that the game keeps delivering. The Pujols line drive, in May 2008, was gut-wrenching to watch. As Young was helped off of the field, blood gushed from his nose. The ball struck him on the bridge of the nose up toward the forehead, fracturing his skull.

He came back. But then came the shoulder problems.

It took three years before doctors finally zeroed in on the cause: thoracic outlet syndrome, a condition in which a rib pinches off a nerve running to the shoulder. So he underwent surgery to remove part of the rib, missed all of 2013 and then went 12-9 with a 3.65 ERA in 30 games (29 starts) for Seattle in 2014.

Still, he went unsigned as a free agent this spring until early March, when the only interested team, the Royals, called.

What most clubs didn’t know was that Young, for the first time in years, finally was able to spend an entire winter focusing on his workouts instead of his rehab.

When Royals general manager Dayton Moore approached Yost with the idea of signing Young after spring training started, the manager couldn’t believe the pitcher was still available.

“At that point, I liked the starting pitching we had,” Yost said. “But I remember Bobby Cox saying in Atlanta, you can never have too much starting pitching. Get as much as you can, because over the course of the year you’re going to need it.”

Along with Kendrys Morales, Alex Rios and even pitcher Franklin Morales, Yost said Young “was one of the great signs we had.”

Young worked both out of the rotation and as a reliever for the Royals this year, going 11-6 with a 3.06 ERA in 34 appearances (18 starts). Among pitchers who worked at least 100 innings, he handcuffed opposing hitters to the lowest batting average (.202) in the American League and the fourth-lowest in the majors.

Also among pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched, Young allowed the fourth-fewest hits per nine innings (6.64) in the majors.

“Gosh, it’s hard to say what he’s meant to us,” Royals pitching coach Dave Eiland said. “He’s been worth his weight in gold.

“There are a lot of reasons we won the division and we’re here today, and one big reason is Chris.”

All of this with a fastball this season that averaged 86.4 mph and a slider that he mixes in with the sneakiness of a cat burglar.

“This is a guy who, more than anybody I’ve ever been around, trusts his stuff and throws every pitch with conviction,” Eiland said. “He thinks he can get an out with every pitch.”

“Thinks” is the key word in that last sentence. Young earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics at Princeton University, graduating in four years despite playing both baseball and basketball. His senior thesis was a study of the impact of Jackie Robinson on racial stereotypes in the realm of media.

While Young doesn’t throw lightning bolts like the Mets staff, he is aces at outfoxing hitters and nailing specific locations. Plus, the fact that he’s 6’10″—tied for the second-tallest player in MLB history (behind only Jon Rauch, 6’11”)—leads to much deception as he delivers the ball. From the perspective of hitters, the ball is released closer to the plate than they are accustomed to and from different angles.

“The way he throws, I think he hides the ball very well,” Mets shortstop Wilmer Flores said. “That’s why he gets outs.”

On Saturday, while he will feel the power of his father’s presence in the stadium, Young also will have a rooting section in the seats: his wife, Liz, the granddaughter of Lester Patrick, namesake of the NHL’s Patrick Division and the Lester Patrick trophy, and their three children, Cate (seven), Scott (five) and Grant (three). His college coach at Princeton, former big leaguer Scott Bradley, also will be there.

In fact, Bradley, whose nine-year MLB career spanned from 1984 to 1992, flew to Kansas City for Games 1 and 2 at Young’s request. 

“Oh, man, he’s so positive and optimistic,” Young said. “He was a great fit both for my basketball and academics. He accommodated me any way he could.”

How much does Bradley mean to Young? Seventeen years after recruiting him, the pitcher’s middle son is named, in part, for the Princeton coach.

Now here he is, forever Young, a great fit with the Royals.

“In spring training what really stood out was the focus and determination,” Young said of his teammates. “These guys had a hunger I didn’t quite expect. I thought these guys went to the World Series last year and maybe they’re going to rest on their laurels a little bit, and it was the exact opposite.

“I came in and said, ‘Whoa. These guys want to win the World Series.’ And they expect to and believe they can. It had a different feel than any spring training I had been at with any other club. It was evident from day one to me.”

Just like Young, they are not waiting around. They are looking to make something happen.

Just don’t ask about his velocity. He’s heard it all before.

“I could care less about velocity,” said that man who could author the book on it. “I care about results.”

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Every accolade bestowed upon the Kansas City Royals during the World Series’ off day banished during Game 3, when an uncharacteristically ugly game let the New York Mets diminish the deficit to 2-1.

Kansas City officially didn’t commit any errors, but pitchers Yordano Ventura and Franklin Morales each committed a crucial defensive miscue. Meanwhile, Noah Syndergaard recovered from a rough start to contain the contact-heavy offense, recording six strikeouts in a 9-3 victory.

For the second straight evening, New York will send a rookie starter to the mound in Citi Field. Kansas City, on the other hand, will turn to a grizzled veteran 12 years his adversary’s elder. After overflowing the series opener with drama, both sides have traded lopsided victories. These two pennant winners, however, are too evenly matched to anticipate another blowout. 

When: Saturday, October 31, at 8:07 p.m. ET

Where: Citi Field; Queens, New York

TV: Fox

Live Stream: Fox Sports Go

Probable Pitchers: Chris Young (Royals) vs. Steven Matz (Mets)

Game 4 Preview

Although it hasn’t materialized on the diamond, the Mets seemingly hold one distinctive advantage over the Royals. While the American League champions were simply hoping to deliver the game intact to their prolific bullpen, the Mets needed to ride their starting pitching to victory.

Steven Matz is no pushover, but the rookie doesn’t give them a demonstrative edge. Manager Terry Collins has wisely kept him on a short leash this postseason, working him a combined 9.2 frames through two starts. The pressure becomes even greater to quickly assemble an early lead.

With Matt Harvey already 28 innings over the original 180 limit, the Mets cannot fairly employ the 26-year-old on short rest. They’ll instead rely on the 24-year-old lefty, who has issued a 2.58 ERA through eight career MLB starts.

A lifelong Mets fan who was nine when the Mets last made the World Series is now tasked with evening the best-of-seven slate. Per the team’s Twitter page, he commented on making the biggest start of his life four months after his big league debut:

Against Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Syndergaard, the Royals struck out 10 times. Before hoping for an uptick, they actually fanned fewer times against lefties, recording an MLB-low 15.1 strikeout percentage off southpaws. They have also collected 10 hits off New York’s bullpen this series, which will have Collins feeling uneasy with the game in their hands. 

Chris Young also isn’t expected to go the distance. The 36-year-old righty didn’t last five innings in either playoff start, but he did exactly what Kansas City needed. He limited the Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays to three scores through 8.2 innings, giving Kansas City’s relief corps a chance to win.

The advanced metrics say Young should get shelled. Throwing a mid-80s fastball, he produced a lowly 16.6 strikeout percentage along with an 8.6 walk percentage. He registered more hard-hit balls (33.4 percent) than grounders (25.5 percent), leading to a 4.52 fielding independent pitching (FIP) and 5.15 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA). 

He also posted a 3.06 ERA. Did he benefit from luck, or does he have skills enabling him to overcome expected regression? Perhaps both. A .209 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) helped his cause, but his career .247 BABIP resides well below the average hurler. A 14.8 infield-fly percentage, the easiest out among batted balls, produces a chunk of weak offense.

This is important to note against the Mets. As Ben Lindbergh explained in Grantland’s World Series preview, a matchup of a fly-ball pitcher and fly-ball hitter favors the pitcher, leading to more pop-ups rather than home runs. He predicted this trend especially helping Young:

The Royals have a fly ball staff: Only the Angels and Rays had higher fly ball rates this season. Mets batters, meanwhile, recorded the fifth-highest fly ball rate (and the third-highest among position players), a trait that only intensified with Cespedes in the fold. In theory, these batted-ball tendencies should sap some of the Mets’ power, forcing them to swing under balls that they usually center. The effect should be especially strong against über-fly-baller Chris Young, who’s had success in both of the big parks in this series.

Oddly enough, Young has registered 15 punchouts through 11.2 scoreless frames. Used in relief duty during Game 1’s 14-inning grind, he struck out four Mets through three hitless frames. The veteran earned the win, but he acknowledged the stat’s uselessness to MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan:

Baseball Savant’s Daren Willman provided a more telling stat of Young’s enhanced velocity in Game 1:

He can’t go full throttle back in a starting role, but he realistically won’t throw more than five frames on three days’ rest. A fresh Kris Medlen, who surprisingly pitched on Friday, should still be Kansas City’s first option in a long-relief role. In 14.1 innings out of the bullpen, the 30-year-old limited opponents to a .553 OPS.

In a game that will boil down to the late innings, look for the Royals bullpen (not Franklin Morales), speed and defense to pull off a narrow victory. 

Prediction: Royals 5, Mets 4

All advanced stats courtesy of FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

On Friday night at Citi Field, David Wright‘s bat woke up. Then the rest of the New York Mets offense stirred from its slumber. And just like that, we have ourselves a World Series.

Yes, the Kansas City Royals still hold a 2-1 edge in the best-of-seven Fall Classic. But after cruising to a 9-3 victory in Game 3 behind a strong six-inning start from Noah Syndergaard and, most essentially, a barrage of knocks, the Amazins are alive and kicking.

A lineup that collected just one extra-base hit in Games 1 and 2 in Kansas City and looked downright moribund in the process erupted for 12 hits, including a pair of home runs.

The first and biggest blast came in the bottom of the first, when Wright dug in for his first-ever Fall Classic at-bat in front of the hometown faithful and promptly launched a crackling Yordano Ventura fastball to deep left field.

The two-run bomb was the first Wright has hit since Sept. 26. In the sixth, he singled with the bases loaded to drive in another pair of runs. That more than doubled his RBI total for the 2015 postseason:

Wright wasn’t the only hitter who left his mark on Game 3, and we’ll get to that in a moment. First, though, let’s pause to appreciate what the guy they call the Captain accomplished on a chilly evening in Queens and how unlikely it was.

Oh, sure, Wright is a seven-time All-Star, the longest-tenured Met and still arguably the face of the franchise.

But he also played in just 38 regular-season games after landing on the disabled list with a strained hamstring in April, and then he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, which ended up being about as bad as it sounds.

The mere fact the 32-year-old third baseman returned to the everyday lineup down the stretch and into October was a symbolic boost for New York.

Entering play Friday, however, Wright had done little at the plate. He was just 7-for-41 with 14 strikeouts in the postseason and looked frequently overmatched.

“I’ve been better,” Wright said during the National League Championship Series, per Dan Martin of the New York Post. “When you’re not feeling great at the plate, you try to work some walks and do other things in the game well. Hopefully the hits come and I can join in offensively.”

On Friday, he did more than join. He led, and others followed.

Like Curtis Granderson, who launched a two-run dinger of his own into the right-field corner in the bottom of the third, putting the Mets back up 4-3. They would tack on five more runs, with Michael Conforto and Juan Uribe (returning from an extended injury absence) chipping in RBI base hits and Yoenis Cespedes notching a sac fly.

Even Syndergaard got in on the offensive act, rapping out a single ahead of Granderson’s big fly.

The Royals’ arms mostly baffled the Mets in Missouri. Now, in the Big Apple, the worm has turned.

“That pitching staff over there…makes it difficult for you to get things going,” Granderson told Fox’s Erin Andrews immediately after Game 3. “[We] tried to put pressure on them, get good at-bats, take it one pitch at a time. No matter what you’re doing up there in that batter’s box, you can’t win the game on [one] swing.”

Technically you can; that’s what walk-offs are for. But his point is taken. The Mets needed a balanced attack and to prove the Royals—whose insane ability to put wood on the ball was highlighted by Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller—aren’t the only swingers in this series.

In fact, New York swiped a page from Kansas City’s playbook, as the New York Post‘s Joel Sherman noted mid-game:

Mostly, the Mets humbled a Royals squad that was looking more and more like an unstoppable force. They exposed Ventura, who had electric stuff at times but couldn’t make it out of the fourth inning.

Looking ahead to Game 4, they’ll face right-hander Chris Young, who threw 53 pitches in relief in Game 1 on Tuesday. So they’ll have another chance, in theory, to chase K.C.’s starter early and get to the Royals’ middle-relief arms, who also faltered Friday.

Of course, this being the postseason, things can spin on a dime. Just because the Mets were scary good Friday doesn’t mean they’ll be the same on Halloween and beyond. Wright’s outburst might have been a one-time deal rather than the beginning of a trend. Kansas City has proved it can shift quickly and relentlessly into shutdown mode.

But facts are facts. The Mets nearly doubled their run total from the first two contests in Game 3. They more than doubled their tally of extra-base hits. And they did it behind an inspirational performance from a beloved veteran and clubhouse leader.

Suffice it to say, New York is awake—and we have ourselves a series.

All statistics current as of Oct. 30 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Game 3 of the 2015 World Series is upon us, as the Fall Classic shifts to Citi Field with the New York Mets’ hopes resting on the arms of two rookie starters: Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz. Down 0-2 in the series versus a hot-hitting Kansas City Royals lineup, how much will the duo’s youth and inexperience hurt the Mets?

Friday, Syndergaard will go up against Yordano Ventura. The Dominican 6-footer pitched brilliantly on baseball’s biggest stage during last year’s World Series.

As for Matz, he gets to toe the rubber opposite Chris Young, who was composed under pressure, pitching three innings of no-hit ball out of the bullpen to earn the win in Game 1 on Tuesday.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at all the social media murmurings ahead of Games 3 and 4 in order to dig a little deeper as to where the series might be headed.

While Syndergaard has only been pitching in the majors since May 12, he has garnered high marks for his composure and poise on the mound all year long. Combine that with the fact that he has been completely dominant at home this season, and it’s no wonder why the young man is full of self-assurance ahead of the biggest start of his life, per Major League Baseball’s Instagram:

But Ventura has the know-how. 

During the 2014 World Series, he shut down the San Francisco Giants in Game 6 to save his team and force a Game 7. He is 1-0 with a 1.46 ERA in two career World Series starts.

Even though Ventura had a down year in 2015, he is fully capable of rising to the occasion. That is one reason why the Mets may be in serious trouble. 

Oh, and the Kansas City Royals seem to be the hottest sports team in the world right now.

During a four-run fourth inning in Game 2, they seemed to be all over almost every pitch Mets starter Jacob deGrom threw, a point that MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince was quick to point out on Twitter:

The Royals have only struck out a total of 10 times this series.

If progress is to be made in the strikeouts department, Syndergaard will have to dial it up in terms of velocity.

In the 111 years of World Series history, only 11 teams have done what the Mets are attempting to do, per SB Nation’s MLB Twitter page:

In any case, this should be a fun game to watch if you dig the fastball, per MLB’s Instagram:

As MLB.com correspondent Richard Justice points out, there may be a bit of hope for the Mets yet:

Looking ahead to Game 4 on Saturday, Matz has a tough task in trying to beat Young, who, at age 36, has far more experience than him. Nevertheless, the Mets remain positive, as evident from injured pitcher Jerry Blevins’ Tweet:

New York’s two rookie starting pitchers must do all they can to limit Kansas City’s ability to get hits in bunches, a task that seems very difficult at the moment. Royals manager Ned Yost’s quote on MLB’s Instagram sums it up: 

As Fox lead color commentator Tom Verducci said, these Royals just don’t quit. They are relentless.

They have looked far too comfortable at the plate, seeing the ball so well. The Mets response should be to pitch them inside more and brush the hitters off the plate.

Intimidate them. Get in their heads. That might be their only shot at getting back in this series.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Even though the New York Mets are returning home for the World Series in a 2-0 hole against the Kansas City Royals, they have lost just one playoff game at Citi Field in 2015. 

Odds are not in New York’s favor to win the World Series, as no team has won the Fall Classic after dropping the first two games since the 1996 New York Yankees. 

It also doesn’t help the Mets’ cause that Kansas City still has two games left, if necessary, and the Royals haven’t lost at home in the postseason since the Houston Astros won Game 1 of the American League Division Series. 

Game 3 Odds

Latest Prop Bets

Preview 

Looking at how the series stands, it’s no surprise the list of potential MVP candidates is filled with Royals. The big surprise is that Johnny Cueto is leading the pack, because if Kansas City wins before Game 6, he would only get one start. 

Granted, Cueto‘s one start was masterful and unlike any other start in the World Series in 20 years, per ESPN Stats & Info:

ESPN’s Buster Olney, citing Elias Sports Bureau, did note Cueto is the first pitcher since Roger Clemens in 2000 to have two starts of at least eight innings pitched and two hits or fewer allowed. MVP voters could decide to give the Kansas City right-hander MVP with just one start as a way of honoring his resurgence this October. 

The Mets will have a chance to get back in the series with rookie Noah Syndergaard opposing Chris Young in Game 3. 

If you believe in history being an indicator of the future, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo has a piece of information that works in New York’s favor:

A more substantial reason to be optimistic about the Mets’ chances is the National League venue, which Phil Rogers of MLB.com notes hasn’t been kind to American League opponents in recent World Series. 

“In the past nine World Series,” Rogers wrote, “American League teams have gone 8-17 in NL parks. The 2006 Tigers, ’08 Rays, ’10 Rangers and ’12 Tigers failed to win a game on NL soil.”

The Royals won’t have the same lineup depth because designated hitter Kendrys Morales, who led the team in slugging percentage (.485) and tied for the team lead in homers (22), will be relegated to pinch-hit duty. 

There’s also the matter of Kansas City’s lineup being able to make contact, as Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom have combined for four strikeouts in 11 innings this World Series.

That high contact rate has seemed to change the game plan for Mets starters coming into the game, as Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog.com wrote after Game 2.

“In Games 1 and 2, Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom each averaged roughly 96 MPH with their fastball,” Cerrone wrote. “Yet, Harvey threw it just 37 percent of the time, while deGrom threw his 39 percent of the time, down from his regular-season norm of 60 percent.”

Syndergaard also relies on his fastball, throwing it just under 62 percent of the time during the regular season and averaging 97.1 mph with the pitch.

Royals hitters have no doubt picked up on the fact that Harvey and deGrom were afraid to consistently challenge them with their fastball, so they could look for a breaking ball. Syndergaard should look to establish his heater early before turning to the curveball and changeup the second time through the order.

Per Daren Willman of MLBFarm.com, the Royals have had virtually no success against fastballs at least 95 mph in the World Series:

Another key for the Mets is getting the offense going. It’s hardly a surprise that Daniel Murphy has stopped hitting home runs like Barry Bonds in 2001, but the bad news is no one else around him is stepping up his game. 

Cueto‘s splendid effort in Game 2 can be chalked up to a great player pitching a great game, as tends to happen in October, but the Mets had 15 hitters reach in Game 1 via hits, walks and errors with just four runs to show for it. 

A big reason for that is because the Mets only had one extra-base hit—a home run by Curtis Granderson—in the game. By contrast, the Royals had the same number of hits as the Mets in the first game (11), but four went for extra bases. 

Yoenis Cespedes, who did need a cortisone shot in his shoulder before the World Series, looks like an injured player with one hit in his last 12 at-bats. David Wright has just two extra-base hits this postseason and no homers.

The Mets could get away with those performances when their pitching staff was shutting down a bad Los Angeles Dodgers lineup and overmatched Chicago Cubs lineup, but the Royals make too much contact for the starters to throw seven or eight innings each night. 

Since the Mets are returning home and have been so good at Citi Field, look for them to get back on track in Game 3, but the Royals will steal one game on the road and return home with a chance to close things out at Kauffman Stadium. 

Stats via FanGraphs.com

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Mets captain David Wright picked a great time to snap out of his long funk and return to form. Even if it was a brief flash of his former grandeur, Wright’s two-run home run and two-run single helped the Mets creep back into the series with a Game 3 victory and cut the World Series deficit to 2-1.

Though the Mets would eventually win by a 9-3 margin, the final score isn’t indicative of the tense moments in the middle innings and how close the Mets were to letting it all slip away again. Rookie Noah Syndergaard wouldn’t let it happen.

After immediately giving up a run in the top of the first to put the Mets in a hole, David Wright’s two-run homer gave Syndergaard the lead right back. He gave up two runs in a shaky second inning as well, prompting Jon Niese to start warming in the bullpen. From that point on, however, Syndergaard settled in.

With all of the pressure on his broad shoulders, the 23-year-old buckled down and kept the game close enough for the Mets’ bats to erupt. It wasn’t easy, as Syndergaard held on to a 5-3 lead by leaving the bases loaded in the sixth inning—an inning in which the Mets would go on to score four insurance runs.

The Mets will look to keep the good times rolling at Citi Field by sending out rookie stud Steven Matz in Game 4 with the hopes of evening the series. Kansas City will answer with Chris Young, who was terrific in a relief role in the marathon Game 1.

FINAL: Mets 9 – Royals 3

Dan Ferrara is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter (@BigRed_BR) for more analysis.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Kansas City Royals are just two wins away from capturing the 2015 World Series title, but to pad their lead, they must now leave the comforting confines of Kauffman Stadium for the hostile stronghold that is the New York Mets’ Citi Field. 

Game 3 is essentially a must-win for the Mets. No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the World Series. The Mets lost Game 1 5-4 in 14 innings on Tuesday, then completely lost the plot against Royals pitcher Johnny Cueto, who threw a complete-game two-hitter in a 7-1 Royals victory on Wednesday. 

Kansas City has a rested bullpen thanks to Cueto‘s brilliant start, while the Mets have to contend with a tired staff and the prospect of waking up some dormant bats. 

It should be known that only 11 teams have come back from down 0-2 to win a World Series. The 1986 Mets were one of them, the MLB reminded: 

Here is the live stream and TV info for Game 3, followed by a roundup of what both sides are saying heading into Friday’s pivotal contest.  

2015 World Series Game 3 Viewing Info

When: Friday, October 30 at 8 p.m. ET

Where: Citi Field in New York City

TV: Fox

Live Stream: FoxSportsGo

Tickets: ScoreBig.com

Latest Comments

Kansas City’s Yordano Ventura (0-1, 5.09 ERA in 2015 postseason) and New York’s Noah Syndergaard (1-1, 2.77 ERA) are the probable starters on Friday. It’s yet another matchup between two hard-throwing pitchers. The Mets are hoping that the home crowd can rattle Ventura, who’s had a lackluster postseason thus far. 

“Our fans are pretty tough,” manager Terry Collins said Thursday, per USA Today‘s Gabe Lacques. “They’re tough. They’re strong and they’re tough. I’ve been on the other side of the field, not in the World Series, but on the other side of the field in New York City in a big series and it’s hard. It’s tough.”

Ventura‘s been a bit wild in four playoff starts this year. He’s allowed 20 hits and walked eight in 17.2 innings pitched, to the tune of 10 earned runs. Still, the Royals have won three of the games he’s started, and in his last outing, Ventura gave up just one run in 5.1 innings pitched.

While Kansas City hopes Ventura doesn’t get too riled up on Friday, the Mets legions would be happy to see Syndergaard, aka “Thor,” hammer the Royals with his own nasty heater. 

“Syndergaard has to be who he is. You cannot go out there and reinvent yourself in Game 3 of the World Series,’’ said Bobby Ojeda, who pitched for the Mets in the ’86 World Series, per the New York Post‘s Kevin Kernan.

For a pitching staff predicated on blow-your-house-down stuff, Ojeda was disappointed to see Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom seemingly shy away from what they do best in the first two games.

“I’m being analytical, not critical,’’ said Ojeda, via Kernan. “What I’ve seen in Harvey and in deGrom is they are going to plan B before they even attempt plan A. In other words they are pitching to KC’s weakness rather than pitching to their strength.”

Harvey and deGrom combined for just four strikeouts in Games 1 and 2. While that suggests they weren’t attacking the Royals bats enough, it could be that in this instance, good hitting is beating good pitching. Per ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark, the Royals swing at fast pitches, but they do not miss: 

On Tuesday, Harvey threw 30 fastballs. The Royals swung at and missed two of them. On Wednesday, deGrom threw 54 fastballs. The Royals swung at and missed none of them.

But wait. There’s more. On Tuesday, Harvey threw 18 pitches with two strikes. The Royals swung at and missed one of them. On Wednesday, deGrom threw 28 pitches with two strikes. The Royals didn’t swing at and miss a single one of them.

“Me? Personally? I saw deGrom real well, windup and stretch,” Royals center fielder Lorenzo Cain said, via Michael Powell of the New York Times. “Guys just lock in, you know?”

When a lineup has laser-like precision against one of the faster pitchers in the league, it certainly seems like an insurmountable obstacle. Syndergaard is undeterred, citing the Citi Field faithful and his team’s character as reasons to believe the Mets can make a comeback, per ESPN.com’s Adam Rubin:

Obviously we didn’t plan this to happen to be down 0-2. Coming back home is a big thing for us — having the Mets faithful behind us and the greatest fans in baseball. Part of the reason our team has had so much success this year is being to handle the resiliency and come together as a team, overcome and win some ballgames.

The Royals will look to stymie any sort of a Mets fightback on Friday. They came within one game of winning the 2014 World Series. To suffer the same fate this year would likely be too great to bear for many of these players. Plus, as a smaller-market team with a mostly sad history, there’s little guarantee the Royals will make it back to such lofty heights again. Belief in what they can do now is key.

“Our confidence level hasn’t changed since the first day of spring training to today,” Royals manager Ned Yost said, via UPI.com’s Alan Eskew. “Our confidence has been high all year long. We expected to be here. We expected to compete for a world championship against a tough team.”

Kansas City is in control in this series. All it has to do is stay the course, keep swinging early and often in counts and play the same tight defense that’s been a boon to the squad all year. Syndergaard is just a rookie after all. The Royals have the experience to not let the moment overwhelm them. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com