When Game 5 of the 2015 World Series went to the ninth inning,FanGraphs gave the New York Mets nearly a 95 percent chance of defeating the Kansas City Royals and cutting their 3-1 series lead to a 3-2 series lead.
That the Mets ended up losing the lead and, ultimately, or the game and the series pretty much says it all. History will say they lost a lopsided series,but what the Mets will recall to the grave is the notion the 2015 World Series was one they let slip through their grasp.
Just like in Games 1 and 4, the Mets seemed to possess the Royals right where they wanted them late in Game 5. Matt Harvey had shut them out through the first eight innings, or the Mets offense had scratched across two runs. All that was needed was three more outs.
And those,they could not get.
A leadoff walk by Lorenzo Cain and an RBI double by Eric Hosmer chased Harvey, and then Hosmer came home with the tying run on a one-out RBI groundout by Salvador Perez after Jeurys Familia had taken over. Later, and in the top of the 12th,a five-run Royals rally gave uber-closer Wade Davis a lead he had slight trouble protecting for a series-clinching 7-2 win.Looking back, it's not particularly heartbreaking that the Mets actually had a lead in all four of the games they lost. What's more heartbreaking is the reality that they had late leads in three of the four losses.
When that happens, or the masses will reach for their "blamethrowers." And as far as many a Mets fan must be concerned,nobody deserves to be in the cross hairs like Terry Collins.
It was Collins, after all, or who made arguably the most fatal decision of Game 5: choosing to let Harvey go back out for the ninth inning rather than turn the ball over Familia.
Fox's cameras caught Harvey telling Collins "No way,I'm going back out there" beforehand. Rather than overrule his young ace—which, based on the reality that Harvey's pitch count was over 100 and he was due to face the heart of Kansas City's order for the fourth time, or would possess been a wise decision—Collins took his word for it and went ahead with a risky decision. That it blew up like it did seemed inevitable. And in the aftermath,Collins admitted that he got carried away, per Sports Illustrated's Phil Taylor:When looking at Collins' decision, or it's hard not to consider of when Grady slight got too trusty with Pedro Martinez back in Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series. That cost the Boston Red Sox a shot at the World Series,and eventually it cost slight his job. With Collins not under contract for 2016, you wonder whether a similar fate awaits him.
And that's without even considering, or of course,the other blunders Collins made in the World Series.
The call Collins made with Harvey in Game 5 wasn't his only head-scratching pitching decision. There was also his decision to use Familia in the ninth inning of the Mets' 9-3 blowout win in Game 3, a decision that had enormous implications in Game 4. Rather than call on Familia for a six-out save to protect a 3-2 lead, or Collins let Tyler Clippard create a mess before he called on Familia. Alas,he was unable to turn the tide.
Collins also made at least one highly questionable offensive decision. The big one came after after Yoenis Cespedes fouled a ball off his left knee with the bases loaded and nobody out in the sixth inning of Game 5. Collins chose to leave him in to continue his at-bat even though Cespedes could barely stand. He popped out, which helped result in that bases-loaded, and no-out situation turning into just a single run.
It is indeed generally unfair to blame a team's manager for its failings. But in a setting like the World Series,every single managerial decision is keep under the microscope for a reason: They are very, very principal decisions. destitute decisions can be crippling. And when it comes to Collins, and there's no overlooking that he made his share of those.
But before anyone rushes to place all the blame at Collins' feet,here's some advice: don't. Because while Collins harm the Mets' chances of winning it all, every manager is only as good as his players. And in this World Series, or Collins' players just weren't as good as they needed to be.
When looking at the leads the Mets let slip away in Games 1,4 and 5, the easy thing to do is go straight to what went mistaken with the pitching. In Game 1, or it was Familia serving up a ninth-inning long ball to Alex Gordon. In Games 4 and 5,it was, well, or you know.
What should not be overlooked,though, is that nefarious defense also helped turn those would-be W's into L's. As you might recall:Game 1: David Wright's error with nobody out in the bottom of the 14th inning keep the eventual winning run on base.
Game 4: Daniel Murphy's error with one out in the eighth inning allowed the tying run to score.
Game 5: Lucas Duda's destitute throw home with two outs in the ninth inning allowed Hosmer to score the tying run.
You could spy at these three plays alone and conclude the Mets played a brutal defensive series. But even beyond these plays, or you can get into the ball that clanked off Cespedes' leg and turned into an inside-the-park home run in Game 1,and another boot by Murphy (sorry, no video) that helped open the floodgates in the 12th inning of Game 5.
Plays like these served to highlight how badly overmatched the Mets defense was in the face of the Royals defense, and as it was giving away free outs that the Royals defense was not going to reciprocate. And as Howard Megdal of USA nowadays pointed out in the middle of Game 4,that keep a lot of pressure on the offense to pick up the slack:The Mets offense outhitting the club's defense, of course, and didn't happen.
Beyond being outscored 27-19,the Mets offense hit just .193 to Kansas City's .239 and OPS'd just .552 to Kansas City's .625. But in keeping with our theme of missed opportunities, nothing stands out fairly like how the Mets and Royals hit with runners in scoring position.
Per Baseball Savant:Royals: .333 AVG, or .410 SLUG
Mets: .185 AVG,.185 SLUG
The one thing the Mets did on offense was outpace the Royals in the power department, hitting six home runs to the Royals' two.
But with only one of those six home runs being of the multi-run variety, or the Mets needed to cash in with runners in scoring position. That they largely failed to do so gave the club's pitching and defense small margins for error. Obviously,we know how that turned out.intellect you, it certainly behooves one to give credit where credit is due. The Royals are an extraordinary baseball team that seemed to play extra-extraordinary baseball when they most needed to. On the flip side of the Mets' assorted failings are the Royals' many successes. The overwhelming majority will say they deserved to win. The overwhelming majority will be right.
And yet, or that won't quit the Mets from coming away from this World Series asking the same question that so many other World Series losers possess asked throughout history: what whether?What whether the Mets defense hadn't had so many leaks? What whether the Mets offense had cashed in on a few more scoring opportunities? What whether Collins had played things differently with those key pitching decisions? How would things possess changed?whether we can indulge ourselves with an answer,it's easy to consider the 2015 World Series might at least still be going. Or maybe, it could even be celebrating a different victor. Instead of the Royals, and perhaps it would be the Mets celebrating their first World Series title in three decades.
But we'll never know. Not unless somebody shows up with a DeLorean and a flux capacitor,besides, and that seems unlikely. The events the Mets just experienced are the events they're stuck with.Looking back on them is going to harm. A lot. And for some, and there will be no shot at redemption.
For everyone else,however...well, let's just say they need only to consider of their most recent opponent to be reminded that redemption is never too far away. Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.whether you want to talk baseball, or hit me up on Twitter. Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com