When the 2015 World Series finally comes to an end, so to will three decades of frustration for the Fall Classic's two participants—the Kansas City Royals and New York Mets.
For it was 30 years ago, in 1985, that the Royals last won a world championship, besting the St. Louis Cardinals in a seven-game series. A year later, the Mets—with a little help from Bill Buckner—took down the Boston Red Sox, also in seven games.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Before we can start talking about streaks ending and Game 7, we have to deal with Game 1, which will be played under American League rules and pit New York's Matt Harvey against Kansas City's Edinson Volquez at Kauffman Stadium Tuesday night.
How important is winning Game 1 of the World Series? Over the past 10 editions of the Fall Classic, the team that emerged victorious in Game 1 went on to win it all nine times.
The only team that emerged victorious after dropping the series opener was the 2009 New York Yankees, which took down Philadelphia in six games after dropping the opening game 6-1 in front of a packed house at Yankee Stadium.
What follows are the keys each team will have to hit on if they hope to wind up on the right side of recent history when things get underway at 8:07 p.m. ET.
Big Names Must Make Their Presence Felt
While it might seem as if Alcides Escobar and Daniel Murphy have been the only consistently productive hitters for the Royals and Mets in the playoffs, both teams have gotten quality performances from a handful of players.
Escobar, along with Kendrys Morales and Ben Zobrist, have essentially carried the Royals, while Murphy, Curtis Granderson and Wilmer Flores have been standouts for the Mets. Could they continue to swing hot bats in Game 1 of the World Series? Sure.
But should one (or more) of them falter, someone else has to pick up the slack—and there's no shortage of big names on both teams that have yet to meet expectations in the playoffs.
You could build a formidable lineup with that list, one that would pose problems for nearly any pitcher the opposition could throw against it. Whether any of those eight players makes life difficult for Matt Harvey or Edinson Volquez will go a long way toward deciding which team jumps out to an early series lead.
Matt Harvey Must Mix Things Up
New York may have finished the regular season with baseball's third-highest average fastball velocity (93.4 mph), but each of the team's four scheduled World Series starters—including Matt Harvey—has a heater that sits above 95 mph.
“Successful pitchers pitch to their strength,” Mets manager Terry Collins told the Wall Street Journal's Jared Diamond. “If that’s your main pitch, that’s what you’re throwing. What you’ve got to do is make good pitches with it.”
Making good pitches with the heater will be of paramount importance for Harvey, as he'll be going up against what is arguably the best fastball-hitting team in baseball—especially when those heaters are leaving smoke trails on their way to home plate.
“It’s mixing our pitches and not relying on our effective velocity,” Harvey told Diamond. “We’ve done our homework here, and we know what Kansas City is about."
What Kansas City is about is putting the bat on the ball. No team made contact more consistently than the Royals did during the regular season. They also struck out less than any other team, while only Miami drew fewer walks.
Those first two stats don't bode well for a Mets rotation that has relied heavily on its ability to make teams swing-and-miss, with 69 strikeouts over 54.1 postseason innings.
While Harvey has shown the ability to pitch backward before, where he starts at-bats with breaking balls and off-speed stuff to set up his fastball later in the count, he's never faced a lineup quite like the one he'll be going up against in Game 1.
Should he begin to fall behind batters due to a lack of command (or questionable calls by the home plate umpire), it could be a dark night for the Dark Knight.
Both Teams Must Do a Better Job Controlling the Running Game
Neither Travis d'Arnaud nor Salvador Perez did a great job controlling the opposition's running game during the regular season, which found both throwing out less than 33 percent of would-be base stealers.
That's going to be a problem in the World Series, as the Mets (9-for-11) and Royals (7-for-10) have no problem sending a runner when the opportunity presents itself.
While it's fair to say it will be more of an issue for the Mets once the series shifts to New York and National League rules, given the speed the Royals carry on their bench (especially Jarrod Dyson), it would be foolish and shortsighted to think we won't see someone take off running in Game 1.
If both starting pitchers are at the top of their games and baserunners are at a premium in Game 1, momentum—and ultimately the game—could be decided by one frenetic 90-foot sprint.
Unless otherwise noted/linked, all statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.
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