For the briefest moment, Kansas City fans could have been forgiven for thinking this series was all but theirs for the taking.
The Royals had taken a 1-0 lead in the first inning, and with Johnny Cueto on the mound and the Blue Jays bats having gone silent, it wasn’t an outrageous assumption to think Kansas City already had the game in the bag.
Then, suddenly, Toronto found its missing bats. A three-run second inning was followed by a six-run third, and the series took a sharp turn. With Cueto getting rocked for eight of the runs, the Blue Jays survived a late push to secure an 11-8 win and got themselves right back in the series.
At 2-1, there is still plenty of baseball left to play in the American League, and with the NLCS shifting to Chicago, it is too early to count out the Cubs chances at making it to the World Series instead of the New York Mets.
Let’s take a look at the NLCS and ALCS results so far, the schedule for the rest of the series moving forward and make a few predictions as to who is going to take home the title:
ALCS Prediction
Heading into Game 3 in Toronto, the Blue Jays faced a do-or-die situation. While it wasn’t officially an elimination game, falling behind 3-0 in the MLB playoffs is a hole no team wants to try to climb out of, so Toronto could ill afford another poor performance.
After being shut down in Kansas City, though, the Blue Jays' bats came alive Monday night and helped Toronto secure a victory, bringing the series to 2-1.
But despite the reawakening of the bats and the next two games being played in Toronto—where the Jays have a clear advantage—the Royals were far and away the better team in Games 1 and 2 and with the top of their pitching rotation set to come back around in the coming games, they should be able to stem the bleeding from Monday.
Experience in last seasons playoffs should give Kansas City a decided edge as the series continues, and with home-field advantage still on its side, Toronto will be hard-pressed to overcome the deficit and move on to the World Series.
Their talent is enough to push the series to six or seven games, but the Blue Jays needed a win in Kansas City if they were going to move on and weren’t able to get one, opening the door for the Royals to try to end a title drought of their own.
Prediction: Royals win series 4-3
NLCS Prediction
Cubs fans have waited since 1908 to win another World Series—what would be the franchise’s third—but if the opening two games of the NLCS are any indication, they will have to go on waiting for at least another year.
All the talk heading into the series was focused on Chicago and its collection of young bats, but through two games, those bats have been anonymous, and the New York Mets have looked like the better team by a wide margin.
Averaging four runs per game, and only allowing 1.5 to the Cubs, the Mets' young pitching staff has lived up to the hype they built during the regular season, while the hitting came alive in New York.
Daniel Murphy has become the best player in baseball in recent weeks and the Mets have yet to break a significant sweat against the Cubs. With the series shifting to Chicago, the Cubs should have a better shot at striking back, but Jacob deGrom won’t make things easy.
The series is still far from over, but with a commanding 2-0 lead, New York can afford to drop a couple of games in Chicago and still win the series.
Prediction: Mets win series 4-2
World Series Prediction
If someone were to have said the Mets and Royals were going to be facing off for the World Series as recently as two years ago, that person would have been instantly sent to an insane asylum.
Two of baseball’s most down-on-their-luck franchises in the past decade-plus, both Kansas City and New York have undergone massive turnarounds and find themselves on the doorstep of the game’s top prize. Neither has won a title since the 1980s, so who is better poised to claim the long elusive World Series crown?
Despite the Royals' experience edge, having made it this far last year, it is hard to deny the run the Mets have been on in the postseason so far, taking down a strong Dodgers team in the NLDS and jumping ahead of the Cubs in the early goings of the NLCS.
Kansas City won’t go easily; the Royals are arguably better than the team that lost to San Francisco last year with an improved rotation, but New York’s pitching talent gives it the advantage on the mound and the offense has been at its best in the postseason.
Daniel Murphy is putting together an MVP-level performance so far in the playoffs, and as long as the Mets bats don’t rapidly disappear, he could be given the award as New York wins the World Series.
Prediction: Mets win series 4-3
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