The New York Mets and Kansas City Royals took very different paths this season, but both franchises have reached the pinnacle of baseball with an opportunity to win the 2015 World Series starting on Tuesday from Kauffman Stadium.
New York's run through the National League didn't really start until the midseason acquisition of Yoenis Cespedes and promotion of outfielder Michael Conforto to bolster the lineup. Daniel Murphy's off-the-charts October has also been a key component—as has dominant pitching by three of the four starters.
Kansas City followed its run to the World Series last year by virtually having the American League's best record from the first day of the season. The Royals' combination of speed, contact and dominance in the bullpen is a formula no other team has been able to replicate.
World Series Schedule
What They Are Saying
Even though pitching matchups have yet to be officially announced, the Mets rotation should be set up as it was during the division series against Los Angeles by virtue of having five days off after sweeping Chicago out of the postseason.
ESPN's Buster Olney tweeted out the rotation Mets manager Terry Collins is expected to use:
This is a World Series of strength against strength, as the Mets rotation features arguably the best collection of power arms, per Daren Willman of MLBFarm.com:
That trio has started eight games this postseason, covering 45.2 innings, and have allowed 34 hits, three home runs and 12 earned runs with 63 strikeouts and 15 walks.
Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen told Jennifer Langosch of MLB.com that the dominance of his rotation is not a surprise after seeing these young players groomed for the big stage.
"For the last two or three years, watching these guys, knowing what was going to happen, there has really been a lot of enjoyment," Warthen said. "The incredible part of this is that we have grown together."
Experience is one thing that gets talked about a lot in October, with no real basis in fact. The Mets' quartet of starting pitchers are all aged 27 or younger and had never been to the postseason.
Last year, the Royals weren't loaded with playoff-tested veterans who knew what the October stage was all about. Both teams have just been playing great baseball at the right time.
Countering the Mets' velocity-rich pitching staff is Kansas City's lineup, which is a nightmare to strike out. The Royals have been the only team to be punched out less than 1,000 times each of the past two seasons.
The most underrated element of Kansas City's offense is speed, which was on display in its Game 6 win over Toronto to seal the American League pennant, via MLB.com:
The Royals are so difficult to put away, as Houston and Toronto already found out this postseason, because they have perfected the art of stringing together hits, which manager Ned Yost touched on after the ALCS, per Gregor Chisholm and Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com.
"Our players, they had such a great season, they would never quit, they continued to battle, even when the chips were down a little bit," Yost said. "And it enabled me to put on this new hat here today that has World Series on it, and I'll see you guys on Tuesday."
Kansas City was six outs away from being eliminated by Houston in Game 4 of the division series before six consecutive batters reached base in a five-run eighth inning to keep hope alive.
One reason the Royals are able to fight back is Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis are money in the late innings.
Yost knows he can depend on that duo, as well as Luke Hochevar, that he doesn't need his starting pitchers to go deep into games. Edinson Volquez was the only starter in the ALCS who pitched at least six innings, for example.
There are times when Yost's insistence on sticking to set roles with his relievers, with Herrera only in the seventh and Davis only in the ninth, hurts the Royals.
There was no reason to take Herrera out after the seventh for Ryan Madson in the eighth, but Yost made the decision, and Jose Bautista tied the game with a two-run homer. Davis should have come in to face Bautista, if not Josh Donaldson before him, especially since the right-hander hadn't pitched since Game 2.
Lorenzo Cain's dash from first to home bailed Yost out, but his bullpen management in the World Series will have to be better if the Royals want to win a championship.
Normal baseball logic says that a deeper starting rotation will lead to success, but the Royals have defied the odds all year with a starting rotation that got a combined 75 starts from Volquez, Jeremy Guthrie and Chris Young during the regular season.
Yet Kansas City has proved it is anything but a normal team, capable of winning games with speed or defense or dominant relief pitching, that the starters don't have to be very good.
The Royals have avoided long slumps virtually all year and are going to finish what they started last season with the franchise's first championship since 1985.
Stats via Baseball-Reference.com.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments