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 Lifted by the roars of the home crowd, a pair of two-run home runs,
and gritty pitching by rookie Noah Syndergaard, the Mets narrowed
the deficit in the best-of-seven 'Fall Classic' to 2-1.
Mets manager Terry Collins said it had been vital his team avoided
going 3-0 down, a deficit no club has overcome to win a World
Series.
"Sure, when you get down 3-0 it's really difficult," said Collins.
"I just thought it was a real big game for us."
Captain David Wright blasted a homer in the bottom of the first off
Yordano Ventura to give New York a 2-1 lead, and after the Royals
scored two runs in the second, Curtis Granderson hit a shot over the
right-field fence in the third for a 4-3 lead.
A four-run outburst in the sixth, helped along by some sloppy Royals
fielding, put the game out of reach as Wright broke out of a
postseason slump by going 2-for-5 with four runs batted in.
Fireballer Syndergaard settled down after yielding six hits in the
first two frames to pitch six innings, giving up three runs on seven
hits with six strikeouts.
The Mets, the National League champions, will try to square the
series in Game Four in New York on Saturday.
STATEMENT PITCH
The home team set the tone on the first pitch of the game.
Syndergaard fired a 98-mph fastball high and inside to Alcides
Escober, who has feasted on first-pitch fastballs, that dropped him
to the dirt and triggered angry barking from the Royals' dugout.
"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," the big Texan said.
"My intent on that pitch was to make them uncomfortable, and I feel
like I did just that."
Syndergaard went on to strike out Escobar with a 99-mph blazer, the
first swing and miss at a fastball since Game One by Kansas City,
who were the best team in Major League Baseball at hitting
high-velocity fastballs.
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Still, the Royals were not cowed.
Ben Zobrist followed by smacking a double off the centerfield wall,
moved to third on an infield roller that eluded Syndergaard for a
hit and scored on Eric Hosmer’s grounder.
After the see-saw scoring in the early innings, Granderson's two-run
shot gave the Mets the lead for good as New York went on to collect
12 hits to Kansas City's seven.
"The big thing early on, even though they scored runs we knew we had
opportunities," Granderson said. "We were starting to get to the
starting pitcher there."
Royals manager Ned Yost said Ventura, one of the hardest throwers in
the American League, was far from his best.
"He just wasn't sharp today," Yost said. "Fastball velocity was
down. Made a couple mistakes. Made a mistake in the first inning
with Wright on a fastball up. The backup slider to Granderson.
"It was just one of those days."
Syndergaard, whose pounding fastball and long blond locks have
brought him the nickname “Thor”, retired 12 batters in a row before
running into trouble in the sixth on an infield single and a pair of
walks that loaded the bases.
But with the tying run on second, Syndergaard got Alex Rios to
ground out to short to end the threat and keep the Mets' hopes
alive.
(Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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