YESTERDAY IN POSTSEASON PLAY:
The
Royals and Mets displayed what can happen in a game when both great plays and
blunders are made throughout the night. The contest, stretching into the early morning
hours, was the longest game one in World Series history and from the beginning
demonstrated just how evenly matched these two teams really are. However, it
can be best summed up by the fast that Royals First Baseman went from scape
goat to hero in the span of a single game. Given the heart that both squads
showed last night, this is surely going to be a series etched in the long
history of the grand game that is baseball.
Royals Outlast
Mets 5-4
It was arguably one of the most pulsating, tense and
unforgettable Game 1s in World Series history. From the moment of the first
pitch, when Royals starter
Edinson Volquez began hurling two-seam fastballs
unaware of the tragic news that awaited him after the game, that his father had
passed away earlier in the day, to the Bill Bucknerish boot by Royals Gold
Glove first baseman
Eric Hosmer that gave
the Mets a one-run lead in the eighth, to the dramatic game-tying homer by
Alex Gordon in the ninth, and finally to
Hosmer's
redemption, a game-winning sacrifice fly in the
14th, it was all there. A night packed with drama. And in the end, in what
matched for the third time the longest game in World Series history, the Royals
survived, 5-4, in a Tuesday game that lasted five hours and nine minutes,
stretching into Wednesday morning. Long before it ended, though, there was
Volquez pitching his heart out for six strong innings before having that same
heart broken upon hearing the news in the clubhouse from his wife that his
father, Daniel, had
died
from heart complications at the age of 63
earlier in the day. Most of the players found out in a text from Volquez after
the game had ended, a text that thanked his teammates for winning. It was the
third parent of a Kansas City player who has passed away this season. "Just
another angel above looking out for us," Hosmer said. And now, just like
they have done all season, the Royals will band as brothers and carry on. On
short rest, both teams will march back to Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday for
Game
2 of the best-of-seven Series. "Just
trying to put the ball in play, trying to get that run in," said Hosmer
about his walk-off sac fly. "The bullpen, the way they shut it down for us
right there, as an offense we had to do something. "Obviously, I wanted to
redeem myself for what happened earlier. That's the beauty of this game, you
always get a chance to redeem yourself. I just can't thank my teammates enough,
[Gordon] and everybody picking me up right there and giving me another
opportunity." Gordon smashed a one-out homer in the bottom of the ninth
off Mets closer
Jeurys Familia, tying
the score at 4. It was Familia's
first
blown save since July 30. "Never saw him
before, but I knew he was really good," Gordon said. "Definitely
wasn't trying to do that against him. Great sinker, so I wanted to be ready for
it. "The at-bat before with [
Salvador Perez], I saw him quick pitch. I wasn't
expecting that, and I wanted to make sure when I got in the box that I was
ready to hit. And he tried to quick pitch me and left the ball right there to
hit, and with a guy like that, you can't miss pitches that he gives you to hit.
And that's what happened."
Chris Young earned the win with three shutout innings
of relief. Young had been slated to start Game 4, leaving his status for the
start unknown. "I was just ready, whatever the team needs," Young
said. "That's been my role all season, whether it's starting or relieving,
just trying to help this team win. "What a great game. The Mets are a
tough team. We've got our work cut out for us, but tonight was huge. Home run
by Alex Gordon, and then the character, the fight, to find a way to win late,
that's a great team effort."
Alcides Escobar, who hit an inside-the-park homer to
lead off the Royals' first, led off the 14th by reaching on third baseman
David Wright's
error. After
Ben Zobrist singled
Escobar to third and
Lorenzo Cain was walked
intentionally, Hosmer sent a
Bartolo Colon pitch just deep enough to right to
score Escobar. The 14 innings matched the longest World Series game in history,
and was the
longest
for a Game 1. "That's a beautiful
thing about the game in general, that you can have a
tough
loss like this today and bounce back tomorrow
and hopefully get the 'W'," said Wright. The Mets had taken a 4-3 lead
when
Wilmer Flores sent a
two-out bouncer that eluded Hosmer, a Gold Glove first baseman, in the eighth
inning, allowing
Juan Lagares to score
from second base. Lagares had singled and stole second. His run was the first
go-ahead run to score on an error in the eighth inning or later of a World
Series game since Boston first baseman Bill Buckner's error in Game 6 of the
1986 World Series against the Mets.
Matt Harvey started for the Mets on Tuesday and
pitched
six innings, giving up five hits and three runs.
Volquez also threw six innings for the Royals and gave up six hits and three
runs. He was watching video in Kansas City's video room when he was alerted by
a club official that his wife was waiting for him in the clubhouse. That's when
Volquez was told that his father had passed. "It's the third brother in
this room that has lost a parent this season," pitcher
Jeremy Guthrie said.
"That just doesn't happen."
Mike Moustakas lost his mother, Connie, earlier this
season, and Young lost his father, Charles, less than a month ago. "It's
really difficult to talk to anyone about it," Young said. "I know
what he is going through tonight. I just feel so sorry for him."
CURRENT
POSTSEASON PICTURE:
World Series
Kansas City Leads Series 1-0
New York at Kansas City
Game
2: Wednesday, October 28, at 8:00 PM
PHILS PHACTS:
New GM Sets Goals – Phillies general manager Matt Klentak and the rest of the
baseball operations department are in Clearwater, Fla., this week for their
organizational meetings. Klentak is likely to discuss his five elements to
rebuilding the Phillies, who finished this season with the worst record in
baseball. He laid out those elements in his introductory news conference Monday
morning at Citizens Bank Park:
1. Discipline. "We have to
understand who we are, who we want to be and how we are going to get there.
Once we set that road map, we are going to follow it and be disciplined on how
we follow it," he said.
2. Connectivity. "In process of all
areas of baseball operations, we will be connected," he said. "We
will work together. We will have a process for everything that we do. And we
will not veer off course."
3. Information. "I know this is an
important one," he said. "We want to be the best at everything that
we do. We want to have the best scouts in the field, the best coaches, the best
players -- and we will. And we will use every form of technology and
information available to us to be at the forefront of information in this
industry. And how we manage that will be the key. We want to take the
information from all the different people and marry that into our process. How
we do that will determine our fate. If we have the best information, we will
make the best decisions."
4. Culture. "One thing I know is
that we can't force culture, but we can build an environment that allows our
players to succeed -- to play loose and play confidently. We will create an
environment that allows our players to get better and allows the Phillies to
win a lot of baseball games."
5. Winning. "If we are
successful in those first four points, we will do a lot of winning," he
said. "Winning is the fifth point I wanted to make. That is ultimately
what this is all about. You know that and I know that. Philadelphia knows that.
That's why I'm here. I would not have left
Mike Trout in his prime to come here if I didn't
believe that -- I promise you that. I look forward to contributing and helping
this franchise get back to its winning ways."
The Changing Front Office – Things are
changing for the Phillies. John Middleton's visibility over the past four
months is perhaps the greatest indicator of that. Ownership remained in the
background for years, even to the point the Phillies had no information about
it in their media guide. But Middleton, one of the club's partners, made the
announcement in June that Andy MacPhail would replace Pat Gillick as team
president after the season. He and MacPhail held a news conference last month,
when they announced Ruben Amaro Jr. would not return as general manager. He sat
on the dais again Monday, when the team introduced Matt Klentak as the next Phillies'
GM. Middlelton has a clear vision about where he wants the Phillies to go in
the future. "One of the criticisms the fans have leveled on the Phillies,
and I think it's justifiable, is that we didn't recognize early enough and act
upon that recognition that the window had closed and we needed to move
on," Middleton said. "That we were trying to extend guys that were
older and trying to create a bridge, and we needed to realize that the bridge
didn't exist and we needed to move on." Perhaps the Phillies were too
sentimental and nostalgic about the core that helped the club win the 2008
World Series and five National League East championships from 2007-11? "The
word that Andy has talked about and the word Matt has talked about today is
'discipline,'" Middleton said. "So I think you're right. I think you
have to have a goal and you have to have a road map to achieve it, and you have
to be disciplined to know where you are on that road and therefore use that to
dictate your decisions and what you do. That's what I think is going to be the
key to success. The other part of this is being objective about yourself and
your performances." Middleton noted how the Phillies had perhaps the best
Drafts in baseball from 1995-04, but arguably the least productive Drafts from
2005 until recently, based on WAR. He said the Phillies did not use analytics
like other teams, which contributed to their fall. Asked if the Phillies were
late to the analytics party, Middleton's eyes widened and he shook his head
like the question was too obvious to even answer. "Yeah," he said. But
why were they late to the party? "It is kind of a cultural thing,"
Middleton said. "It's just the way people viewed their jobs." Now the
Phillies are trying to catch up. Middleton and the Phillies intend to make sure
it happens. "It's like Alice in Wonderland," he said. "You keep
running faster and faster and stay in the same place. ... So the teams that are
ahead of us, they're not sitting still. The aggressive ones are trying to
improve and get better. We have to run faster and faster." The Phillies of
the past talked about winning being cyclical. Organizations will have good
runs. They will have bad runs. Middleton sees things differently. "Our
objective is to challenge that," he said. "If you look at St. Louis,
they found a way to sustain it. And if St. Louis thinks they're cycling down,
if you look at their down years, their down years aren't our down years. So we
need to figure out what they're doing, so if they're not in the playoffs or if
they're not a legitimate contender going into a season, how do they stay up at
a higher level of being down than we have?" Middleton understands the
allure of building via free agency, but he looks at teams like the Cardinals,
Astros and Cubs, and how they built from within, while also augmenting with
outside talent. He thinks that is how they should model themselves. "I
don't think you can buy a winner," he said. " … You have to build
sports teams. Specifically, you have to build baseball teams from the ground
up." Middleton believes MacPhail and Klentak are the team to do it.
Who’s On First? – Phillies manager
Pete Mackanin only needs a first-base coach at this point. He announced Tuesday
that Larry Bowa and Juan Samuel have agreed to contracts through the 2016
season. Bowa will return as the Phillies' bench coach, while Samuel will be the
third-base coach. Bowa had been a candidate for the Marlins' managerial
vacancy, but that job could be headed to Don Mattingly. The team announced last
week that Rick Kranitz and John McLaren will be the bullpen coach and catching
coach, respectively. Hitting coach Steve Henderson and pitching coach Bob
McClure previously agreed to contracts for next season. The Phillies will not
have an assistant hitting coach, like they had the previous three seasons. They
still need a first-base coach, who could be hired after this week's
organizational meetings in Clearwater, Fla.
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies finally put an end to the season finishing in last place in the NL
East with a record of 63-99. Given the departures, aging stars, injuries, and
bipolar performances, this has ended up being one of the worst seasons in
franchise history! However, there are some former Phillies still making
headlines in the playoffs this year.
