The 2015 World Series took place on Tuesday night in Kansas City at the Kauffman Stadium. The Royals hosted the Mets for the first two games before the series moved over to New York for Game Three to Five. After that, Game Six and Seven would have shifted back to Kansas City. The Royals and the Mets both came out on top of their division this past season. The World Series went the extra mile to showcase five exciting ball games. However, to win the championship, the Mets would have needed to do a few things differently.
1. They Needed to Prime Their Fielding Skills
Simply put, The Mets needed to field better. One of their infield shortstop, Wilmer Flores, first baseman Lucas Duda, and second baseman Murphy all were a bit slow compared to the Royals who relentlessly threw hard liners and grounders. In fact, this season the Mets have been lacking in defense entirely. This could have been because they placed Yoenis Cespedes in center field during Game One, as he is not a brilliant player. Additionally, it seemed as though the majority of infielders were a step behind every play or out of their position.
2. Murphy Needed to be on His A-Game
The Mets needed Murphy to go back to being a dominant player. He had been just okay for the previous two games. He made two hits for Game One and two walks on Game Two. However, we needed to see the player who could snag a home run for every game. It seemed as though The Royals had a strategy to keep the ball from Murphy the entire time, which is extremely efficient when the ball is in the inner half.
3. They Needed to Secure a Lead
The Mets needed to secure a lead so that they did not fall into the grasp of the best bullpen in the World Series. However, this was not an easy feat, as the Royals had not been giving up leads for the past few games. Although the Mets were able to avoid falling into the Royal’s trap during Game Two, it was not as clean as it should have been. Johnny Cueto, Royals’ starter, destroyed them with a two-hit complete game. For the Mets to come out on top, they needed to score early in the game. Although The Mets were not totally off base with their starting pitches, their lineup needed to give them some space.
4. They Needed to Avoid Tipping Their Pitches
The Mets needed to ensure that they avoided tipping their pitches. Both Familia and deGrom seem to have been guilty of this action in past games. However, some are saying that it is not that Familia was tipping his pitches so much that he was throwing too quick of a pitch. When it comes to deGrom, most Mets fans agree that he just was not playing like his usual self.
5. They Needed to Cool Their Jets
Although this one is pretty tricky to do, it needed to happen if The Mets wanted a chance at the World Series. Although Yoenis Cespedes was able to relax a bit more during Game Two, this was not the case for the other Mets players. deGrome who is known to be the easiest going player on the team lost himself in a fifth inning that was an ongoing mess for the Mets. He ended up getting overaggressive and flustered which made him overthrow.