Kansas City (2-0) at NY Mets (0-2)
When: Friday, October 30th, 2015
Where: Citi Field, New York, NY
Time: 8:05 ET | TV: FOX
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The Kansas City Royals are two wins away from winning their first World Series in 30 years, but now take their game on the road to New York. The Royals have not been fooled by the Mets strong starting pitching, putting the ball in play throughout both ball games. The Mets had a chance to win Game 1, but their closer Jeurys Familia surrendered his first run in over a month when Alex Gordon homered to tie it. The Royals went on to win in 14 innings. Johnny Cueto earned his keep in Game 2 when he became the first American League pitcher to pitch a complete game since 1991. Kansas City pitching has cooled off Daniel Murphy (2-for-9, 4 strikeouts) and Yoenis Cespedes, who is 6-for-32 and 10 strikeouts in his last 8 postseason games. It appears his shoulder is bothering him more than we know. Cespedes has been a key for the Mets lineup since they acquired him at the trade deadline. If he can’t get it going, the Mets are in trouble. The Royals’ Eric Hosmer has been an RBI machine driving in 15 runs this postseason. The Mets really need to win tonight, or they’re done.
Young Noah Syndergaard will get his chance at cooling off the Royals bats tonight. He dominated the Chicago Cubs over 5.2 innings to win Game 2 of the NLCS, striking out nine while allowing one run and three hits. Syndergaard recorded 20 strikeouts in 13 innings over the first two rounds of the playoffs. He went 0-2 with a 5.86 ERA in his five interleague starts this season but was 7-2 with a 2.46 mark at home. Yordano Ventura is making his fifth start of the postseason and is still looking for his first win. The Dominican Republic native has yet to complete six innings in those four starts but surrendered one run on four hits over 5.1 innings against Toronto in the decisive Game 6 of the American League Championship Series. Ventura is facing the Mets for the first time ever and is 3-3 with a 3.40 ERA in nine career interleague starts.
I might be in the minority in thinking the Mets can still win this series. They key is not their starting pitching, but they need to get there bats going like they did after the All-Star Break. Being at Citi Field will help and I think the Mets get Game 3 tonight.
Pick: Mets -135
