5 Reasons Mets Fans Don't Want To Face The Royals
Bryan Altman, CBS Local Sports
It's official: The Daniel Murphys... whoops, I mean, the New York Mets are heading to the World Series! Admit it Mets fans, six months ago, you didn't think this was possible. Why would you? This team couldn't score, the pitchers were promising as could be, but young, and the Nationals were going to run away with the division by August.
But lo and behold, your 2015 Mets are getting ready to play either the Kansas City Royals or the Toronto Blue Jays for the right to be known forever as 2015 World Champions. It goes without saying that when you make it to the World Series, whatever team you're playing has a ton of talent and will present you with an immense slate of challenges that you'll have to overcome to beat them four times. However, some matchups are better than others, and in this case the better matchup for the New York Mets is the Toronto Blue Jays. So with that being said, here are five reasons Mets fans don't want to deal with the Kansas City Royals.
They Have Been Here Before
Experience is the best teacher and the Royals certainly got plenty of it during last year's Cinderella run to the World Series. Their roster is more or less the same from last year's bunch and you have to think the fact that they've been here before is a big help. So far, the Mets' young pitching staff and their every day players haven't seemed remotely fazed by playing on baseball's biggest stage, but the World Series is a different animal, one that the Royals are quite familiar with by now.
Their Bullpen Is The Best In Baseball
If you're counting on some late inning heroics to dispatch the Royals you can think again. Royals relievers had the second best ERA in baseball this season at 2.72 and held their opponents to a .214 batting average, the best in the league. Their dominant bullpen lead by Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera is still stellar even without their usual closer, Greg Holland, who is out for the year after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Their bullpen turns most games into a six, maybe seven at most, inning affair, meaning you need to get to their starters, or you're in trouble.
They Play Great Fundamental Baseball, And They Don't Strike Out
The Royals won't wow you like the Blue Jays by blasting home runs to straight away center (although they can do that, too) inning after inning, but they won't beat themselves and they can scratch out runs with the best of them. The Royals are also one of the best contact hitting teams in baseball and can give pitchers fits with lengthy at bats.
MORE: 5 Reasons Mets Fans Don't Want To Face The Blue Jays
Every single team in baseball struck out at least 1,000 times this season - except for Kansas City. The Royals struck out only 973 times this year, an average of six times per game. The next closest team to them was the Braves, who struck out 1,107 times per game for an average of nearly seven strikeouts per game. The Royals will make you work for it every at bat and use up your starters as best they can.
The Mets Know Their Aces Can Handle The Blue Jays
When the Mets met the Blue Jays in a four-game series earlier this year (two in New York, two in Toronto) the two teams split the series 2-2, but that doesn't tell the full story. In the first two games of the series, which the Mets took, they trotted out Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard to face the vaulted Blue Jays lineup. Harvey, the Mets' projected Game 1 starter, threw seven shutout innings and allowed just four hits against Toronto en route to a 3-2 victory.
The next game Syndergaard struck out 11 Blue Jays in six shutout innings, allowing just two hits all the while as the Mets went on to win 4-3 in extra innings. The two following games the Mets got blown out pretty badly, but their pitchers were Jon Neise and Bartolo Colon, both of whom will be coming out of the bullpen during the World Series. Bottom line is, the Mets' aces can take the Blue Jays down, the Royals on the other hand, are a bit more of an unknown considering the teams haven't played since 2013.
They Win Both At Home And On The Road
The Royals were one of only seven MLB teams with a winning record on the road this year. Meanwhile the Blue Jays were mediocre at best on the road and stellar at home. If you steal a game in Kansas City, they're not going to fret about needing to get a win on the road, it's what they do. But if you can snag a game from the Blue Jays before heading home, the advantage has shifted drastically in your favor.
Bryan Altman is, for some reason, an unabashed fan of the Rangers, Jets and Mets. If he absolutely had to pick a basketball team it would be the Knicks, but he'd gladly trade them for just one championship for either of his other three teams.
Questions or comments? Feel free to follow Bryan on Twitter or send him an email.
