Palladino: Mets Need Cespedes Of The Regular Season To Save The Series
By Ernie Palladino
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Of all the peculiar things one hears in a given day, this one will sound the oddest.
The time has come for the Mets to revert to their old ways.
Not the old, old ways that saw them stumbling around behind the Nationals in the pre-July 31 era. That's going too far back. What they need now, down 2-0 in the World Series, is a trip in the Wayback Machine to those two months prior to the postseason, when Yoenis Cespedes could do no wrong and the Mets' lineup played Follow The Leader.
This is the time, for if it doesn't happen now -- like starting Friday night -- the Mets will fall as quietly to the Royals as the Cubs bowed to the Mets in the NLCS. And just like those Cubbies, the Mets will watch the Royals dance upon their own infield and, later, set their own staff to sopping up the champagne puddles in the visiting clubhouse.
Three runs is simply not going to do it. If that is true, then one run certainly won't get it done.
An explosion?
Yep, that's the ticket.
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They have come home to friendly Citi Field, where magical things have changed the lives of people like Terry Collins, Daniel Murphy, and David Wright. But unless the lineup gets going, that change will stop in fast order, perhaps by end of business Saturday.
That means Cespedes -- the one who changed everything, the one who has sparked this whole sign/don't sign argument -- must lead again. He must rise out of a general postseason malaise that has handcuffed him at .227 in 44 ABs, with just two homers, seven RBIs, and a whopping 14 strikeouts. He must become that wall-busting, key-run producing monster, not the guy who is 1-for-10 with a single run scored and three strikeouts in this series. He must become the fielding gem again, and lose the imposter that misplayed Alcides Escobar's first-pitch drive into an inside-the-park home run in Game 1.
The Mets need that spark, especially against a Royals team that fought through the Kansas City chill as it refused to give in to the strikeout stuff of Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom.
While the Royals put the ball in play, the Mets bottomed out. Oh, there was the Curtis Granderson homer in Game 1, but it became too singular a moment. There was Lucas Duda's soft single Wednesday that score their only run, which soon became nothing more than a nice moment for the struggling first baseman. His other single, also a softy, stood as the Mets' only hits in Johnny Cueto's complete-game victory.
Make no mistake about this: the Mets' failure in KC was an offensive one. All the radio gasbags who blame it on Harvey for surrendering a 3-1 lead in Game 1 are just silly. He wasn't perfect, but he pitched well enough to win.
Just like in the old, old days, when he watched the offense throw exactly those kinds of efforts out the window with disturbing regularity.
Jeurys Familia's tying homer? Never should have come to that.
Two hits against what had been an up-and-down trade acquisition? Inexcusable.
A return to the power show Cespedes provided is clearly in order. And now they return to a ballpark where power flows through its fences.
It must start with him. As much as Murphy's wild, record-busting, home run ride through the prelims thrilled everyone, that is over. Those things don't last forever. And Murphy's reversion to his true line-drive character won't help unless everyone else hits around him.
Duda, despite a 4-for-9 World Series string, still looks uncomfortable at the plate.
Wright looks absolutely lost. He is as clueless as 2-for-11 gets.
It is left to Cespedes. As all saw in the last two months of the season, if he hits, they will all hit. And that will give Noah Syndergaard a fighting chance against a team that looks like it could get the real Thor to cast his hammer away in frustration.
If Cespedes doesn't become the savior now that he was during the regular season, all is lost.
The son of Odin goes to the hill Friday.
You want real mythology?
How about Cespedes rising like the Phoenix to save the offense and, ultimately, the Series?
Follow Ernie on Twitter at @ErniePalladino
