There were echoes of the immortal ‘86 Mets at Citi Field Sunday night, and throughout the 2015 World Series. Unfortunately, the team that was evoking them was from Kansas City. I always thought that Mets team from three decades ago was the most resilient ballclub I’d ever seen. But the KC Royals -- World Champs for the first time in 30 years -- have made me think otherwise.
There’s “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over”, and then there’s the Royals' motto -- “just when you think it’s over, we’ll prove you wrong and rip your heart out.”
The visitors surely did that to the Mets and their fans on Sunday, turning a phenomenal performance from Matt Harvey into another KC win that could’ve been called a shocker -- if only it was by any team other than the Royals.
For eight innings, Harvey totally dominated the AL Champs, and his teammates squeezed out just enough support that, after 100+ pitches (the vast majority of them strikes), it seemed the Mets ace could turn the ball over to closer Jeurys Familia for the final frame.
Indeed, manager Terry Collins, a 66-year-old baseball lifer on an incredible run in his first-ever postseason, decided to sit Harvey for the ninth inning, only to be told by his star hurler that that simply wasn’t going to happen. Collins relented.
Watching Harvey sprint out for the final inning gave me -- and dare I say many, many other cold, cynical New Yorkers -- wait, what do you call it when it’s bigger than goosebumps? Turkey bumps?
Well, anyway, it was incredible. And completely unforgettable.
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Collins issued a mea culpa after the 7-2 series-ending loss, saying he made the wrong call. I disagree, and not because Harvey “deserved to finish what he started,” as some have said, or anything like that. In short, I think, even after that many pitches -- and, of course, that since-obliterated innings limit we heard so much about -- he gave his team a better chance to get three outs than any other pitcher they had.
Should the manager have left Harvey in after Lorenzo Cain started things off with a walk? I don’t think so. But would the story have turned out any different if Familia entered the game at that point? Based on how the reliever looked in his previous work vs. KC, it was a toss-up.
I firmly believe the Royals would’ve gotten to Familia in that situation, because it’s who they are. After narrowing losing the seventh game of last year’s Fall Classic, they weren’t going to fall short again.
Over the course of the five-game series, Kansas City scored 15 runs after the seventh inning. The Mets got 1.
No doubt, Mets fans would surely trade Harvey’s trip out to the mound in the ninth for a World Series title.
But, like Collins with his ace Sunday night, it’d be a very tough call.
