The Royals are ahead 2-0. In history that has happened 53 times. Forty-two times that team has won the Series.

METS

Yoenis Cespedes had an 0-for-4 night and he has gone 1-for-10 in the Series. Shoulder clearly is an issue. He’s struck out 11 times in 10 games this postseason and his slash line isn’t what Mets fans were hoping for: .227/.244/.386.

Jacob deGrom was throwing 96 mph last night, still bringing the heat, even if the results weren’t there (four runs in five innings). Surprisingly, he only had two strikeouts. He just couldn’t put anyone away. The same guy who struck out 13 batters in the NLDS to tie the Mets playoff record (Tom Seaver) generated one swing and miss in Game 2. That’s shocking. All told, there were only nine swing and misses in the game on 116 hacks by both teams. The previous low this postseason was 20.

Lucas Duda had two hits in three at-bats In Game 2 as he pushed his run the last four games to 7-for-16 with seven RBIs. The rest of the Mets went 0-for-25 in Game 2. Duda still has a .730 OPS over 11 playoff games even with his hot run.

Jeurys Familia had a blown save in Game 1 but he’s still been excellent in the playoffs: 0.82 ERA, 0.45 WHIP, three hits and two walks over 11 innings.

Daniel Murphy has two hits in nine World Series at-bats. He still has a .383/.420/.872 slash line over 11 games.

David Wright is batting .171 with a .540 OPS. Travis d’Arnaud is batting .186 with a .595 OPS. Unless those two start hitting it’s going to be very difficult for the Mets to come back in this battle. Still, they have been superstars when compared to Michael Conforto who has one hit in 20 at-bats.

ROYALS

For the 13th straight game the Royals used the same lineup. That’s the longest such streak in playoff history.

Johnny Cueto, in Game 2, became the first hurler since Game 1 of the 2009 World Series to throw a complete game when the DH was in the lineup. Cueto also became the first AL hurler to throw a complete game in the World Series since Jack Morris in 1991. Cueto became the first pitcher for the Royals to throw a complete game in the playoffs since Game 7 of the 1985 World Series (Bret Saberhagen). Cueto also became the second pitcher in history to have two starts in one playoff season of at least eight innings pitched and two or fewer hits allowed.

Alcides Escobar had two hits and two RBIs in Game 2 to extend his current playoff hitting streak to 12 games, one behind Lorenzo Cain’s franchise record. The only shortstop who has ever had more hits in one postseason is Derek Jeter who had 22 hits on three occasions. Escobar is batting .364 with 12 runs scored over 13 games.

Eric Hosmer had two hits and two RBIs in Game 2. He’s pushed his postseason total up to 15 RBIs. That gives him 27 RBIs over his first 28 postseason games. The only player who has ever had more RBIs than that over his first 28 games is Lou Gehrig with 33.

Kendrys Morales is down to .250 in the batting average category with a .302 OBP. Still has a .500 SLG with four homers and 10 RBIs this postseason.

Mike Moustakas narrowly missed a big hit in Game 2 when his long drive fell about five feet foul.

Ben Zobrist has scored 11 times in 13 games. That’s one less than the 12 scored by Escobar and one more than the 10 by Alex Gordon. 

 

 

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