Mets win Game 3, face 2-1 World Series deficit

The New York Mets did a smart thing Friday night: They beat the Royals 9-3 in Game 3 of the World Series at Citi Field (box score), avoiding an 0-3 hole that almost certainly would have meant their demise. Only the Boston Red Sox against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS, as every schoolkid knows by now, have come back from a three-games-to-none deficit in a best-of-7 postseason series.

With Game 4 set to go Saturday night, let’s take a look at 11 things to know about Game 3 and its participants:

1. The Mets finally brought the lumber — particularly David Wright.

After coming in batting .165 with a .432 OPS through the first two games collectively, the Mets pounded 12 hits, including two home runs (one by David Wright, and another by Curtis Granderson).

It took the Mets just two batters to put up their first crooked number of the series. Granderson led off the first with an infield single, and Wright followed with a two-run, go-ahead homer to left. Wright, who drove in four runs, snapped a 55 at-bat home-run drought in the postseason that dated to 2006.

2. It was one of the busiest first three innings in World Series history.

The Royals jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first, fell behind on Wright’s home run, took the lead back in the second, and fell behind (for good) in the third inning on Granderson’s two-run homer — which scored pitcher Noah Syndergaard after he singled.

3. Noah Syndergaard did something a pitcher in a World Series had not done in six years.

The Royals had been warned about Syndergaard the batter, who hit .209 with a .530 OPS during the regular season. With an 0-2 count leading off the third inning, he lined a hanging cutter from Yordano Ventura to right for a single, and later scored on the Granderson homer. The Mets collectively came in with the second-best hitting numbers among pitchers in the NL during the regular season.

4. Syndergaard was better than Matt Harvey or Jacob deGrom in getting the Royals to swing and miss.

Harvey and Syndergaard allowed three runs in six innings in their respective starts, but the Syndergaard approach might benefit the Mets going forward. Of course, when you’re sitting at 99 mph on the fastball, like Syndergaard was in Game 3, and have effective breaking pitches too, it’s easy to say, “Hey, Steven Matz, just do like Thor did in Game 4.”

5. Syndergaard also was better at getting the Royals angry by throwing the first pitch of the game to Alcides Escobar way up and in.

Syndergaard jovially made this comment a day before Game 3:

“It’s something else being able to watch Escobar walk up there and swing at the first pitch almost every single game. I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I’ll be able to break out tomorrow night. I’m looking forward to it.”

Whoa! (MLB on Fox)

So, his trickery is a high, hard one, eh? The Royals fumed about the location, which was extremely high and inside. How inside? At full speed, 98 mph, it looked like Escobar had to duck out of the way in order to not get hit in the helmet. Slowing the video down, the ball didn’t appear to be quite as inside as it might have seemed to Escobar. However, when looking at a chart of the pitch’s location (read it from the catcher’s perspective.):

It is hilariously high and perhaps six or seven inches inside. Enough to worry a batter, but it was still higher than it was inside. The Royals called him out (Moustakas had a not-safe-for-work rant that the broadcast caught), and they had not simmered down much after the game.

Moustakas: “The whole team was pretty upset. First pitch of the game goes right by our leadoff man’s head.”

Hosmer: “He said he had a master plan, so I guess it was to throw at Esky’s head.”

Escobar: “A ball at my head? That’s no good. No, no, he didn’t miss.”

After being told of this, Syndergaard did not back down, saying the Royals could meet him on the mound — to fight, apparently — if they didn’t like it. That’s some pretty heady gamesmanship from a 23-year-old. He also added that, yes, he was trying to send a message to the Royals, that it wouldn’t be a walk in the park. Did it really work, though, as a statement? Kansas City came out of the chute hitting and scoring against Syndergaard. If the Royals were supposed to be intimidated by Syndergaard’s message, it didn’t seem to happen.

6. The game might have had a different outcome if Alex Gordon hadn’t been thrown out at third base in the second inning.

The Royals trailed by a run when Alex Rios lined an RBI single to left. Gordon, running aggressively, made it from first to third — according to the umpire at the scene — but after the Mets challenged the call with video replay, it was reversed. Indeed, the throw from Michael Conforto got to David Wright on a short-hop, but Wright quickly slapped a tag across Gordon’s helmet as he slid in, replay showed.

The Royals managed to score another run in the second, but Gordon being out — instead of the Royals having runners at second and third with no outs — changed the complexion of the inning. They had Syndergaard on the ropes, the Mets thought, because Terry Collins had Jonathon Niese warming up in the bullpen. Syndergaard was able to settle down, however, and retired 12 straight batters thereafter.

7. The winner of Game 3 has won the World Series 65 percent of the time — 72 of 110 times in history.

Confirmed by Baseball Reference, so it must be true! Congratulations, Mets, you’ve done it! But wait — it’s also misleading. The team ahead 2-1 in the World Series, as the Royals are, have gone 55-27 in history. Looking at it that way, the Royals still have a 67 percent chance of winning the Series. How can the Mets have a 65 percent chance of winning, and the Royals 67? Is this like the 110 percent-effort thing? No, it’s because figures lie and liars figure!

8. The Mets improved to 30-14 all-time in the postseason at home, the best home playoff winning percentage of any team.

This is noteworthy because the Mets have two more games at home, and were they to win those, they’d have a 69 percent chance of winning the World Series based on total history, although only 62 percent as the road team for Games 6 and 7. You see how these figures twist everything?

9. Franklin Morales became the first pitcher to do this in a World Series since … himself!

It was a disastrous two-thirds of an inning for Morales, who in the sixth inning was making his first World Series appearance since he was with the Rockies in ’07. He allowed four runs (all earned), two hits and no walks. How did he manage that? He also hit a batter, plus he allowed Curtis Granderson to reach first base on a fielder’s choice when Morales dipped to new levels on indecision on a comebacker. He appeared to pump in several directions before unleashing a throw in the dirt to Ben Zobrist — who was not covering a base.

In Game 1 of the ’07 World Series against the Red Sox, Morales allowed seven runs, six hits and a walk in two-thirds of an inning. The good news for Morales: He came back to pitch 2 1/3 innings of scoreless ball in Game 3. The bad: The Red Sox swept the series in four games.

10. Raul A. Mondesi pinch-hit in the fifth inning, becoming the first player in Major League Baseball history to debut in the World Series.

Mondesi struck out against Syndergaard, but he’s in the books! His father played on three playoff teams (twice with the Dodgers, once with the Yankees) and never got further than the division series round, in which his clubs had a 1-9 record (ouch). The son already has two World Series victories banked!

11. Juan Uribe pinch-hit too, with different results.

In his first appearance since Sept. 25, Uribe lined a hanging breaking ball to right for an RBI single in the sixth inning, helping the Mets extend their lead to 6-3. Uribe has been out because of a chest cartilage injury, which he incurred diving for a ball Sept. 20 and made worse by swinging the bat — in a pinch-hitting plate appearance five days later, his most recent action. Off the roster for the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Royals activated him for the World Series but he did not play in Games 1 and 2 at Kansas City.

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