The 2015 World Series is coming to Citi Field on Friday night and the Kansas City Royals hold a commanding 2-0 lead. However, the New York Mets will be home for the next three games and have Noah Syndergaard on the mound tonight.
Also, the Mets lost Game 1 of the 1986 World Series by one run to the Boston Red Sox and then dropped Game 2 by six runs, which is exactly how they started off against the Royals this week.
Can New York find their groove and avoid an 0-3 hole tonight?
Here's what to expect for Game 3.
3. Syndergaard will give the Royals a lot more trouble with his fastball/curveball mix
The young right-hander has thrown 193 innings this season and has also surpassed his career-high in innings pitched like Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom, but the difference here is that Syndergaard is a fresh arm. Harvey underwent Tommy John surgery in 2013 and deGrom also had the procedure in 2010. To say their arms aren't fatigued after pitching over 200 innings for the first time in their c areers post-Tommy John surgery would perhaps be ignorant.
"With all the talk about Harvey's innings, every young Mets starter is operating beyond his career-highs. That did not diminish them in any noticeable way against the Dodgers and Cubs this October. But the warranty might be coming due now as they face the worst opponent at their worst time," writes Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
"Harvey's fastball, for example, has slowly ebbed down in average velocity from 96.4 mph against the Dodgers to 95.1 against the Cubs to 94.7 in World Series Game 1. He threw fastballs on just 30 of his 80 pitches, likely because of his respect for the Royals and mounting concern about what remains in his arm."
As for deGrom, his fastball velocity was fine, but perhaps his location and secondary pitches were not as sharp as they've been. Of the 33 deGrom fastballs the Royals swung at on Wednesday night, they missed zero. He left a few sliders up in the zone as well and the Royals made him pay. That could be a symptom of fatigue. His pitches were not as crisp, as we saw in Game 5 of the NLDS when he labored through six innings to keep the Dodgers at bay (although it was a courageous outing, there were clearly flaws in his pitches).
But Syndergaard is a different story. He's shown no signs of slowing down, especially after his last start against the Chicago Cubs, during which he struck out nine batters in 5 2/3 innings. He has 20 strikeouts in 13 innings this postseason thanks to his good mix of offspeed pitches.
In his final four regular season starts, he finished 1-1 with a 2.93 ERA, 0.65 WHIP and 37 strikeouts.
"In addition to his fastball, he wields a pretty nasty curveball and has recently added a slider to the mix. So far this October, he's parlayed those pitches into an ace-like performance. And the Mets are hoping the one they call Thor taps into that ace potential tonight to keep them from the brink of elimination," adds Chris Mitchell of FanGraphs.
Hopefully that will be the difference for the Mets tonight.
2. Yordano Ventura won't back down
The 24-year-old is making his ninth career postseason start tonight, so he's no stranger to the big stage. He made two starts against the San Francisco Giants in the World Series last year and went 1-0 with a 1.46 ERA. The right-hander also managed to keep the Toronto Blue Jays at bay during his two starts in the ALCS - he allowed four earned runs in 10 2/3 innings and the Royals won both of those games against David Price, including the clincher.
He also pitched much better during the second half of the season, going 9-2 with a 3.56 ERA in 15 starts. His final month of 2015 was his best stretch all year (3.14 ERA in seven starts).
He has yet to pitch beyond 5 1/3 innings this postseason, but that's not really an issue because the Royals have a dominant bullpen.
His World Series experience is invaluable here, but the stakes are much different, as he's on the road and the Mets are playing with their backs against the wall.
1. If the Mets can't score at least three runs, they will lose Game 3
Syndergaard has had a phenomenal rookie campaign, but he needs run support to succeed. That means David Wright and Yoenis Cespedes are going to have to wake up because time is running out.
When Syndergaard gets three or more runs of support he's 8-1 with a 2.76 ERA in 15 starts. When he gets less than three runs of support he's 1-6 with a 4.07 ERA in nine starts.
The Mets have gone cold at the worst possible time. In Game 2, Lucas Duda was the only player to record a hit while the rest of the team went 0-for-24 with three walks.
In fact, three runs might not even be enough depending on how the night goes. New York was 20-60 when scoring three runs or less during the regular season.
We know the offense is there. In the final two months of the season the Mets hit 88 home runs and batted in 203 runs compared to the first four months of the season when they hit 89 home runs and batted in 351 runs.
It sure sounds a lot easier than it is, but the Mets should be able to do this. They were untouchable during the second half of the season and they've showed they're capable of doing it in the playoffs.
Tonight is the night to prove it.
