The New York Mets were six outs from erasing their deficit in the 2015 World Series. Then came the Kansas City Royals in the eighth inning.
Kansas City trailed 3-2 and was enduring a battle with the Mets' bullpen. Jon Niese, Bartolo Colon and Addison Reed came on in relief for Steven Matz and retired six straight batters before Tyler Clippard and Jeurys Familia would take over.
However, New York's plan did not go accordingly.
After getting Alcides Escobar to ground out, Clippard walked Ben Zobrist and Lorenzo Cain, which forced manager Terry Collins to call on Familia with one out in the eighth to face Eric Hosmer.
Familia got Hosmer to weakly ground to second, but Daniel Murphy didn't get his glove down far enough and the ball trickled into right field. Zobrist scored to tie the game and Murphy was charged with an error. The hero of the NLDS and NLCS somehow had a rare lapse on the defensive side of the ball.
Unfortunately, Familia picked up where he left off in Game 1 and allowed two RBI singles to Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez. Alex Gordon grounded into a double play in the next at-bat, but the damage had already been done. The Royals led 5-3 and the Mets needed two runs against perhaps the best bullpen in the MLB to stand a chance in Game 4.
After Ryan Madson retired the Mets in order in the bottom half of the eighth, New York had one last chance against Wade Davis in the ninth. David Wright struck out to start the inning, but Murphy and Yoenis Cespedes hit back-to-back singles to put the tying runs on base with Lucas Duda coming to the plate.
Then came the final miscue of the night.
Duda hit a soft line drive to third baseman Mike Moustakas after David jammed him and broke his bat. Cespedes took off for second base at the crack of the bat and after Moustakas caught the ball he had an easy throw to first. Hosmer gloved Moustakas' throw and the game ended.
On a night where the Mets' rookies came up big, the team's veterans were the reason for the loss. Michael Conforto went 2-for-3 with two solo home runs and Steven Matz allowed two earned runs on seven hits over five innings to keep New York in the game.
But Clippard's back-to-back walks, Murphy's error and Cespedes' poor baserunning did them in. They now trail the Royals 3-1 in this World Series and will look toward Matt Harvey to keep them alive in Game 5 on Sunday night.
He'll go up against Edinson Volquez in a Game 1 rematch at 8:15 p.m. ET in the Mets' final home game of the championship series.
