Written by Dylan Hunter Carter
After a long 30 year drought, the Kansas City Royals have finally won another World Series title. The Royals beats the Mets 7-2 in 12 innings to take the title in the 5th game of the World Series. A major run in the 12th inning by Christian Colon saved the Royals from a Game 6. Although the Mets had a fantastic season and a great playoff run, the Royals were the more well prepared team and overcame the fastballs of Mets pitchers Matt Harvey and Jacob DeGrom. Following a stellar season, dominating the AL Central division with a 95-67 record, the Royals fought hard for their title.
The Mets were most certainly underdogs in this matchup against the Royals, but they put up a great fight and exceeded all expectations prior to this season. The Amazin’s won the NL East Division with a 90-72 record led by team captain and all-time Mets legend, David Wright. Despite his season-long struggle with lower back and spinal injury, Wright fought through the pain and led his beloved Mets to win the American League. Wright has been a Met during his entire professional career since he entered the MLB in 2004 and now leads the Mets in many all time stats including runs, hits, and RBI. Wright had 10 hits and 7 runs in the postseason.
Second Baseman Daniel Murphy led the Mets batting during the postseason with 19 hits, 13 runs, and 7 home runs. Murphy clearly proved himself as a great hitter, especially after setting an all time MLB record of 6 consecutive postseason games with a home run. The concern with Murphy is his tendency to allow fielding errors. An important fielding error in the eighth inning of Game 5 led to the surge which eventually led to a World Series Victory for the Royals. Murphy is now a free agent and his future with the Mets is unclear, but a return to the Mets is imminent as his great batting stats are too good for the Mets to let go of, especially since the core hitters of the team are aging.
The most important aspect of the Royals which led to their victory is the immense depth. In the playoffs, Kansas City had a combined 146 hits, 17 home runs, and 83 RBI with different leaders in each category. Eric Hosmer led the team in RBI with 17, Alcides Escobar led in hits with 24, and Salvador Perez and Kendrys Morales tied with 4 home runs each. With such incredible team play and skill throughout their roster, it's no surprise that they won the World Series. Royals GM Dayton Moore carefully crafted this roster to be able to play off of the skillsets and faults of other players on the roster. The Royals have shown a level camaraderie and elite play that is unmatched in the MLB.
Both the Mets and the Royals are capable of returning to the World Series next year, especially with their new playoff experience, but now they prepare for an offseason full of contract extensions, new players, trades, drafts, and big decisions. We’ll see what the next few months have in store.
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