Brad

They lifted Niese too early so after Colon I think it would have been Gilmartin. They also had Robles. Not sure why they didn't bring him in. They weren't going to use Matz under any circumstances. If the Mets are going to get back into this series deGrom is the man. Contrary to what everybody thinks deGrom is the ace of the staff. If the Royals beat deGrom it could be a short series. Let's face it, Harvey is still in a recovery year. However, he (along with Familia) blew the game; he wasn't good when he needed to be as the "ace" of the staff. He's a bit of a prima donna and his teammates just sort of shake their head when something comes up involving him, be it the innings thing, being late or what have you It wouldn't surprise me if they trade him; there will be no Cespedes next year and they will need to bring in a bat. Mets ownership is pretty cheap (due to the Madoff scandal) so they will be looking to spend as little money as possible.

See, that's all the more reason to respect the baseball physics of the Bartolo Colon Zone - he's a walking emitter of synthetic manstuff into every occupiable molecule of baseball matter. I bet he can bend baseball light just by looking at it. Something's gotta be keeping those legs viable. I love Colon. Yes, he did steroids but did his time. He's just a very good pitcher and I'll be see sorry to see him go. He's been a tremendous influence on some of the Latin pitchers; he even told Robles that if you're not going to throw inside, why don't you go home. He's been a treat to watch, just as Young was a treat to watch because they show you that you don't have to throw 95 to succeed. Just move the ball up and down, left to right and so forth.

The Royals are a very good team, probably better than the Mets top to bottom but in my opinion the Mets let one slip away that they had won. Familia, from time to time, likes to use this stupid quick pitch, which is not very effective. Why a guy who has this fantastic splitter and can throw 97 plus needs to think he needs a trick pitch is beyond me. The Royals aren't stupid. They saw the videos of when he does it and Gordon was ready. Give him credit for hitting it. I hope he learns from this not to do it again. When Gordon hit the HR, game over. I've seen this before, game 4 of the 1988 NLCS against the Dodgers, a game that will haunt me the rest of my life but let's not go back to ancient history. My criticisms of Collins: why on God's name is he starting Kelly Johnson and then replacing him with Cuddeyer (who is done in my opinion). I thought (as did a lot of Mets fans) that Lagares would be in CF, with Conforto as the DH. A mistake as they gifted a run in the first. Also, what in the heck is Collins thinking pulling Conforto in the 6th for defense. This is a move I would have expected in the 8th. Now, it didn't really hurt them as Lagares got two hits and scored the 4th run but you have to wonder about the thinking process that goes into that. Bullpen was better than expected so I was pleasantly surprised there. I still wish he would go with Addison Reed in the 8th but Collins sticks to his formula. Wright is a liability at 3rd. Due to his spinal stenosis, he has to throw a certain way and it cost him in the 14th. Interestingly I was surprised that Collins didn't use a challenge on the play; nothing to lose at that point. Harvey wasn't real sharp, probably due to the layoff. His start against the Dodgers wasn't sharp (due to a long layoff) but was sharp against the Cubs because he was on regular rest; I expect him to look good for game 5. Don't know what to expect from deGrom tonight as he hasn't looked good in the early innings in any of his post season starts. Being down 2-0 is not in a good position to be in but not the end of the world as the 85 Royals and 86 Mets have shown.

This game is a killer on sleep

Friggin Collins keeps going to Clippard. Game over

I go back to my earlier post that in pitching the Mets strength is the starting pitching and middle relief is weak. If the Royals hitters knock out a starter we are in deep trouble. I think Colon could save the day but you're asking a lot. The strong part of the Royals pitching is their middle relief and I don't think their starters are as strong. The Royals could survive a starter going down early. The Mets simply cannot. That the Mets middle relief is unpredictable at best is not a secret. I don't see this happening with Harvey but it could happen with deGrom and Matz. We will see. That's why they play the games! :)

You're probably correct about the starters. However, you can probably survive a poor start by your starters. The Mets probably cannot. That is the one advantage the Mets have in this series.

From what I've read -- and I'll admit to not seeing many of their games -- KC looks to their starters to get them at least five or six and turns it over to the pen, which is very strong, certainly much stronger than ours. Middle relief is a problem for many teams. Mets are the converse; they look to get at least six or seven from the starters and use Reed and Clippard to bridge to Familia. In the post season, Colon has been part of the bridge as Clippard has not been very effective for a month or so. If I were Collins, I'd flip Reed and Clippard but he's pretty loyal to his guys.

Lack of soda and perhaps too much candy corn has obviously turned your brain into mush. what's your pick or you just gonna bash mine Catesta is from NY so I assume he's picking the Mets.

The Royals are going to play the way that has been successful for them all year as will the Mets and it will be up to each team to try to counter what the other one does. The Mets pitchers pitch, not just try to strike you out; they know how to pitch to another team's strengths and weaknesses. That is why the Mets are here. Obviously KC has their formula: limit the damage of their SP and turn it to the bullpen, which is the Mets Achilles heel. It will probably be a long series. Mets can win on the road, something like 21-6 during the regular season in the last 27 games and 4-1 on the road. As the season wound down, they were actually better on the road than at home. As far as Murph goes, he is a good hitter: he will get you a lot of doubles and can hit to the opposite field but he is streaky. He may be on a prolonged streak or maybe it's coming to an end. However, here are a couple of interesting articles, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/sports/baseball/how-mets-coach-brought-out-daniel-murphys-power.html?ref=baseball and http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/upshot/trust-your-eyes-a-hot-streak-is-not-a-myth.html?ref=baseball Mets had -- and may still have no intention of resigning him (he's not great defensively and makes some stupid mistakes on the basepaths) -- but the fans love him (he's imperfect like the rest of us) and if he has a decent World Series, regardless of the outcome, they may have no choice. Even before the playoffs started, fans felt (myself included) that he was probably not a Met next year and that the team would miss his hitting.

I guess I'm not surprised that you guys would pick the Royals but the Royals haven't faced starting pitching like this, the best starting pitching there has been in baseball in a long time. They are not just strikeout pitchers but they can do that also. Since the trading deadline, their lineup has been one of the most explosive in baseball. Royals rotation is ok but not overwhelming. On top of this, no DH at Citi. American League teams don't do well at the National League park; heard on one of the baseball channels that since 2006, they were 8-17. Mets in 6, 7 at the worst.

That seems to cut out the fan who follows them all year Scott but I think that's always the case. I also noticed looking on Stubhub that parking passes are $500! Now, Citifield doesn't have the greatest parking situation but that's crazy. Getting out of Shea Stadium (which is now the parking lot for Citifield) was always a nightmare so I used to park in Flushing (about 5 minutes from Shea) and take the subway one stop. Had I been going to a game, that's what I would have done this time.

Don't know about KC, but prices are ridiculous for the games in NY; $700 for standing room only. Crappy seats are around $1,300. CitiField is not the largest, only seats about 42,000. Shea had around 56,000.

I think he meant either team. If the Mets don't win, the WS it will still have been a tremendous season; sure beats the last six seasons. I'm not sure the Royals would feel the same way if they lost as they went to the WS last year.

Some great players like Jon Matlack, Wayne Garrett, Gary Gentry, Amos Otis and Ken Singleton. He felt he was snubbed by M. Donald Grant, the President of the Mets, when Grant named Yogi as Manager over him when Gil Hodges (the greatest of all Mets managers in my opinion) died in 1972. He eventually left the Mets and hated them forever. Grant is the same idiot who traded Seaver.

One of my least favorite people in baseball and to think he worked for the Mets as head of player development in the 60s!

The Mets pitchers were actually running out of gas and towards the end of the season, deGrom didn't look that good; at one game I attended he got lit up pretty good. The Mets responded by skipping him a turn. They did the same with Harvey and Syndergaard. Skipping them made all the difference in the world. I don't know if the Cubs did that with Arietta. Or veteran experience? I can't believe they were swept. Would have never expected it. A big factor was that the Cubs never got a lead. They were always playing from behind and catchup the whole series. I didn't expect it but the Mets basically rolled over them.

I think the only thing this Cubs team is missing is more starting pitching. After Arietta and Lester, they are not that good. They're not even as good as the Mets fifth and sixth starters. Also Schwarber needs some work in the instructional league or offseason work on his fielding; he just didn't look good out there. Other than that, they look pretty darn good. I think the series turned when the Mets beat Arietta. I didn't expect that and was a little shocked. The number of innings he pitched this year were probably too much. You can say that this experience will help the Cubs next year -- and it should -- but as we have seen you can never guarantee you'll be back. See the Nationals experience, for example.

Reading David Halberstam's Teammates about four players on the Red Sox (Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr). Nice baseball book but more a book about four men.

That's the original Mr. Met! The original mascot and the best! Same to you Scott. I'd like to see both teams finish it up today. They're the two best teams and it should be a lot of fun, when they both get there; we don't want to jinx them.

He sounds like an ass. I've been lucky to get some of the Bee Hives over the years and can't wait to get this. Need to get on the stick!

I think MLB and Fox would be happy in that they will have one of the major markets in the WS, be it the Mets or the Cubs. However, we still have one game to go; to a man, the Mets aren't looking past the Cubs and say today is a must win game. If the Mets get in, the ratings here will be huge, not that they aren't already. Unlike past years, Yankee fans are rooting for the Mets. Met stuff is everywhere and basically that's all people want to talk about. Hard to fathom but it will be even bigger and I think that the story of the young arms and Daniel Murphy will be a great ratings draw, not to mention the Royals heading back to the WS and the comeback kids, etc. I hope the Mets (as well as KC) can wrap it up today so they can save Harvey for the opener, to be followed by deGrom and Thor (Syndergaard). As good as this pitching has been, and I've never seen anything like it, it even gets better next year when Zach Wheeler returns.

Wonder if the Blue Jays wished they could do over the Dickey trade. They could have had Syndergaard pitching for them today. Sandy Alderson fleeced them.

For me it has, but that's because my team has been in the wilderness for a long time so come what may it's been a great run.

??? Was that meant for me? I never thought I'd see the day when the Royals were the only one of the remaining four Championship Series teams to have the most recent success. Three short years ago none of the four teams remaining even had winning records. The Mets at 74-88 had the best record. That same year the Cubs lost 101 games! The turnaround started in 2013 when Harvey burst on the scene. Obviously a few of the players here now were here then (Murphy, Wright, Niese).