DYLAN BESTLER
The New York Mets had a historic run in the 2015 season, but their–what some would call– “luck” ran out in the World Series. The Mets fell to the Kansas City Royals in five games, but it will not be forgotten how “Amazin” this season was. Underdogs the whole season, the Mets proved a lot of people wrong about how good they really were.
Before the season even started, many expert analyses had the Washington Nationals not only winning the National League East (the division the Mets are in), but winning the World Series. The Nationals had a powerhouse roster, and leading the way was outfielder Bryce Harper, who was the best player in the league pre- All-Star game, hitting 26 homeruns and batting .339. It also did not help that Mets’ captain, David Wright, was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, which raised the question of whether or not he would ever play again. Things did not look good for the Mets in the early goings.
The Mets took the division lead in June due to a slumping Nationals team, but it was not until late July when the Mets got really hot. On July 29, news broke that Mets’ shortstop, Wilmer Flores, along with pitcher Zack Wheeler were traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for outfielder Carlos Gomez. When Flores heard the news he came off the field crying. Later that night, it turned out that the trade did not go through due to Gomez’s bad hip. Flores remained a Met. Two days later, the Mets got the big bat they were looking for; Yoenis Cespedes was acquired from the Detroit Tigers. That night against the division rival Nationals, Flores hit a game winning homerun in the 12th inning; pointing to the Mets logo on his jersey as he touches home plate. That was a feel good moment for the Mets that would be a spark which helped to hold the division lead.
You could not stop the Mets in August and September. With the help of Cespedes, who was in talks of being a candidate for the NL MVP, and the return of David Wright, the Mets had a 20-8 record in August and later clinched the division on September 26. The only question the Mets had was whether or not Mets’ ace, Matt Harvey, would pitch in the playoffs. At the beginning of the season, Harvey’s agent, Scott Boras, his doctor, Dr. James Andrews, and manager Terry Collins agreed that Harvey will only pitch 180 innings this season. That was before the Mets became a playoff team. Boras announced that Harvey will not pitch in the playoffs without consulting Dr. Andrews or Terry Collins. This was huge news for a couple of days, but Harvey insisted that he will pitch in the postseason.
The Mets faced the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first round and this series would be all about the pitching. The Dodgers had two of the best pitchers in the league in Zach Grenkie and Clayton Kershaw, and the Mets had their young guns in Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and Steven Matz. This series was very low scoring (excluding game 3 which was 13-7 in favor of the Mets) like expected. With the series tied at 2-2, the series went back to LA, where the Mets beat the Dodgers with the help of a Daniel Murphy 6th-inning homerun to put them up 3-2, which was his third homerun in the series.
This series against the Chicago Cubs was all about Daniel Murphy who homered in every game of this series. He went on to win the NLCS MVP as the Mets sweep the Cubs in four games, including a game one win over Jake Arrieta, who was leading the NL Cy Young award talks at the time.
The Mets would play the Kansas City Royals in the World Series and lose in five games. The tying run in game five for the Royals came like this: In the ninth inning, Royals catcher Salvador Perez hits a groundball to third base, the out is made at first base, but the runner at third (Eric Hosmer) was running home. The throw by Lucas Duda was off the target, allowing Hosmer to score. The Royals won it in the 12th inning. If the throw was on target, the runner is out and the Mets and Royals would play a game six.
Although this had New York fans upset, they have to remember the journey it was to get here and how much more success the Mets had than what was expected of them. The fans can only look towards the future and hope that the Mets will return to the World Series shortly.
The Thoma 