{"id":25610,"date":"2015-10-27T08:01:42","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T15:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/mets-young-aces-take-on-royals-in-series\/"},"modified":"2015-10-27T08:01:42","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T15:01:42","slug":"mets-young-aces-take-on-royals-in-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/mets-young-aces-take-on-royals-in-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets’ young aces take on Royals in Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

KANSAS CITY, Mo.<\/strong> \u2014 Anyone arriving a little early to a New York Mets game this season has probably witnessed \u201cThe Walk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom or another emerging ace striding in from the bullpen following pregame warmups, with pitching coach Dan Warthen right alongside \u2014 and the rest of that fearless rotation trailing just behind.<\/p>\n

For opposing hitters, it\u2019s become an imposing march to impending doom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of weapons,\u201d Harvey said Monday.<\/p>\n

Riding four young starters all the way through October, the hard-throwing Mets are ready to fire their best stuff at the Kansas City Royals in the 111th World Series.<\/p>\n

Game 1 is Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium, with Harvey set to face Edinson Volquez.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think any of us have really sat back and kind of realized what we can accomplish as a group,\u201d Harvey said. \u201cRight now, it\u2019s about our team and about winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kansas City came excruciatingly close to winning it all last year, losing Game 7 at home to Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants with the potential tying run 90 feet from home plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty hard to swallow. That\u2019s going to stay with you for a while,\u201d Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas said. \u201cI think the only way to get rid of that feeling is to go out this year and finish the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

With cohesion and camaraderie in mind, deGrom said New York\u2019s starters began watching each other warm up during spring training, when they all needed to be out on the field for the national anthem anyway.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not an entirely unique practice \u2014 veteran teammate Kelly Johnson recalled St. Louis and Tampa Bay pitchers doing the same thing. But by the time rookies Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz were called up from the minors, it was a signature part of the Mets\u2019 routine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a great feeling to go out there and know that the other starting pitchers are out there supporting you as well,\u201d Syndergaard said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like we have almost our own little unit to support each other and push each other to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

As catcher Travis d\u2019Arnaud put it: \u201cIt just shows that they have each other\u2019s back no matter what. They\u2019re always there for each other, good or bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been much more good than bad for New York\u2019s fantastic four under the pressure of their first postseason. Showing savvy, poise and grit that bely their limited experience, they\u2019ve already pitched the Mets to their first National League pennant in 15 years.<\/p>\n

Now, they want the ultimate prize.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have a mission to win this last series,\u201d said Matz, the Long Island lefty living out every boy\u2019s wildest dreams after growing up a Mets fan about 50 miles from Citi Field.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still work to do,\u201d deGrom echoed.<\/p>\n

Last season\u2019s NL Rookie of the Year, deGrom goes in Game 2 against enigmatic Royals newcomer Johnny Cueto. After winning 14 games this season, deGrom went 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA in three playoff outings.<\/p>\n

When the series shifts back home to Citi Field, the Mets will turn to Syndergaard and Matz in that order \u2014 making them the first team since the 1997 Marlins (Livan Hernandez and Tony Saunders) to start two rookie pitchers in the World Series, according to STATS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re all pretty mature when it comes to going out there and stepping on the mound,\u201d Syndergaard said.<\/p>\n

The quartet has combined for only 147 career regular-season starts, by far the fewest for a World Series foursome, STATS said. Three of them already had Tommy John surgery, yet the Mets were the hardest-throwing staff in the majors this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re talking about a handful of guys that not only succeeded in matching the expectations that New York had for them, which is difficult in itself, but surpassing them \u2014 all at the same time,\u201d captain David Wright said.<\/p>\n

Underneath the long locks and catchy, comic-book nicknames like Thor (Syndergaard), The Dark Knight (Harvey) and The deGrominator, these precocious Mets pitchers have winning stuff in spades.<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s starters serve up much more than 95-100 mph fastballs, too. All of them have rapidly honed polished off-speed pitches and fine-tuned their ability to locate them precisely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys are going to be really good. And this experience is going to make them that much better,\u201d Mets manager Terry Collins said recently. \u201cThey\u2019re not just throwers, they\u2019re legitimate guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now, those prized, electric arms New York rebuilt around have arrived on baseball\u2019s biggest stage. They\u2019ll take on a determined and experienced Royals team that thrives on making consistent contact at the plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s only two teams left,\u201d Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. \u201cThe whole world is watching.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 Anyone arriving a little early to a New York Mets game this season has probably witnessed \u201cThe Walk.\u201d Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom or another emerging ace striding in from the bullpen following pregame warmups, with pitching coach Dan Warthen right alongside \u2014 and the rest of that fearless rotation trailing just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-25610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25610"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=25610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}