Complexion of World Series Game 3 changed thanks to Alex Gordon's 'big head'
NEW YORK – In the end, a replay challenge and an overturned call in the second inning didn’t really cost the Kansas City Royals Game 3 of the World Series they eventually lost by six runs, 9-3 on Friday night.
But a series of momentum shifts in the early innings could have easily tilted further in the Royals’ favor had umpire Gary Cederstrom’s call of “safe” stood on Alex Gordon’s slide into third base.
“Well, it ended up costing us a run; it was big,” said Royals manager Ned Yost, whose team takes a 2-1 series lead into Saturday. “But that's why replay is there, get those tough plays. Those are tough for umpires to see. It was a matter of inches.”
The Royals had just tied the game 2-2 on Alex Rios’ RBI single. On the play, Gordon tried to go from first to third.
The throw from left fielder Michael Conforto came in to third baseman David Wright.
“I was fortunate where I came up with the ball because I got a bit of a tough hop,” Wright said. “I tried to put the glove down as quickly as I could. I thought I got him on the shoulder, on the side of the head maybe, before his hand touched.”
After Gordon was called safe, Wright immediately motioned to the Mets' dugout to take a closer look at the play.
“When they reviewed it, I didn’t feel too good about it,” Gordon said. “I got a big head, and he tagged me in the head. It came into play right there, unfortunately, and I was out.”
Instead of having runners on second and third with nobody out, the Royals were left with a runner at second and one out.
Although Rios took second on the throw and eventually scored on a Noah Syndergaard wild pitch to put Kansas City up 3-2, the difference of a few inches on Gordon could have put Syndergaard perilously close to being knocked out of the game early.
“After they got the three straight hits,” Mets manager Terry Collins said, “(Eric) Hosmer and (Mike) Moustakas were coming back up. And I knew he'd have been in big trouble right then.”
Alcides Escobar had a two-out single and stole second base to bring up switch-hitter Ben Zobrist. If Zobrist had reached base, Collins would have given his starter one more hitter before he went to Jon Niese in the bullpen to face Hosmer.
“I know if he goes out that early, we're in trouble,” Collins said.
Instead Syndergaard retired Zobrist on a fly ball to center to end the inning. And the Mets went on to score seven runs over the next five innings on their way to the rout.
Aggressive base running helped get the Royals to the World Series, so don’t look for one play that didn’t work out to change their approach now that their lead in the World Series has been cut in half.
“That’s the way we play the game,” Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer said. “We try and take the extra base on you, and most of the time it works out for us. It just didn’t happen to work out right there.”
GALLERY: Best of the World Series -- Mets vs. Royals