Two teams that haven’t won a World Series since the mid-1980s. The New York Mets in 1986 and the Kansas City Royals in 1985. Those are pretty long droughts. Kansas City could have ended it last year, but lost in 7 games to the San Francisco Giants. The Mets last saw a World Series in the year 2000, but were thumped by the crosstown New York Yankees. Both teams have great bullpens which are a staple of a championship caliber team this day and age in baseball. The Mets have the hottest hitter in the postseason and the Royals are coming off an amazing six game ALCS. Every game should be a pitchers duel, but don’t mistake the offenses’ being the x-factor.

New York Mets vs. Kansas City Royals

A .529 AVG 4 HR 6 RBI stat line for NLCS MVP Daniel Murphy. Overall he has a .421 AVG 7 HR 11 RBI stat line in the entire postseason for the Mets. He has hit a home run in six straight games. Now with Murphy’s amazing postseason run, it has rubbed off on others. Lucas Duda also drove in six runs during the four game championship series against the Cubs. In fact three other regular starters for the Mets had a .286 average during that series. They didn’t need their pitching staff to do all the work, but they certainly did their job. Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard and Jacob DeGrom each won their starts and combined for 25 strikeouts and only 4 walks. Steven Matz looked great in his Game 4 start, but should be expected to get at least 5 innings for his World Series start. New York’s bullpen is solid and when their closer Jeurys Familia is on his game like he currently is, it’s incredibly hard to beat him. Their edge with the starting rotation should not be overlooked as it was a deciding factor against the Cubs.

They were the best in the American League all season and now they will look to accomplish what they couldn’t do last year in winning the World Series. In order to do that, their pitching staff needs to be on point. Johnny Cueto’s only start against Toronto was disastrous. Only two innings pitched while giving up 8 earned runs and walking 4. He must be the ace that everyone knows he is if the Royals hope to win. Yordano Ventura and Edinson Volquez were solid and got out of some big innings in the championship series. Kansas City’s bullpen was their saving grace with closer Wade Davis with the big win in Game 6. Kelvin Herrera had 10 strikeouts in his five appearances. The Royals fourth starter, Chris Young is a tall, but deceptive pitcher who hides the ball well. His World Series start could come at a crucial time. Alcides Escobar was named ALCS MVP with his .478 batting average. It could have easily gone to Ben Zobrist or Alex Rios who had big hits throughout the series. The mainstays Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas had big RBI’s against the Blue Jays. They play small ball and make it look so easy. They’ll have to if they want to beat the Mets pitching staff.

Royals in 6 games