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MLB WORLD SERIES: METS VS ROYALS

October 28, 2015

Terry Collins

Kansas City, Missouri - Mets postgame two

Royals - 7 Mets - 1

Q. Any explanation for the fact that the Royals had six swings and misses tonight against your guys, three against deGrom, you worked very hard to get Harvey and deGrom here in shape to pitch? Any explanation for it?
TERRY COLLINS: Again, they did exactly what people said, and they put the ball in play. I told Jake not everything has to be a strike. You've got to move it around. You've got to change speeds, give them something to look at. If you continue to pound the strike zone, they're going to put it in play, and that's what they did.

Q. How close were you to maybe lifting deGrom when you had Niese warming up in the 5th?
TERRY COLLINS: This guy has been our ace, you have to stay with him. We've been sitting here raving the last two series that he's gotten himself out of trouble and you're sitting there saying we go to Niese now, with Bartolo down, how long -- I just thought it was time we could ride Jake and see if we could get him out of that inning and get him through one more and get better matchups.

But Moustakas's ground ball was perfectly placed and it was just one of those nights. Jake has gotten out of those situations a lot of times so far.

Q. Do you see anything with your lineup and in particular with Cespedes production-wise?
TERRY COLLINS: Yeah, we're not hitting. That's what I see. He's not the only one. There's a couple other ones in there.

We've stressed it enough, when we play good our lineup produces throughout. It just shows you right now with us not hitting how big Dan Murphy really was in the NLCS with the home runs.

We've got to pick it up offensively. We've got to do a better job of using the field to hit. And we've done it. We certainly have done it. We've got to do it again.

Q. Do you think Gordon's home run off Jeurys last night created some deflating effect with the offense?
TERRY COLLINS: I don't know why it would. We still played a lot of innings. We certainly could have came back in that game.

I don't believe it did. Obviously I don't know the mental, what those guys thought inside, there. Jake was cruising along. He was pitching pretty good and all of a sudden the 5th inning, the lead-off walk is what I thought really got it going. Again, you're thinking he's one pitch from getting out of this inning; gets a ground ball, gets a strikeout, a popup, and they just kept getting singles.

But I don't believe last night had any effect on today.

Q. What is it in these last two games as the Royals cycle through their lineup, third, second and third time, that they're able to make adjustments against your two pitchers that you've thrown so far?
TERRY COLLINS: They're really, really good. That's what you tell every hitter that plays. They've got to make adjustments back to back, from pitch to pitch at times.

So when we go up there, and one thing they know we do is throw strikes. So they can hunt the strike zone and know they're going to get something in that. You've got to make quality pitches or they're going to get hits off of you.

Q. Are you at peace with whether this is -- the Royals you mentioned a few times are real good hitters, or are your guys finally, workload, you're getting a little less from your starting pitchers, even in the first two rounds of the playoffs?
TERRY COLLINS: You know me, you've been around me a long time, I don't make excuses. I'm not going to -- that certainly is a possibility, I'm not going to say it's not. But I'm not going to sit here and say that -- it's the World Series. We've got to make pitches and we're not making them.

We gave Jake some extra rest and he came out and was looking good and all of a sudden balls were in the middle of the plate. And I don't know why but we just aren't making the pitches we need to make. And we can sit here and it's easy to make excuses that, hey, it's the workload, it's the days off, it's the youth, on the big stage. I'm not going to say that.

Look, Royals have a good team. We've got to make better pitches and we've got to play better.

Q. Last night Matt said that he didn't have his best stuff and didn't feel great. For the next night for Jake not have his normal performance. Was there anything specific you noticed, whether his velocity was down or movement on his pitches?
TERRY COLLINS: You look, he was throwing the ball great, and all of a sudden in the fifth inning, the base on balls, and then the base hit to center, and then he gets an out, and next thing you know, you know, they start single, single, single. And like I said, you're sitting there saying, He's going to get out of this. This is where he's going to put this guy away, but he didn't.

We win because we ride our starting pitching. When they struggle we're going to struggle, and that's what's happened.

Q. You guys have beaten some really good pitchers in the Postseason. Cueto has been up and down, what did you see him being so dominant?
TERRY COLLINS: You saw it even in the last inning, still changing speeds, throwing strikes, using his changeup, pitching to both sides of the plate. Very effective pitching in, all the windup, all the different deliveries. It throws your timing off.

And he's pitched great here. We've just got to worry about making some adjustments in our lineup to start getting some hits. He's good. That's why they got him.

Q. Specifically, and I know this is not an excuse, but you guys worked hard to get deGrom and Harvey some rest in September so they would have the stamina when you got here. Do you think that might have something to do with it, that everything you did just wasn't enough?
TERRY COLLINS: Well, you know, we've talked and again, I have said that there are times when we have tried to rest these guys where they have not been on a particular routine, which keeps them consistent. And I think that is a factor at times. I don't think there's any question that can be a factor with Matt because he's shown that, look, with five days rest he's pretty good. With seven or eight he's kind of erratic. Well, that's what it is.

When you clinch like we did and you had the rest like we had, look, between that time you've got to throw, and he threw. But again, there's nothing like pitching in a game to stay sharp. But we tried to make the adjustments that we could at home during the downtimes to keep him ready and we're seeing the effects that when we make bad pitches against a team that can hit, they're going to get hurt.

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