MLB Bullets Races Home

Just four to seven games left in the 2015 season.

• By now, you know that the World Series starts Tuesday between the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals. You probably also know that Lorenzo Cain scored from first base on a single with the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning. But if you want more details on that, here's a Statcast breakdown of Cain's dash home.
• Rob Neyer takes a look at that play and says that Jose Bautista made the right decision throwing to second base on the play. It just didn't work out.
• Tom Verducci breaks down how scouting aided the Royals in their victory, including how they knew that Cain could have scored and that David Price was tipping his pitches.
• Jeff Sullivan appreciates the way that the success of the Royals has caused his to question some of his convictions about clutch ability and streaks.
• On that subject, Robert Silverman looks at the science of hot streaks and whether or not they actually exist.
• Speaking of which, Daniel Murphy insisted that he's from Florida and not outer space. Small difference, I know.
• Tim Kurkjian has five questions about the upcoming World Series.
• Jerry Crasnick traces how the Royals were built.
• And Adam Rubin does the same with how the Mets were constructed.
• Here's an interesting fact: With the Mets' Travis d'Arnaud making the World Series, it makes three years in a row that an alumnus of Lakewood High School in California plays in the World Series. Mike Carp and Matt Duffy were the other two.
• I know this doesn't apply to any of you, but Zach Lowe explains what he's missing as a former diehard Mets fan. He says climbing back on the bandwagon wouldn't be the same now.
• A profile of the Royals' "unenthusiastic" broadcaster Denny Matthews, who has been with the team since it's birth in 1969.
• CJ Nitkowski doesn't like the way that Mets manager Terry Collins has set up his rotation for the Series.
• Joe Delessio wonders if Yankees fans like himself are supposed to cheer for or against the Mets.
• If you're not looking forward to the World Series, you're looking ahead to the offseason. Nick Cafardo has an extensive look at the major free agents this winter and how much they can be expected to get on the open market.
• The Nationals appear to have narrowed the choices for their next manager down to Dusty Baker and Bud Black. That's an interesting choice there. A little like choosing between the filet mignon and the fugu.
• Former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire is getting a second interview for the Padres managerial job.
• The Phillies named former Angels assistant general manager Matt Klentek as their new GM. He'll still be reporting to Andy MacPhail.
• Ken Rosenthal uses the Mariners hiring of Scott Servais to decry the trend of bypassing experienced baseball men in favor of hiring members of the "new boy" network. In particular, GMs just hiring someone they already know.
• But Bob Nightengale believes that the Dodgers firing Don Mattingly shows how GMs need "their guy" in the manager's chair.
• Molly Knight, who literally wrote the book on the Mattingly-era Dodgers, explains why the Dodgers had to let a good manager go. (By the way, both Nightengale and Knight think that Dodgers team president Andrew Friedman made a mistake not firing Mattingly last season and hiring Joe Maddon.)
• Red Sox manager John Farrell talks about his battle with cancer.
• Former Phillies GM is reportedly going to be the Red Sox new first base coach. He might actually be good at that.
• With the Mets and the Royals in the World Series, Michael Bradley looks back at the three straight World Series from 1985 to 1987 that each went seven games. The Mets and the Royals won two of those.
• Grant Brisbee tries to figure out which teams that finished last this season could make the playoffs in 2016. Sorry, Cincinnati.
• Fox Sports was so sure of a Mets/Royals World Series that they started advertising it in the seventh inning of Game 6 of the ALCS.
• Apparently Pete Rose sneaking into TV shots where he didn't belong became a thing. Alex Rodriguez had to explain to him that trending on Twitter was never a good thing.
• And finally, this parody of the ESPN "30 for 30" series is too good to miss. A look back at the 1994 movie "Angels In The Outfield" as if they were a real baseball team. I laughed.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.