World Series Game 4 results: Royals rally to the brink of a title

Kansas City leads the best-of-seven series, three games to one.

Nov 1, 2015, 3:38 AM UTC

Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Give the Kansas City Royals an inch and they'll take a mile. A three-run rally in the eighth inning gave Kansas City a 5-3 victory over the New York Mets in Game 4 of the World Series, putting the Royals to within one win of their first championship in 30 years.

Up 3-2, the Mets didn't go to closer Jeurys Familia for a two-inning save, one night after using him to throw the final inning of a six-run win.

Instead, Tyler Clippard started the eighth inning and after getting one out walked his next two batters. That brought in Familia, who has four saves of more than one inning this postseason. Eric Hosmer hit a ground ball that should have been the second out of the inning but instead went under the glove of second baseman Daniel Murphy and into right field to tie the game.

Kansas City added RBI singles from Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez to take a two-run lead, giving the Royals their 11th inning of at least three runs in 15 games during this postseason.

The Royals did use their closer, Wade Davis, to start the eighth inning, and he got the final six outs, though not without incident. New York put the tying runs on base with one out in the ninth, but Davis recovered for his fourth save of the postseason after a game-ending double play.

Now Kansas City is one win away from partying like it’s 1985.

3 takeaways from Game 4

KC masterpiece. Davis has 9⅔ scoreless innings during this postseason, and dating back to 2014 the right-hander has allowed all of two runs (one earned) in 24 innings, with 35 strikeouts and just five walks.

During this World Series, the only Royals reliever to allow more than one run is Franklin Morales, with four runs allowed during Game 3. The rest of the bullpen for Kansas City has allowed two runs (one earned) in 17⅓ innings, with 23 strikeouts and just three walks.

Murphy’s law. Daniel Murphy was as big a reason as anybody the Mets made it to the World Series, setting a record by hitting a home run in six consecutive postseason games. The Mets’ second baseman hit .421 (16-for-38) with seven home runs in nine games, but has struggled in the Fall Classic.

In addition to the pivotal error in the eighth inning of Game 4, Murphy was 1-for-4 in the game and is just 3-for-17 (.176) with two singles and three walks in the World Series.

Confidence in Conforto. The Mets drafted Michael Conforto with the 10th overall pick in 2014, and the 22-year-old began his 2015 season with Class-A St. Lucie in the Florida State League. He made the climb to Double-A, then leaped to the majors on July 24.

On Saturday Conforto hit a solo shot well into the upper deck in right field against Royals starter Chris Young in the third inning, then added another solo shot against Danny Duffy in the fifth inning.

The home run against Duffy, a southpaw, was the first home run Conforto has ever hit against a left-handed pitcher, though that covers all of 19 plate appearances. Even more rare is that it was Duffy's first home run allowed to a left-handed batter since Aug. 27, 2011, when Jim Thome took him deep.

Conforto homered in his first playoff at-bat, in Game 2 of the National League Division Series against Zack Greinke, but then went into a slump, 0-for-19 after the home run heading into Game 3 of the World Series on Friday night. Mets manager Terry Collins said he had no plans to take Conforto out of his lineup before Game 3.

“The confidence is there from the coaches, and I totally agree with it. Again, if you show panic now, it could spread in the clubhouse, and I’m not going to do that. I like our lineup. I like what they’ve done all year long. You go through ups and downs, but as we’ve seen, when they break out, they’re good. And tonight they need to break out.”

Conforto rewarded Collins with an RBI single in the fourth inning in Game 3, then hit two home runs in Game 4. Conforto is just the second Mets player to hit two home runs in a World Series game, joining Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter in Game 4 in 1986.

At 22 years, 244 days old, Conforto is the third-youngest player ever with two home runs in a World Series Game, behind only Andruw Jones (Game 1 in 1996) and Tony Kubek (Game 3 in 1957).