Yoenis Cespedes: Cespedes (knee) in bad shape in locker room

Yoenis Cespedes fouls a pitch off his knee. He somehow continued in the at-bat, but was pulled after the inning. What followed was not pretty. Only the pockets of blue-clad Royals fans remained, gravitating behind the visiting dugout to celebrate en masse.

Before exiting the game, Cespedes went 0-for-3 and had just three hits in 23 plate appearances with one RBI and no extra-base hits in the Series. It would appear the Mets - with Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard scheduled to pitch the three remaining games - would be as well positioned as any of their predecessors.

Cespedes actually stayed in the game for the remainder of his at-bat, popping up to the infield with no outs and the bases loaded. First by Steven Matz, the rookie left-hander and Long Island native who's been commuting to Citi Field from his parents' house in Stony Brook, who struck out five while facing the minimum over the first four innings, in merely his ninth major league start, before finally being chased on a Ben Zobrist double and Lorenzo Cain single.

Cespedes said after the game that he would definitely be back for the World Series.

"It's been an incredible experience", Cespedes said through a translator. But Cespedes popped out and limped slowly off the field.

Still, as October turns to November, the Mets are finding the margins are tighter than ever. "I think with the conditions this team has going on right now, it's easy to get to another World Series for them", he said. "I don't think either thing is affecting him right now".

He looked it in center field.

In 57 regular season games with the team, he hit a solid.

"I talked to him (Saturday) night after the game was over", manager Terry Collins said.

After hitting seven home runs in the first two rounds of the postseason, Mets' second baseman Daniel Murphy went from hero to goat in Game 4 when his eighth-inning error let the Royals tie the game, opening the door to a series-changing inning.

In the middle of all the activity, leftfielder Yoenis Cespedes, the man who was the nightly center of attention for the Mets just a few weeks ago, sat silent and expressionless at a table next to shortstop Wilmer Flores, eating a bowl of Cheerios. Lucas Duda lined out to third, and Cespedes got doubled off at first after misreading the play.

 

There was the 3-for-5, three RBI performance in Game 3 of the NLDS against the overmatched Brett Anderson and another three-hit game in Game 3 of the NLCS with a double and two RBIs.