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2015 World Series Game 5: Royals on the brink of victory

First pitch is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. PT, and the game is televised on FOX.

TOOTBLAN
TOOTBLAN
Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

Saturday afternoon, Nicodamus was kind enough to write the recap of Game 4 a few hours before the first pitch was even thrown. That's the best way I can describe the Royals right now -- everyone knows exactly how they are going to win, and then they go and do it anyway. They're going to swing early and often, they're going to make contact with whatever pitches you throw, and they're going to run run run and take every extra base they can. By the end of the day, you will have made more mistakes than they have, and that will often end up being the difference.

In Game 4, Yoenis Cespedes accounted for a couple of the key mistakes by the Mets. He took a bad route on a ball that many CF would have caught, and the ensuing baserunner eventually scored. Later, in the 9th inning, he represented the tying run at second base with one out, but he wandered too far off the bag on a line drive and was doubled off to end the game. We'll talk more about his performance another day, but along with Daniel Murphy's Buckner-esque error in the 8th and the walks by Tyler Clippard that preceded it, the New York made far too many mistakes to have a prayer against Kansas City.

This one could be it. If the Royals win on Sunday, the season will be over. If the Mets win, the series shifts back to KC on Tuesday. The pitching matchup is a rematch of Game 1, Matt Harvey against Edinson Volquez. Both pitchers went 6 innings and allowed 3 runs in the series opener.

Today's Lineups

KANSAS CITY ROYALS NEW YORK METS
Alcides Escobar - SS Curtis Granderson - RF
Ben Zobrist - 2B David Wright - 3B
Lorenzo Cain - CF Daniel Murphy - 2B
Eric Hosmer - 1B Yoenis Cespedes - CF
Mike Moustakas - 3B Lucas Duda - 1B
Salvador Perez - C Travis d'Arnaud - C
Alex Gordon - LF Michael Conforto - LF
Alex Rios - RF Wilmer Flores - SS
Edinson Volquez - RHP Matt Harvey - RHP