NEW YORK -- Jeurys Familia matched a franchise record with 43 saves during the regular season. Then he dominated through two rounds of the postseason for the New York Mets.
Now, however, Familia is the first pitcher in the majors with two blown saves in a World Series since Ryan Madson with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008.
Asked to produce a five-out save after Tyler Clippard issued a pair of walks on Saturday night, Familia entered and coaxed a weak grounder to second base from Eric Hosmer. The baseball went under Daniel Murphy's glove as the tying run scored. Familia subsequently allowed run-scoring singles to Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez as the Kansas City Royals rallied for a 5-3 win in Game 4 of the World Series at Citi Field.
The Mets now trail in the series 3-1.
“I know it’s part of the game,” Familia said about Murphy’s error. “For me, I’m just trying to refocus and trying to get another ground ball -- I tried to forget -- because Murphy, he’s one of the best players we have here. He plays hard. He’s one of the reasons we’re still here.”
The Mets now have been four and five outs from victory against the Royals and lost. In Game 1, Familia escaped a jam after inheriting runners on the corners from Clippard in the eighth by coaxing a groundout from Moustakas. However, Familia then surrendered a game-tying solo homer to Alex Gordon in the ninth in what became a 14-inning defeat.
Clippard, reacting to the latest setback, said: “It’s extremely disappointing. We had a lead. Coming into the eighth, any time you get that deep into the game and you’ve got the lead, you expect to win. And we didn’t.”
Asked about turning over the two runners he walked to Familia, Clippard added: “Frustrating. Very frustrating. Those are my runners out there. You’re kind of just helpless at that point. It is what it is. You’ve got to move forward.”
