5 things to know ahead of World Series Game 3

Here are five things we know about the World Series heading into Game 3 on Friday in New York:

— Royals utility man Ben Zobrist will be very valuable in New York. His ability to play anywhere in the infield or the outfield will be very useful for manager Ned Yost with the National League rules in place (no designated hitter). Zobrist was acquired from the Oakland A’s just prior to the July 31 trade deadline. He hit .284 with 16 doubles and seven home runs through the rest of the regular season, and he led all American League hitters (minimum 40 at-bats) with a .447 average against the National League. He is hitting .315 (17-for-54) with two home runs and six RBIs in the postseason.

— The Mets are facing a tough hill, down 0-2 in the best-of-seven series. Fifty-three times a team won the first two games of the World Series, and 42 of those teams won the title. Twenty-four times the team with a 2-0 lead won Game 3, and no team has overcome a 3-0 series deficit to win the World Series. Only one time in baseball postseason history did a team overcome a 3-0 series deficit (the 2004 Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series). “Right now we’ve just got to focus on Friday’s game,” Mets third baseman David Wright said. “We can’t think about the hole that we’re in. We just have to concentrate on one at a time. It will be nice to get to our park, you know, our house. I’m sure the fans are going to be going crazy. (We need) to utilize that home-field advantage as we’ve done it all year. We need to treat all thesegames like they’re must-wins. I think that’s what we did a really nice job (of), treating everygame like it’s an elimination game, and this is no different.”

— The Royals pitchers have to hit in the next two (or three) games, and that hasn’t been a fun experience this year. Kansas City pitchers batted .143 (3-for-21) in interleague play, with two of the three hits coming off the bat of Chris Young, the likely starter for Game 4. The other hit came from Jeremy Guthrie, who is not on the postseason roster. Young was 2-for-4 and had all three RBIs from the pitching staff. The Game 3 starter, Yordano Ventura, was 0-for-6 with five strikeouts.

— The Mets’ bullpen really can use the day off. New York’s relievers threw 7 1/3 innings in Game1 in relief of starter Matt Harvey. They gave up six hits and two runs (one earned) with four walks and five strikeouts. When Game 2 starter Jacob deGrom ran into trouble in the fifth inning, four Mets relievers gave up three runs on four hits over the next three innings, taking a three-run deficit and turning it into a six-run hole.

— No Mets lead is safe. The Royals have nine wins this postseason, and six are of the come-from-behind variety. It is not just one-run deficits such as the one they faced Wednesday. They have overcome multiple-run deficits five times this postseason, including a four-run deficit entering the eighth inning (and down two games to one in the five-game AL Division Series) against the Houston Astros. The Royals scored five runs in the eighth and two in the ninth for that victory. The Mets know that the Royals won’t quit, but that hasn’t helped them prevent it so far. “We knew that going into the game,” deGrom said. “I think we said it before: They don’t swing and miss. They put the ball in play. They did a good job of doing that tonight.” DeGrom gave up four runs on six hits in five innings. All four runs, and four of the five hits, came in the fifth inning.