The Latest: Pine tar, quick-pitching, Zobrist on baby watch

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) The latest on the World Series, where the New York Mets are trying to pull even with the Kansas City Royals in Game 2 on Wednesday night (all times local):
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6:00 p.m.
Video and photos showing pine tar on Salvador Perez’s shin guard in Game 1 created quite a buzz online.
Cameras caught the Kansas City catcher dabbing his fingers in the sticky substance on the side of his leg as he crouched behind the plate.
Royals manager Ned Yost was asked Wednesday if he was surprised the subject was even brought up.
”No, they look for any stupid thing to bring up. It’s not illegal for a catcher to get an extra grip. A pitcher is illegal. But Sal is not putting anything on the ball for the pitcher. He uses it for his own – he just taps it lightly so that he gets a better grip when he throws – which is completely legal,” Yost said.
Mets manager Terry Collins had no issue with the pine tar on Perez’s equipment.
”I’ve seen throughout baseball, everywhere, you have it. And again, catchers, they’ve got to get a grip, too, especially on cold and damp nights. They need a grip on the baseball, so they use pine tar for themselves,” Collins said. ”It’s so obvious, the umpires see it, too. And if it’s that obvious, they would do something about it. But because, it’s only really a concern with the pitchers, and I don’t think there’s really enough to put on there that you can wipe it on and throw the ball back to the pitcher to where it’s going to affect how the pitcher throws the baseball.”
Collins recalled even pitchers using plenty of pine tar when he was managing a minor league team in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where it was cold and dry.
”I had pitchers, you couldn’t shake their hand because you couldn’t get your hand away from them,” Collins said, drawing laughs. ”The argument was, you can either do this or you can let this wild sucker throw some balls at 95 mph with no command. I think any hitter would say, let him have a little command on it, it’s OK.”
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5:40 p.m.
Quick-pitching is fast becoming a hot topic at the World Series.
The Royals and Mets are talking about it, a day after New York closer Jeurys Familia tried to catch Alex Gordon off-guard. Instead, Gordon hit a tying home run in the ninth inning.
Familia occasionally tries to get the jump on opposing hitters. With no runners on base, he’ll make it seem as if he’s going into the set position, but won’t come to a stop before throwing.
To Kansas City manager Ned Yost, that’s perfectly OK. His Game 2 starter, Johnny Cueto, also does it.
”I don’t have any problem with it,” Yost said. ”For me, what pitching is about is disrupting timing for the hitter. And most of the time pitchers do it with fastballs, changeups, sliders. Some guys do it disrupting their timing in their delivery. Johnny Cueto does it.”
Gordon said he was prepared for Familia’s tactics. Mets manager Terry Collins said it’s worked for his star closer.
”I try not to say, `Don’t use that anymore,’ because it’s been an effective move for him,” Collins said. ”So we’ve got to realize when you do it, if you’re going to miss, you’ve got to miss in the dirt, not in the middle of the strike zone.”
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5:15 p.m.
After starting nearly all season, Jonathon Niese and Bartolo Colon are now in New York’s bullpen. One will be available for Game 2, the other will not.
Mets manager Terry Collins says the 42-year-old Colon won’t pitch Wednesday after throwing 50 pitches in the 14-inning opener the previous night. He went 2 1-3 innings and took the loss, hurt by David Wright’s error at third base.
Niese struck out three in two scoreless innings but threw only 21 pitches. So he would probably be available in Game 2, Collins said.
”One of the reasons why we took Jon out when we did is we thought we might need him tonight, so we wanted to limit him a little bit,” Collins said.
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5:00 p.m.
When rookie outfielder Michael Conforto hit a sacrifice fly for the Mets in Game 1, he became the first player to have an RBI in the Little League World Series (2004), the College World Series (2013) and the major league World Series (2015), the NCAA said.
Ed Vosberg and Jason Varitek are the only other players to appear in all three events.
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4:20 p.m.
Mets manager Terry Collins made a lineup change for Game 2, putting Gold Glove winner Juan Lagares in center field and shifting Yoenis Cespedes to left.
Lagares was set to bat ninth against Royals pitcher Johnny Cueto. New York rookie Michael Conforto, who started the opener in left field, was moved to designated hitter, leaving Kelly Johnson on the bench.
Cespedes and Conforto had a mix-up right off the bat Tuesday night, when Alcides Escobar’s drive to deep left-center ricocheted off Cespedes’ lower right leg and rolled away. Escobar raced around the bases for an inside-the-park home run.
”This has nothing to do with the first play last night,” Collins said. ”The same thing could happen if Juan Lagares was out there.”
On a windy night in Kansas City, Lagares should help shore up New York’s defense in the expansive outfield at Kauffman Stadium. Collins, however, said the decision had more to do with the matchup against Cueto.
”Right-handers hit this guy better,” Collins said. ”Juan is swinging the bat pretty good, so hopefully he can get some hits.”
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3:35 p.m.
Royals second baseman Ben Zobrist has been given marching orders from his wife, Julianna, if she happens to go into labor with their third child in the midst of the World Series.
”She said, `You just better hit a home run,”’ Zobrist said before Game 2 on Wednesday.
She is due three days after Game 7 is scheduled to take place.
”It’s just a matter of I can only focus on one thing at a time anyway. She knows that. I’m one-tracked minded,” Zobrist said. ”So she already kind of let me know, if we’re in the middle of a game, she’s probably not going to tell me what’s going on, and that’s fine, because I trust her and trust our family members around her.”
Of course, if there is some sort of complication, Zobrist would be there in an instant.
Julianna, a Christian music singer, has taken a light-hearted approach to the matter. She tweeted during Game 1, ”If anything were to happen I would just take a selfie of me and the baby and text it to Ben after the game!
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2 p.m.
Royals pitcher Edinson Volquez, whose father died shortly before he started Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night, returned home to the Dominican Republic on Wednesday to attend the funeral and spend time with his family.
Volquez plans to rejoin the team when it heads to New York later in the week.
Daniel Volquez, 63, died of heart failure earlier Tuesday. It was the elder Volquez who introduced his son to the game, even purchasing the boy his first glove.
”I can definitely understand what he’s going through right now,” said Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas, whose mother Connie died of cancer in August. ”When someone loses a family member, that takes priority over everything that happens. Baseball is baseball, but family, things that happen like that – that’s something that is more important than baseball.”
Royals pitcher Chris Young’s father, Charles, also died of cancer last month.
”For all the stuff that’s happened this year to all of our parents, and a couple other people that have had some bad luck with their families, it has to bring us closer together,” Moustakas said. ”This is our family.”
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1:15 p.m.
There is no threat of rain putting a damper on Game 2 of the World Series.
The misty front that washed through before the Royals beat the Mets in the series opener is long gone, and a breezy, sun-splashed afternoon greeted fans tailgating at Kauffman Stadium.
Country music singer Sara Evans is scheduled to perform the national anthem, while a trio of Medal of Honor recipients will throw out ceremonial first pitches. ”God Bless America” will be performed by Michelle Doolittle of the U.S. Air Force during the seventh-inning stretch.
The Royals will be trying to take a 2-0 lead to New York on Wednesday night. They beat the Mets 5-4 in 14 innings in Game 1, matching the longest game in World Series history.