NEW YORK
The first thing Ned Yost locates inside a ballpark is the scoreboard’s radar gun. The numbers help him discern from the dugout the pitch selection and viability of his staff. Here at Citi Field, where the Royals took part in Game 3 of the World Series, the readings flash on a screen high above the right-field fence, framed in the foreground as jets cruise over Flushing Bay into LaGuardia Airport.
In the second and third inning of a 9-3 loss to the Mets, which reduced Kansas City to a 2-1 advantage in the Fall Classic, a curiously low batch of numbers rolled across the screen, numbers that rarely appear when Yordano Ventura is on the mound: 92, 93, 94.