In the longest World Series Game 1 ever, the Kansas City Royals outlasted the New York Mets 5-4 in 14 innings to gain the early edge in the 111th Fall Classic.
Eric Hosmer (HAHS’-mur) hit a sacrifice fly that scored Alcides (ahl-SEE’-dihs) Escobar from third base to end it and give the Royals a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven Series. The game took 5 hours, 9 minutes. The losing pitcher was 42-year-old Bartolo Colon (bar-TOH’-loh koh-LOHN’), who escaped a bases-loaded jam in the 12th before running out of luck in the 14th inning.
The game had drama galore, and just about a bit of everything a baseball fan would want — especially a Royals fan.
Kansas City forced extra innings when Alex Gordon homered off Mets closer Jeurys Familia with one out in the ninth to tie it. Familia had not blown a save since July 30 before Gordon sent a 97 mph pitch over the center field fence.
New York had taken a 4-3 lead when Gold Glove first baseman Hosmer let Wilmer Flores’ grounder bounce past him for an error in the eighth inning that allowed Juan Lagares (luh-GAH’-rehs) to score from second.
Escobar hit an inside-the-park home run on Matt Harvey’s first pitch, but the Mets pulled ahead 3-1, helped by Curtis Granderson’s tiebreaking home run off Edinson Volquez. That was the first inside-the-park World Series home run since Mule Haas of the old Philadelphia Athletics did it against the Chicago Cubs in 1929.
Game 2 is Wednesday night — Jacob deGrom for the Mets against Johnny Cueto (KWAY’-toh).
