(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Kansas City Royals win World Series in 12-inning thriller; first title since 1985!
Nederlands
 QUEENS, New York City, New York (USA) -
The Kansas City Royals are the new World Series-champion!
In the early hours of Monday-morning (November 2), the fifth game of the World Series ended after twelve innings with a 7-2 win for the Royals against the New York Mets.
With that, the Royals won the Series 4-1.
And with that, the Royals captured their first championship-title since 1985!
After the game in the clubhouse, Major League Commissioner Rob Manfred handed out the Commissioner's Trophy to David Glass, Chairman and Owner of the Royals.
Hereafter, he handed out the Most Valuable Player Trophy to Salvador Pérez.
On April 4 next year, the Royals will open the 2016 season at home with two interleague-games.
The visiting team then....New York Mets.
On Tuesday, the Royals opened the World Series with a 5-4 win in a 14-inning thriller that lasted more than five hours.
On Wednesday, the Royals took a 2-0 lead by winning 7-1.
On Friday, the Mets cut the Royals-lead in half by winning 9-3 at home in New York.
On Saturday, the Royals came from behind to win 5-3 in Game Four.
Recap Game One
Recap Game Two
Recap Game Three
Recap Game Four
Starting pitchers tonight were righthander Matt Harvey for the Mets and righthander Edinson Vólquez for the Royals.
Harvey was 13-8 this season with a 2.71 ERA.
Harvey started Game One of the Series, threw six innings, but had a no-decision.
He was the winning pitcher in Game 3 of the NLDS vs. Los Angeles Dodgers and in Game 1 of the NLCS vs. the Chicago Cubs.
Vólquez was 13-9 this season with a 4.37 ERA.
Like Harvey, Vólquez started the opener of the Series, then also pitched six innings and had a no-decision in the 14-inning marathon that was won by the Royals.
After he had left the mound, Vólquez was informed that his father had passed away.
He flew back to the Dominican Republic to be with his family, but returned to the Mets on Saturday.
In the NLDS, he was the losing pitcher in Game 3 vs. Houston Astros.
He then was the winner in Game One and loser in Game Five of the NLCS against Toronto Blue Jays.
The Royals dominated late in the game throughout this postseason.
The team scored 44 runs from the seventh inning, while giving up only eleven.
And they struck again tonight after the seventh inning!
In the top of the first inning, Mets-starter Matt Harvey retired the first two batters, then gave up a single to Lorenzo Cain.
With that, Cain had reached base in 20 consecutive postseason-games, extending the club-record of the Royals.
Cain then stole second base, but stranded, as Eric Hosmer struckout.
In the bottom of the first inning, the Mets opened the score off of Edinson Vólquez when Curtis Granderson led off with a homerun, his third in the Series.
Hereafter, Vólquez followed with two strikeouts, then a grounder ended the at bat.
The homerun was the 20th in this postseason for the Mets.
It previous club-record was 12, set in 1969.
With the homerun, Granderson lifted his RBI-total to twelve this postseason.
With that, he equaled the club-record of 12, set by John Olerud in 1999.
In the top of the third, Vólquez led off for the Royals with a single, but then was eliminated in a double play.
Moments earlier, in the bottom of the second, the Royals had turned a double play after a lead-off walk for Lucas Duda.
In the bottom of the fifth, Lucas Duda again led off with a walk.
He advanced to second base on an one-out grounder.
To set up a force play, Wilmer Flores was then walked intentionally.
The two runners stranded, as the inning ended with a good play by short stop Escobar on a grounder.
In the meantime, Matt Harvey dominated for the Mets.
In the fourth and fifth inning, Harvey struckout six batters.
After having struckout four in a row, he walked Alex Gordon in the fifth, but then struckout the next two batters.
In the top of the sixth, the righthander gave up an one-out single to Ben Zobrist, but then followed with his ninth strikeout of the game, eliminating Lorenzo Cain.
Hereafter, the inning ended when Eric Hosmer grounded out.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Mets got the bases loaded with no outs.
Curtis Granderson led off with a walk, then David Wright singled.
The bases got loaded when first baseman Eric Hosmer committed an error on a grounder by Daniel Murphy.
Hereafter, Yoenis Cespedes was the next batter.
The Cuban fouled an 0-1 pitch off of his left knee, but was able to continue his at bat.
He then popped out for an infield-fly, but then the Mets doubled their lead when Granderson scored on a sacrifice fly by Lucas Duda.
Two runners then were left behind, but the Mets were leading 2-0.
In the top of the seventh, Cespedes stayed back in the dug-out.
Harvey gave up a lead-off single to Mike Moustakas, but then retired the next three batters.
In the bottom of the seventh, off of new pitcher Kelvin Herrera, Michael Conforto led off with a single, but hereafter, Wilmer Flores grounded into a double play.
Herafter, Matt Harvey stayed in the game, grounded out and returned to the mound in the eighth.
And in the eighth, Harvey retired the side again!
The suspense grew in the top of the ninth.
After the eighth, it appeared that Manager Terry Collins wanted to relief Harvey, which resulted in a discussion between the two.
Harvey returned to the mound, but walked lead-off hitter Lorenzo Cain.
Moments later, he stole second base and scored when Eric Hosmer followed with a double to make it a 2-1 score.
That marked the end for Harvey, who was replaced by closer Jeurys Familia.
Hosmer then moved to third base on a grounder by Mike Moustakas.
On a short and not easy grounder by Salvador Pérez to third baseman David Wright, Hosmer took off when Wright made the throw to first base and made it to the plate to score the tying run!
With that, Familia now has three Blown Saves in this Series.
In the bottom of the ninth, Juan Lagares led off with a line drive that was caught by Alcides Escobar.
Hereafter, Lucas Duda drove the ball into deep leftfield where it was caught just in front of the fence by Alex Gordon.
A flyout ended the inning and so, the game went into extra innings for the second time in this World Series!
After both teams were retired in order in the tenth inning, the Royals got into scoring position in the top of the 11th inning.
With two outs, Eric Hosmer singled, then stole second base, but stranded.
In the bottom of the 11th, it were the Mets who got a runner with two outs.
Daniel Murphy then walked, but was left behind.
In the top of the 12th inning, Addison Reed became the new pitcher for the Mets.
His first delivery to Salvador Pérez ended in a single.
Jarrod Dyson then took over as pinch-runner for Pérez and stole second base moments later.
Dyson moved to third base on a grounder by Alex Gordon.
Moments later, Dyson scored the go-ahead run for the Royals when pinch-hitter Christian Colon delivered a single.
The Royals then got another baserunner when second baseman Daniel Murphy committed an error on a force play-grounder by Brazilian-born Paulo Orlando, who today celebrated his 30th birthday.
Kansas City then took more distance on a double by Alcides Escobar.
With this, he extended his hitting streak to 15 games, but also set a record for most basehits in a postseason for a short stop with 23, breaking the record set by Derek Jeter, who collected 22 three times.
With first base open, Ben Zobrist was walked intentionally to load the bases.
Hereafter, Bartolo Colón took over the pitching.
But he was greeted with a baseclearing double by Lorenzo Cain that increased the lead to 7-2.
In the bottom of the 12th, closer Wade Davis took over for the Royals and struckout the first two batters.
He then gave up a single to Michael Conforto, but ended with another strikeout!
And that ended an exciting 111th World Series!
(November 1-2)
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