(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Royals win World Series opening-thriller in 14th!
Nederlands
 KANSAS CITY, Missouri (USA) -
The Kansas City Royals opened the 111th World Series on Tuesday-evening/Wednesday-morning (October 27/28) against the New York Mets with a 5-4 win in a 5 hours and nine minutes opening-thriller.
Game Two will be played on Wednesday-evening.
It was the first-ever postseason-game between the two teams.
The last time, the Royals and Mets met each other was in 2013 in New York.
The Royals then won two of three games played there.
The only time the Mets played in Kansas City was in 2004, winning one of three games played in Kauffman Stadium.
The Royals returned to the World Series after winning the American League Championship Series vs. Toronto Blue Jays, 4-2.
Last year, the Royals lost the final against the San Francisco Giants.
The Royals won its only World Series in 1985 when it played against the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Royals played in its first Series in 1980, but then lost to the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Mets are playing in their fifth World Series after having swept the Chicago Cubs 4-0 in the National League Championship Series.
The last time, the Mets played in the Series was in 2000, which was the 'Subway Series' against the New York Yankees, who then won the title.
The Mets also lost in 1973 against the Oakland Athletics.
The team won the Series twice.
The first time was in 1969 against the Baltimore Orioles, which earned them the nickname 'Miracle Mets'.
The Mets then won their second Series in 1986 against the Boston Red Sox.
Both the Royals and Mets made a change to their roster for the World Series.
The Royals added 20-year old infielder Raul Mondesi to its roster.
He takes the spot of outfielder Terrance Gore, who used as a pinch-runner in the previous two series.
Mondesi will make history when he plays, as he has no Major League-experience!
Mondesi is one of the top-prospects of the Royals and played in Double-A this season, hitting .243.
He also played in this years Futures Game.
Mondesi played his last game on September 18 in the Championship Series of the Texas League, but has been in Instructional League since then.
The infielder is the son of former Major Leaguer Raul Mondesi.
Mondesi not only replaced Gore on the roster, he also had to be placed on the 40-man roster of the Royals to become eligible to play in the postseason.
On the 40-man roster, Mondesi takes the place of pitcher Joba Chamberlain, who was designated for assignment.
The Mets added veteran infielder Juan Uribe to its World Series-roster.
He takes the spot of Matt Reynolds.
The rookie, who has no Major League-experience, was added to the roster during the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers as replacement for Ruben Tejada, who broke his leg during the sliding by Chase Utley.
Uribe won the World Series in 2005 with the Chicago White Sox and in 2010 with the San Francisco Giants.
Tonight's starting pitchers were righthander Edinson Vólquez for the Royals and righthander Matt Harvey for the Mets.
Edinson Vólquez was 13-9 this season with a 3.55 ERA.
In his career, Vólquez is 2-5 against the Mets, whom he didn't face this season.
This was his fourth start of the postseason and sixth of his career.
He also started Game 3 of the ALDS against Houston Astros and then was the losing pitcher.
In the ALCS against the Toronto Blue Jays, Vólquez started Game 1 (winner) and Game 5 (loser).
Matt Harvey was 13-8 this season with a 2.71 ERA.
Harvey never pitched against the Royals.
In the postseason, Harvey was the winning pitcher in Game 3 of the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In the following NLCS, he was the winning pitcher in Game 1 against the Chicago Cubs.
After it had rained earlier in the day, former Kansas City-great and Hall of Famer George Brett threw out the ceremonial first pitch on a cold and damp evening.
KC-starter Edinson Vólquez then retired the side in the top of the first inning and was supported with a run moments later.
In the bottom of the first inning, on the first pitch Matt Harvey threw, Alcides Escobar connected well and circled the bases on an inside-the-park-homerun!
Escobar hit the ball into left-centerfield.
Leftfielder Michael Conforto and centerfielder Yoenis Cespedes had to ran backwards, but the latter appeared to have a chance of catching the ball.
However, the ball went over their head and caroomed to roll towards leftfield, enabling Escobar to touch all bases with a stand-up inside-the-park-homerun!
It was the twelfth inside-the-park-homerun hit in World Series-history, but the first hit since 1929.
In Game 4 of the World Series on October 12 of that year, Mule Haas hit the last one when he connected in the seventh inning off of Art Nehf.
The homerun was one of the highlights in a 10-run rally (!) for the Philadelphia Athletics that turned an 8-0 deficit into a 10-8 victory against the Chicago Cubs.
The only other time in World Series-history that a lead-off inside-the-park-homerun was hit was in Game 2 of the very first World Series in 1903.
Back then, 112 years ago, it was Patsy Dougherty, who led off the bottom of the first inning for Boston Americans (the current Red Sox) with a homerun off of Sam Leever of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Vólquez got his first baserunners in the third inning.
After having retired the first eight batters he faced, he hit Kelly Johnson with a pitch with two outs.
Hereafter, he walked Curtis Granderson, but then closed with a strikeout.
The Royals had left two runners behind in their second at bat.
The Mets came alongside in the fourth inning.
Daniel Murphy led off with a single, then Lucas Duda singled with one out to put runners on the corners.
Murphy then scored when Travis d'Arnaud also singled.
In the fifth inning, the Mets took a 2-1 lead when Curtis Granderson homered with one out.
The homerun came after a brief delay in the fourth inning due to a power-problem, which not only affected the television coverage, but also the connection to the replay-room in New York, which of course is needed in case of a challenge.
The Mets added its next run in the sixth inning.
Yoenis Cespedes led off with a single, Lucas Duda followed with another single to put runners on first and third base.
With one out, Cespedes then scored on a sacrifice fly by Michael Conforto.
By the way, Conforto became the third player in history to have played in the Little League World Series, College World Series and Major League World Series.
The others are Ed Vosberg and Jason Varitek.
The Royals made it a new ballgame in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Ben Zobrist led off with a double, then moved on a single by Lorenzo Cain.
Zobrist then scored on a sacrifice fly by Eric Hosmer.
For Hosmer, this was his 12th RBI this postseason, equaling the club-record he set a year ago with twelve.
It also was his 24th career postseason RBI in 27 games.
With that, he became the recordholder in club-history, as he passed George Brett, who had collected 23 runs batted in, playing in 43 postseason-games.
Cain went on to steal second base, then scored the tying run on a 2-out single by Mike Moustakas to make it a 3-3 score.
The Mets re-took the lead in the top of the eighth inning off of Kelvin Herrera.
With two outs, Juan Lagares singled and stole second base.
He then scored when first baseman Eric Hosmer committed an error on a grounder by Wilmer Flores, that gave the Mets a 4-3 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth, off of reliever, Tyler Clippard, Ben Zobrist led off with his second double in the game.
Clippard followed with two strikeouts, then Zobrist advanced on a wild pitch and Kendrys Morales walked moments later.
With runners on first and third base, closer Jeurys Familia took over and got an inning-ending grounder.
In the bottom of the ninth, Familia, who has been very successful for the Mets throughout the postseason, retired the first batter.
But next batter Alex Gordon then drove the ball into deep centerfield for a homerun that tied the score again!
It was the first run Familia gave up in this postseason, but it pushed the game into extra innings.
Royals-closer Wade Davis took the mound in the top of the tenth inning and struckout the side.
Jonathan Niese took over for the Mets in the bottom of the tenth, pitching on his birthday.
He was born on October 27, 1986, which was the same day on which the Mets won their last World Series-title!
Niese also retired the side, including two strikeouts.
In the top of the 11th, off of new pitcher Ryan Madson, Juan Lagares led off for the Mets with a bunt-single and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Wilmer Flores.
With two outs, Curtis Granderson walked, but then the inning ended when David Wright struckout.
In the bottom of the 11th (which began with a great catch by Granderson), with two outs, Salvador Pérez singled, with the ball hitting the third base-bag.
But he also stranded.
In the top of the 12th, Chris Young became the new pitcher for the Royals also struckout the side!
Young is scheduled to be the starting pitcher in Game 4.
In the bottom of the 12th, off of new pitcher Bartolo Colón, Paulo Orlando led off with an infield-hit.
He advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Alcides Escobar.
To set up a force play, Ben Zobrist was walked intentionally hereafter.
The two moved on a grounder by Lorenzo Cain.
Another intentional walk followed, this time for Eric Hosmer, that loaded the base.
But the three runners stranded when Jarrod Dyson flied out.
In the 14th for the Royals, lead-off hitter Alcides Escobar reached on an error.
He then moved to third base when Ben Zobrist followed with a single.
An intentional walk for Lorenzo Cain followed to load the bases and create a force play.
Escobar then scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly by Eric Hosmer to end the marathon.
(October 27)
| 
