Escobar drove Harvey’s initial offering of the Mets’ first World Series game in 15 years into the left-center field gap where center fielder Yoenis Cespedes butchered the ball twice and allowed Escobar to tour the bases for an inside-the-park homer.
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Throwing the first World Series pitch of his career, New York’s Matt Harvey began with a 95 miles per hour, belt-high fastball over the outer part of the plate.
Escobar was named MVP of Kansas City’s six-game victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS, going 11-for-23 with six runs and five RBI.
Alcides Escobar sped into second, turned and saw third base coach Mike Jirschele jumping and waving him toward third. And Jirschele kept waving him home.
The inside-the-park could have been an out because the ball was catchable until left fielder Michael Conforto and Cespedes looked at each other as it was descending. I really don’t want to make any excuses. It appeared they miscommunicated before Cespedes flung out a back-hand attempt to catch the ball. “I thought I heard something”.
“As I ran up to the ball, I looked at Conforto”, Cespedes said. “[Conforto] did was he’s supposed to do, and that’s let him have it. And again, you’re talking about a guy that’s playing his first game with the crowd noise that he wasn’t really sure, he just thought he heard him call it so he gave way, and [Cespedes] didn’t get there”.
“It should have been caught”, Mets manager Terry Collins said.
If Game 1 on Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium was any indication, this is going to be one highly-memorable World Series. No one had hit one since Mule Haas of the Philadelphia Athletics against the Chicago Cubs in 1929.
The ball bounced off Cespedes’ glove on an attempted backhand catch and then bounced off his foot, rolling past left fielder Michael Conforto on the warning track. Escobar also scored the winning run in the bottom of the 14th.
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“This team”, Escobar said, “never quits”.
