The Royals came back from a 4-3 deficit to tie the game with one out in the bottom of the ninth when Alex Gordon homered off Mets’ closer Jeurys Familia and won the game in the bottom of the 14th on a sacrifice fly by Eric Hosmer that scored Escobar, who reached on a throwing error by New York third baseman David Wright to open the inning.
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Escobar hit the first inside-the-park home run leading off a World Series game since 1903, an adrenaline-charged beginning for Kansas City.
“Michael was there. He thought he heard [Cespedes] call for it”, Mets manager Terry Collins said after the game. Escobar’s bat crossing home plate on the game’s first pitch, making contact with the ball or not, brings a roar from the KC Royals dugout and the fans at Kauffman Stadium. That means Michael Conforto will handle left field and Juan Lagares will be on the bench.
Cespedes and Conforto had a mix-up right off the bat Tuesday night, when Alcides Escobar’s drive to deep left-center ricocheted off Cespedes’ lower right leg and rolled away.
He remembers Conforto’s dazzling catch at the center-field wall in Williamsport, Pa., that made it onto ESPN’s “Web Gems”, and the mammoth home run he hit.
Count Basie’s big band helped make Kansas City’s nightclub district, around 18th and Vine Streets, swing before the musicians moved on to New York.
“Not very often do you start out the year in A-ball and end up in the World Series”, Collins said in Newsday. “We play pretty good defense here, he’s played pretty good defense here, and both hitting guys think against (Ventura) lefties have a better shot than righties”. A walk and five singles leading to four runs before the Mets fans I follow on Twitter could fully articulate their extreme annoyance at this Royals team, just as Astros and Blue Jays fans articulated their annoyance more thoroughly before them.
“When we got Yoenis, he was so hot, somebody had to sit”, Collins said.
“My 3rd base coach when I crossed 2nd base, I said wow, I have a chance to make an inside the park”.
Indeed, the 26-year-old outfielder has excelled with a part-time role in October.
It’s still hard for Conforto, a two-time Pac-12 player of the year while with the Beavers and the No. 10 overall pick in the 2014 Major League Baseball draft by the Mets, to believe. “I’m trying to enjoy it and take in as much as I can, but I definitely feel prepared and ready to go”. Though the Series is still young, the Royals have stood resolute in being determined to finish what they had started previous year after losing to the San Francisco Giants in Game 7.
He had two hits, including a bunt single, and stole second base before scoring the go-ahead run in the eighth inning. “I always try to stay prepared, knowing anything can happen”.
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Collins has certainly noticed Lagares’ recent performance.
