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 With the bases loaded and nobody out, Eric Hosmer hit a sacrifice
fly to right off 42-year-old reliever Bartolo Colon to score Alcides
Escobar and end an enthralling start to the Major League Baseball
championship.
Escobar reached first on an error by third baseman David Wright and
advanced to third on a single to right by Ben Zobrist. After an
intentional walk to Lorenzo Cain, Hosmer hit the long fly to right
that set off a celebration on the diamond.
"I wanted to redeem myself from earlier," said Hosmer, whose
eighth-inning error allowed the Mets to take a 4-3 lead and made him
the potential goat of the game. "That's the beauty of this game. You
always have a chance to redeem yourself."
The five-hour, nine-minute battle, the longest ever World Series
Game One, was won by scheduled Game Four starter Chris Young, who
threw three hitless innings with four strikeouts.
The Royals sent the game to extra innings in dramatic fashion when,
trailing 4-3 with one out in the bottom of the ninth, Alex Gordon
clouted a long home run off Mets closer Jeurys Familia to tie it
4-4.
It was Familia's first blown save since July and Gordon's blast
stunned the Mets.
"He doesn't give up home runs," said Mets manager Terry Collins. "So
we were all shocked by it."
Gordon said Familia tried to quick-pitch him, but that he was ready
for it after seeing him try to slip a delivery past team mate
Salvador Perez.
"I wanted to make sure when I got on the box I was ready to hit,"
Gordon said. "And he tried to quick pitch me and left the ball right
there to hit, and with a guy like that you can't miss pitches that
he gives you to hit."
TUMULTUOUS CONTEST
The long, tense struggle tested the resourcefulness of both managers
as 36 players were used, including 13 pitchers.
It was a tumultuous contest filled with twists and turns.
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Before the first pitch, there was a note of sadness as word spread
that the father of Kansas City’s starting pitcher Edinson Volquez
had died back home in the Dominican Republic.
Then the Mets were jolted by the first pitch thrown by their Game
One starter Matt Harvey.
Escobar drove a fly deep to left-center which glanced off
centerfielder Yoenis Cespedes’ glove after some miscommunication
with leftfielder Michael Conforto, and was kicked away as Escobar
dashed around the bases for an inside-the-park home run.
New York tied the game with a run in the fourth, took the lead on a
Curtis Granderson solo home run in the fifth and made it 3-1 in the
sixth.
Harvey had retired 11 Royals in a row heading to the bottom of the
sixth but that streak ended when the Royals rallied with two runs to
tie it.
As the game wore on, the managers turned to veterans Colon and
Young, 36. They matched zeros for two innings before the climactic
14th.
"Two things you don't want in Game One of the World Series: One is
to go 14 innings and the other is to lose," said Royals manager Ned
Yost.
"To find a way to grind that way out against a great team ... and to
win it in the 14th inning was big."
Game Two of the Fall Classic will be played on Wednesday at Kansas
City's Kauffman Stadium.
(Writing by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Andrew Both)
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