Pinch hitter Christian Colon, making his first plate appearance of the postseason, singled in the go-ahead run in the top of the twelfth inning to lead the Kansas City Royals to a 7-2 , twelve inning victory over the New York Mets in Game Five of the World Series. The Royals won their first World Series championship since 1985.
Royals Win First World Series in Thirty Years
Colon broke a 2-2 tie with an RBI single that scored pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson. Dyson pinch-ran for Salvador Perez, who led off the inning with a single. After an RBI single by Alcides Escobar scored Colon to make it 4-2, Ben Zobrist was intentionally walked to bring up Lorenzo Cain. Cain cleared the bases with a double into the left-center field gap to make it 7-2. Mets starter Matt Harvey pitched into the 9th after dominating the Royals over the first eight innings, but allowed two runs in what should have been the final frame. Overall, he gave up five hits while striking out nine after being staked to a 2-0 lead thanks to a solo home run by Curtis Granderson to lead off the bottom of the first inning and a sacrifice fly by Lucas Duda in the bottom of the sixth.
After pitching coach Dan Warthen and manager Terry Collins initially decided to take Harvey out after the eighth inning, the Mets starter talked them into leaving him in the game. He promptly allowed a leadoff walk to Cain and, after a steal of second base, Eric Hosmer doubled to score Cain and cut the New York lead to 2-1. Jeurys Familia relieved Harvey and Hosmer advanced to third on a Mike Moustakas groundout. When Perez grounded out to David Wright at third base, Hosmer daringly took off after Wright’s throw to first and scored to tie the game at two after Duda’s throw was wide of catcher Travis d’Arnaud.
Kansas City starter Edinson Volquez, pitching for the first time since his father’s death before he started Game One, pitched six innings and allowed two runs on two hits, walking five and striking out five. The Royals bullpen, the backbone of the team, pitched six innings, allowing only two hits, singles to Michael Conforto in the seventh and twelfth. Kelvin Herrera pitched the seventh, eighth, and ninth, Luke Hochevar, credited with the win, pitched tenth and eleventh frames, and Wade Davis pitched the twelfth, striking out Wilmer Flores looking on an inside pitch to clinch the Royals second world title in franchise history. Perez was named Series MVP after batting .364 (eight hits in twenty-two at-bats) with two runs batted in and three runs scored. He’s the first catcher since Toronto’s Pat Borders in 1992 to be named MVP.
NOTES:
METS:
Outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, a free agent possibly playing his last game with the club, left the game in the bottom of the sixth after fouling a pitch off of his knee.
Harvey broke the Mets’ franchise record for scoreless innings in a World Series game with eight. Ron Darling previously held the record with seven shutout innings in Game four of the 1986 World Series against the Boston Red Sox. He also became the first starter in World Series history to strike out six over two innings, accomplishing the feat in the fourth and fifth innings.
ROYALS:
The Royals outscored opponents 18-0 in the ninth inning or later in the postseason.
Kansas City hit .349 with runners in scoring position in the playoffs, the second highest average in the Wild Card era.
The Royals are the fourth team in the expansion era to win multiple World Series championships.
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