You knew from the very beginning it was going to be one of those Royals games. You just weren't sure which kind.
It took 14 innings and five hours for the Royals to take game one of the World Series, beating the New York Mets 5-4.
The game had drama, quirks and emotion.
To begin with, there was some question whether the game would even be played. It rained all day, and the tarp was on the field until about an hour before the first pitch. Batting practice and infield were canceled. Both teams warmed up in the locker room.
Edinson Volquez had no trouble setting down the Mets in the top of the first. But by that time, there were numerous reports on social media that Volquez's father had died of a heart attack.
While thousands in the stadium knew Volquez had lost his father, Volquez apparently did not. “We found out about it before the game and the wishes of the family was, let Eddy pitch," Royals manager Ned Yost said after the game. Volquez learned the news after leaving the game in the fifth inning. Yost said he had Chris Young on standby just in case Volquez heard about his father and couldn't pitch.
Yost says Volquez is now on his way home to the Dominican Republic.
On the field, the game took a lot of twists and turns. In the bottom of the first Royals lead-off man, Alcides Escobar, who was the ALCS MVP, drove the ball to left-center. It got past the Mets outfielders. Escobar never slowed and he had the first inside-the-park home run in a World Series game since 1929. It was only the tenth inside-the-park homer in Series history.
The stadium was puzzled for a bit when the game suddenly stopped in the fourth. The Fox TV production truck lost power and the feed was down. After the umpires met with both managers and conferred with MLB executive Joe Torre, the teams agreed to continue play the old-fashioned way, with no replay review. The power was eventually restored, and Kansas City would later win a challenge on a stolen base.
But the Mets battled back and took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the 9th. With the Royals two outs away from losing game one, left fielder Alex Gordon smashed a home run to dead center field off Mets closer Jeurys Familia to tie the game.
The game came down to 42-year-old Bartolo Colon pitching for the Mets against 36-year-old Chris Young, the scheduled Game 4 starter for the Royals.
In the bottom of the 14th, Colon loaded the bases and Eric Hosmer lifted a sacrifice fly to the right to chase home the winning run.
Game 2 is Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium. Johnny Cueto pitches for the Royals. Jacob deGrom is set to go for the Mets.
