In a World Series Game 1 that seemed to have some of everything — drama, sorrow, broadcast outages, home runs, history — why not five extra innings of baseball as well?
Eric Hosmer’s sacrifice fly in the 14th inning ended a wild, crazy night in Kansas City, scoring Alcides Escobar and giving the Royals a 5-4 win over the Mets. For the first baseman, the game-winning play was a redemptive one, making up for an eighth-inning fielding error that let a chopper get by him and allowed the Mets to take a 4-3 lead. He actually went 0-for-3 (with two RBI on sacrifice flies) in Game 1, but that’s probably not going to be remembered after driving in the winning run.
Hosmer was also bailed out by Alex Gordon, whose ninth-inning home run off previously untouchable Mets closer Jeurys Familia tied the score at 4-4 and enabled the Royals to keep fighting their way to a victory. Familia, who hadn’t allowed a run in his eight postseason appearances spanning 9.2 innings, hung one too many sinkers out over the plate. Gordon didn’t miss the second one, crushing it to dead center field.
2015 World Series
Escobar actually scored the first and final runs for the Royals, opening the bottom half of the first inning with a deep drive to left-center field that Mets center fielder Yoenis Cespedes just missed with his glove, then kicked toward left field. Should the play have been called an error? Maybe, but don’t take away from how fast Escobar bolted around the bases to score the first World Series inside-the-park home run since 1929 and the first to lead off a game since 1903.
Edinson Volquez and Matt Harvey battled for six innings, each giving up three runs and eventually turning the game over to middle relief. Volquez dealt with an unusual and tragic situation during the ballgame, as news of his father’s passing was reported from the Dominican Republic. Yet there was a question as to whether or not Volquez knew about his father as he was pitching.
ESPN’s Enrique Rojas reported that Volquez was informed on his way to the ballpark, but the Royals insisted that the pitcher did not know the grave news before he pitched, following the wishes of his family. Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal tweeted that the network heard the news, but did not report it on air in case Volquez happened to be watching the game in the Royals’ clubhouse.
After the game, Royals manager Ned Yost confirmed that Volquez did not know about his father during the game, as his family did not want him to be told until after he was finished pitching.
The Volquez family asked the Royals not to tell Edinson about his father’s death before the game. Volquez learned only after he pitched.
— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) October 28, 2015
Ultimately, it was two veteran starters-turned-relievers, Chris Young and Bartolo Colon, that kept their teams alive through extra innings and figured in the final outcome. Colon had three walks in the game, but each of them was intentional. He just couldn’t escape a bases-loaded situation — created by a throwing error from David Wright, a Ben Zobrist single and an intentional walk to Lorenzo Cain — with no outs in the bottom of the 14th.
The two teams have less than 24 hours before Game 2 of the World Series Wednesday night. Jacob deGrom will start for the Mets, while Johnny Cueto takes the mound for the Royals. First pitch will be at 8:07 p.m. ET on Fox, unless the power to their production truck goes out again and delays the broadcast and the game.
