If you bet on “inside-the-park home run” for how the first run of the 2015 World Series would be scored, congratulations! You are probably counting a lot of money right now.
Game 1 of the World Series got off to an electrifying start for the home fans at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Royals leadoff hitter Alcides Escobar cranked the first pitch he saw from the Mets’ Matt Harvey deep into the left-center gap. Did it leave the park? No, but this play was more exciting. Center fielder Yoenis Cespedes let the ball go over his head and then kicked it toward left field.
That was all the opening Escobar needed to absolutely jet around the bases. Wait, he scored? Yes — he scored an inside-the-park home run.
How rare was that play? It was historic. Yes, it was the 14th inside-the-park homer in World Series history, the first since 1929. But to lead off the game? Escobar joined some truly exclusive company with that one.
.@alcidesescobar2 did something that hasn’t happened in a #WorldSeries since 1903: a leadoff inside-the-park homer. pic.twitter.com/U0CTHwn6pB
— MLB (@MLB) October 28, 2015
Saying that gave Kansas City a 1-0 lead doesn’t seem to do enough justice to Escobar’s feat, something that baseball fans have not seen in more than 100 years. What a way to begin the World Series.
