Relive the crowning of the 2015 Royals: Here’s a flashback to World Series Game 2

Five years ago this fall, the Kansas City Royals won their second World Series championship.

Fox Sports Kansas City is re-airing the Royals’ victories from that postseason this month. At 7 Tuesday night, May 19, it’s Game 2 of the World Series.

To help you relive the moments from that magical October, we’ve dug into our archives.

Below are original stories, front pages and photos that appeared in the Oct. 29, 2015 editions of The Kansas City Star, the day after the Royals beat the Mets 7-1 for a 2-0 series lead:

Royals defy deGrom in a decisive 7-1 win

Another Royals comeback happened, and it happened in another bizarre way that makes people who watch or root or work for this team chuckle, nod their heads and say to no one in particular: sounds about right.

They have won games in just about every conceivable way this postseason, already. Blowouts, shutdowns, comebacks. Lots and lots of comebacks.

Matter of fact, as the Royals began what would eventually become a 7-1 win over the Mets in Game 2 of the World Series at Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday, there was still a general and joyous hangover from the marathon comeback win in Game 1.

It’s not entirely accurate to say the Royals only win playoff games from behind. But, dang, it sure seems that way, doesn’t it?

This one started when Alcides Escobar walked to the plate in the bottom of the fifth. The Royals trailed by one. Alex Gordon stood on second base. Alex Rios on first. Escobar is hitting at the top of the Royals lineup despite nobody having a good explanation for why it works. This is another of those things that only makes sense to Royals fans.

Anyway, Escobar decides he’s going to bunt. He’s actually a very good bunter. Probably the best on the team. If you’re going to bunt, this is a logical spot for it. An on-field mic picked up Royals first base coach Rusty Kuntz telling Rios a bunt was coming. This was news to nobody, and that includes Jacob deGrom, the excellent Mets pitcher.

He threw Escobar a high fastball, one of those pitches that seems to rise as it approaches the plate. Escobar fouled it off. DeGrom threw the next fastball high, again, this one a little harder. Escobar tried to bunt, again. Fouled it off, again.

Now the count was 0-2, which is actually worse than it might sound. During the regular season, Escobar hit .190 after falling behind 0-2. Batters hit .170 against deGrom after falling behind 0-2 and struck out nearly half the time. DeGrom threw Escobar a slider, a fine choice since his is one of the best — upper 80s with violent bite. In nearly any version of reality, Escobar is sunk here.

But this is the Royals’ version of playoff reality, so deGrom left the pitch a little too high and over too much of the plate. Escobar swung, shot the ball into center field, watched Gordon score the tying run and did that heart sign back to the dugout. Why would it have happened any other way?

Royals manager Ned Yost described Escobar this way: “He’s a big-game player and he finds ways to be successful in this environment — the biggest environment you can be in.”

The Royals have come to repeat, over and over again, their hitting mantra of keep the line moving. It is a baseball cliche brought to life, the idea that a pack of piranhas can do more damage biting together than one big fish working by himself and hunting the big prey.

So it only made sense that after Ben Zobrist grounded out and Cain lined out, Hosmer came up with two outs and the chance — with the way Johnny Cueto was pitching — to put baseball’s best late-inning, front-running team in front to stay.

DeGrom started the at-bat with a slider, and this one was a reminder of why it’s such a good pitch. It came in hard, low and over the inside black of the plate. Hosmer swung and missed. DeGrom came back with another slider, but this one hung over the plate and thigh high. Hosmer swung hard, and the grounder got past deGrom — an excellent fielder — and shortstop Wilmer Flores, who was positioned well but still could not get to it. Two more runs scored.

“I just try and be aggressive,” Hosmer said. “I just try and get something good early to hit and not miss it. With these guys, with the stuff that they’re featuring on the mound, you can’t afford to get in a hole with these guys.”

By the time the inning was over, the Royals had scored four times. DeGrom, who had been the best pitcher in one of baseball’s best rotations, would not come back out for the sixth. In the NLDS, he tied Tom Seaver’s franchise record with 13 strikeouts. Against the Royals, he struck out only two. In 33 previous starts over the regular season and playoffs, he had been this ineffective only three times.

At least at the moment, the Royals are playing a far more diverse and energetic brand of baseball. After taking it to 14 innings the night (and morning) before, this was a swing game for both sides.

The Mets had their best pitcher going, the one who strikes out batters at a higher rate than all but a few starters in the sport. The Royals countered, as always, with a team full of slap-fighters. The World Series would move largely on which strength won out.

The Royals won, again. They did it from behind, again. And it all started when their best bunter could not bunt and had to settle for swinging the Royals into a power position to win the franchise’s first world championship in 30 years.

Just as Royals planned, sort of, Cueto shines in moment of truth

Johnny Cueto’s meltdown in Toronto in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series last week was testament enough to a gathering sense of his inability to process such pressure.

But it also was delivered with the insinuation of a certain flakiness in Cueto.

It wasn’t just the way Cueto appeared as he came off the mound that day smiling — while surely grimacing inside — to the jeers of Blue Jays fans. He’d been removed from a debacle in which he’d be charged with eight runs in two innings of an 11-8 loss.

The perception also stemmed from his allusion to the mound height being different on the field than it had been in the bullpen and by a suggestion that he had been flustered by sign-stealing by the Blue Jays.

Coming from a fellow whose heralded arrival as an ace had disintegrated through a series of turbulent starts later attributed to ... the placement of Sal Perez’s glove, events in Toronto seemed to confirm either a deficiency of intensity or accountability.

But in Game 2 of the World Series on Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium, before a world-wide audience and under fierce scrutiny, Cueto repudiated any such perception.

Befitting the reputation he’d earned before the Royals acquired him in July, he uncoiled a sterling complete-game performance to smother the Mets to a run and two hits in the Royals’ 7-1 win.

A victory paved by the man who, it turns out, did the precise job he was brought here to do extended their lead over the Mets to 2-0 as the series moves to New York for the next three games — if all are necessary.

“Tonight was everything we expected Johnny to be,” manager Ned Yost said. “Just a spectacular performance by him.”

Said first baseman Eric Hosmer: “He was electric tonight.”

In remarkable contrast to his last appearance, which included Blue Jays fans after the game chanting “we want Cueto,” this time Cueto over and over would hear approving chants of his name along the way to extending his own home scoreless inning streak to 16.

Just as planned, you might say, if you didn’t mind a few detours and hiccups and tweaks on the way here.

After all, the Royals sought Cueto because they believed him to be among the final crucial pieces they’d need not just to make another deep playoff run but, in fact, to win the World Series.

So say what you will about the fact he won’t be performing on the road and that with so many ups and downs for him since arriving in Kansas City it was hard to know what could be expected even here.

You can’t do what he did on Wednesday, or for that matter in Game 5 of the American League Division Series (eight innings, two runs) against Houston, without a deep reservoir of inner strength and substance.

For everything else that’s happened, exasperating moments and promising blips, this night along with the ALDS Game 5 make it tough to say it wasn’t all worth it for the Royals.

Even if he’s been confounding or frustrating at times, not just to fans but to the Royals themselves.

The oddities of his brief time here, likely to end when he enters free agency after the season, perhaps all were encapsulated in Toronto:

Initial optimism after the previous start against Houston ... some trouble early that the Royals hoped he’d work through ... and then a knockout punch that left us wondering anew what he was all about.

In this case, that seemed to be more called into question the next day, even if inadvertently.

Yost noted that Cueto’s relief that day, Kris Medlen, had no trouble with the mound and teammate, and Edinson Volquez said sign-stealing should be no distraction — and if it’s happening it’s your own fault.

While they denied a lack of faith in Cueto on the road was a factor, the Royals then contoured their World Series rotation, essentially, to make sure he’d pitch only at home.

Yost would emphasize the “energy” Cueto gets from the home crowd, not the opposite aspect of the dynamic.

And entering the game on Wednesday, Cueto was fixated on the here and now.

“What happened in Toronto happened in Toronto. That’s over with,” he said. “We’re here in the World Series. I’m not thinking about that. Toronto is not here in the World Series.”

And as turbulent as it was for Cueto along the way, he is here with the Royals — just as it was, mostly, designed.

Just two much fun: Royals take 2-0 lead as series shifts to New York

Kauffman Stadium may never feel better than this, not in 2015, not in a lifetime. For the inhabitants of this ballpark, stocked with a generation of Royals fans choked by 29 years without October and taunted by a silver medal in 2014, the pinnacle may have come in a 7-1 victory Wednesday over the Mets in Game 2 of the World Series, when the lineup bloodied an opposing ace and incited a slew of standing ovations.

Savor this if you stood among the rain-soaked mass of 40,410 inside the stadium. Savor it if you joined the millions watching on television or huddling near a radio. Savor it if you spent years waiting for a Royals renaissance, because baseball might not be played again in Kansas City this season.

Baseball may disappear for the sweetest of reasons, because the Royals flew to New York on Wednesday night with a chance to spill champagne inside Citi Field for their first championship since 1985. A four-run fifth inning carried Kansas City to a 2-0 lead in this series. The rally acted like a season-long highlight reel in miniature, a collection of good fortune, well-placed hits and tenacious at-bats.

The Royals peppered Jacob deGrom, New York’s long-haired staff leader, with jabs and hooks. In three starts this October, deGrom had yielded only four runs. The Royals managed that many in the fifth inning alone.

Trailing by a run when the inning began, Alcides Escobar failed to lay down a bunt, so he responded by tying the game with a two-strike single up the middle. Eric Hosmer pushed his club in front with a two-run hit. Mike Moustakas completed the flurry with an RBI single of his own.

In a fit of brilliance, Johnny Cueto protected the lead with the first two-hit complete game in the World Series since Greg Maddux twirled one for Atlanta in 1995. Cueto retired 15 batters in a row after giving up a run in the fourth. The ballpark showered him with adoration, a far cry from the derision he faced last week in Canada.

The actors are familiar. The events are familiar. It is all so familiar, the story of a juggernaut that rolled through the American League, absorbed a series of lights-out shots from the Astros in the first round, trounced Toronto in the next and now stand two victories away from a title.

To save their season, the Mets will turn to a pair of rookie pitchers. Noah Syndergaard, the Game 3 starter, is 22. Steven Matz, the Game 4 starter, has pitched in eight big-league games. New York must pray the two kids can do what deGrom and Matt Harvey, the relative veterans of the rotation, could not: Upend the relentless offensive machine of the Royals.

In the buildup to this series, the marquee matchup appeared to be New York’s gas-wielding starters facing Kansas City’s gang of contact hitters. Neither Harvey nor deGrom missed many bats. Neither could handle the hitters during a third turn through the order. Neither received a lifeline from manager Terry Collins. Both picked up losses.

Wednesday night lacked the drama of Wednesday morning, when the Royals finished off their 5-4 14-inning victory in Game 1. That contest tested the margins of the Royals roster and the depth of their collective will. The team required eight innings of relief pitching, including three from Game 4 starter Chris Young.

After the game ended, Ned Yost said he could not fall asleep until 4 a.m. He awoke around 6:30 a.m., unable to fall back asleep due to an invasion by his children and their spouses arriving at his home for breakfast.

“It’s kind of exhausting,” Yost said. “But it’s exhilarating at the same time.”

Cueto was one of the few fresh Royals. He watched the 14-inning marathon from the dugout. A few months earlier, when Cueto joined the club, he appeared a lock for the potential first game of the World Series. He tumbled far enough down the pitching hierarchy that the team configured its rotation around Cueto’s perceived weaknesses, not his potential strengths.

In his last two starts, Cueto reached a summit of greatness and followed up with a historic descent into the grotesque. He spun eight innings of two-run baseball against Houston to clinch the American League Division Series. Then, he surrendered eight runs and could not collect an out in the third inning in Game 3 of the ALCS.

The first start occurred at Kauffman Stadium. The second took place at Rogers Centre, where Cueto looked rattled by the relentless horde of Canadian fans. The Royals sensed a connection between the two disparate events, and aligned their World Series rotation so Cueto would not have to pitch at Citi Field.

The concession looks odd for a player of Cueto’s pedigree and resume. Yet it made sense given his enigmatic tenure in Kansas City. The team hoped by affording Cueto a chance to pitch at home, in a ballpark he credits as a source of vitality, spacious confines and a friendly crowd could assuage whatever ails him, be it contractual anxiety, worries about the health of his right elbow or a general lack of comfort.

In deGrom, Cueto found a worthy rival. The duo traded zeros at the start. Cueto faced the minimum through three innings. DeGrom saw 10 batters, but did not allow a hit.

Cueto personified efficiency during those three innings. He lost acquaintance with the strike zone in the fourth. Umpire Mark Carlson ceased giving Cueto the corners. A run resulted from it.

Curtis Granderson led off with a walk. Cueto threw three balls in a row to David Wright before Wright hit a foul pop-up. Daniel Murphy accepted a second walk to set the table for Yoenis Cespedes.

Cespedes sent a grounder hopping toward third base. Moustakas stepped on the bag for one out. He could have ended the inning, but his throw yanked first baseman Hosmer off his bag, his toe just inches away from a third out.

The replay looked inconclusive. Yost peered into his dugout, where bench coach Don Wakamatsu waited on the phone for a decision from the team’s replay coordinator, Bill Duplissea. The Royals decided not to challenge.

At times in Game 1, Kansas City unveiled an exaggerated defensive shift for Lucas Duda, New York’s left-handed, pull-hitting first baseman. Moustakas ventured over to the far side of second base. Duda still pulled a pair of hits through the defense. In the view of some team officials, he capitalized on the awkwardness of the alignment.

The Royals debated the merits of the shift heading into Game 2. Moustakas remained on the left side of third in Duda’s at-bat in the second, but Duda still threaded a single through the area vacated by shortstop Escobar. In Duda’s next at-bat, he found another way to vex the Royals. He flared a single over Moustakas’ head to score Murphy.

Kansas City answered in the fifth. The first man up was Alex Gordon. The night before, he conquered closer Jeurys Familia with a game-tying homer in the bottom of the ninth. Now he took a walk, and advanced to second on a single by Alex Rios.

Up came Escobar. In these situations, for years, he has dropped down bunts. He believes it is his responsibility to move the runners into scoring position, not to bring them home. But he could not square up deGrom, who fired a pair of fastballs to start.

Down two strikes, Escobar forced himself to hit. It was a wise choice. He rifled a hanging slider into center field and drove in Gordon.

The pitch location from deGrom was a harbinger. He could not drive the baseball down toward the knees. The Royals feasted on him. As Mets lefty Jon Niese heated up in the bullpen, Collins stuck with deGrom against Hosmer. DeGrom threw another flat slider. Hosmer punched it into center for two runs.

Moustakas offered an exclamation point. In typical fashion, he did not provide thunder. Instead he pounced on a toothless curveball and threaded it through the infield to score Hosmer.

The Royals tacked on a trio of runs in the eighth, thanks to lackluster defending by the Mets. The fans pumped their fists and shredded their lungs. Inside this park, parties have raged all season long. The franchise shattered its record for attendance. The players overcame the stigma of being a one-year wonder.

So savor this night, just as you savored all the nights before it, through the long years and the lean years, through the heartbreak of last October. Savor the 2015 Royals. Because when the team returns to Kansas City next week, you may not see any baseball. You may have to settle for a parade.

KC’s RBI machine: Hosmer has made coming through with men on base a habit

When Eric Hosmer has stepped to the plate with the bases empty during the postseason, he’s been a bust.

He struck out in his first plate appearance Wednesday, leading off the second inning, dropping his batting average in those situations to .043, with 1 hit in 23 at-bats.

But put runners on, especially in scoring position, and Hosmer becomes a beast.

His two-run single was the decisive blow in the sixth inning of the Royals’ 7-1 victory over the Mets in Game 2 of the World Series.

The single up the middle with two outs against Mets starter Jacob deGrom scored Alex Rios and Alcides Escobar and broke a 1-1 tie, sending the Royals on their way to a 2-0 lead in the World Series that shifts to New York for Game 3 on Friday.

The two RBIs gave Hosmer four in two World Series games and 15 for the playoffs, padding team record totals. The 15 RBIs are the most by a Royals player in a single postseason, and he continues to add to his career record which now stands at 27.

George Brett held the team mark with 23, and Hosmer surpassed that in Game 1 on Tuesday with two sacrifice flies, the second scoring Escobar with the game-winner in a 5-4 triumph in 14 innings, and punctuated with an animated bat flip.

Only one player in baseball history has delivered more RBIs in his first 28 postseason games, according to ESPN. Lou Gehrig had 33.

Hosmer’s playoff batting average with runners on in the playoffs stands at .379 (11 for 29).

“Anytime you have opportunities with guys on base you have to make the most of it,” Hosmer said. “You see everybody bear down, put together good at bats and fight off tough pitchers’ pitches.”

Nobody is doing it better than Hosmer.

He’s driven in the game-winning run in three straight playoff victories, including Game 6 of the American League Championship Series against the Blue Jays.

Hosmer wasn’t the Royals top RBI man during the season. That was Kendrys Morales with 106. But Hosmer drove in a career-best 93.

Hosmer had the Royals’ first hit against deGrom on Wednesday, a line-drive single up the middle that Juan Lagares got a glove on but couldn’t snare in the fourth inning.

In the fifth inning, they batted around. Alex Gordon got it started with a walk. Alex Rios followed with a single, and Alcides Escobar singled home Gordon after failing to get down two bunt attempts.

Zobrist grounded out to first, moving Rios and Escobar into scoring position. With two outs, Hosmer ripped a slider up the middle. He was in his comfort zone.

This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 5:00 AM.