Alcides Escobar opens World Series with a mad dash for Royals

Alcides Escboar swung at the first pitch he saw, and there was nothing unusual about that.

But the result hadn’t been seen for decades.

Escobar connected on a Matt Harvey fastball and sent it into the left-field gap where it landed, and 360 feet later, he crossed home plate standing up.

Moments later came the word from official scorekeeper David Boyce.

Home run.

The rarest of baseball plays occurred in the oddest of circumstances — the first pitch that the Royals saw in the 111th World Series — and got them off to a fast start in a game that ended in 14 innings with the Royals prevailing over the New York Mets 5-4.

Escobar scored the winning run, coming home from third base on Eric Hosmer’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded and nobody out. Escboar had opened the inning by reaching on an error by third baseman David Wright.

“I knew Hosmer would come through there,” Escboar said.

Baseball had seen nothing like his first run since 1929. That’s when George “Mule” Haas of the Philadelphia Athletics hit the last inside the park home run in a World Series game, turning the trick against the Chicago Cubs.

In the second game of the first World Series, in 1903, Boston’s Patsy Doughterty hit a home run to right center field against Pittsburgh.

Escobar’s shot shouldn’t have turned into a home run. It appeared center fielder Yoenis Cespedes and rookie left fielder Michael Conforto miscommunicated as the ball was approaching.

Conforto appeared to stop and give way to Cespedes, who didn’t have his glove in a position to grab the ball, which rolled to the wall.

At that point, it looked like a double for Escboar. But the ball caromed off Cespedes’ foot and rolled along the warning track.

“I saw it rolling, so I kept going,” Escobar said.

By the time Cespedes had picked it up, Escobar was at third and headed for home.

“Michael was there,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “He thought he heard Yo call for it. He did what he was supposed to do, and that’s let him have it.”

Crowd noise may have played a factor, Collins said.

The home run was Escboar’s first in this postseason. He entered the game the only Royals player among the regulars who hadn’t hit a home run in this postseason.

The Royals had a 1-0 lead, and the Mets trailed after an inning for the first time in five games, a span of 41 innings. Not since the fourth inning of the Game 5 of the division series against the Dodgers had the Mets left an inning with a deficit. They never trailed in their sweep of the Cubs in the National League Championship Series.

Escboar has been the team’s hottest postseason hitter. The home run extended his playoff hitting streak to 11 games, and he’s in pursuit of Lorenzo Cain’s consecutive game hitting streak of 13, which Cain established during this postseason.

This was the Royals’ 12th playoff game this year, and Escboar is 11 for 22 (.500) when leading off an inning, including 6 for 11 (.545) when leading off a game. He’s now hit for the cycle when leading off a game, notching a single, double and triple leading off games against the Blue Jays. Escobar was named MVP for the series.

Mostly, Escboar’s leadoff success has come on the first pitch.

“Those guys continue to throw me a strike on the first pitch, and I’m ready to swing the bat,” Escobar said.

Escobar led off the 14th and Wright didn’t cleanly handle his grounder. The throw pulled Lucas Duda off the bag and the Royals were in business. Ben Zobrist’s single got Escboar to third and the Mets intentionally walked Lorenzo Cain, bringing Hosmer to the plate.

Hosmer’s fly to right was hit deep enough to bring home Escboar, who had opened and closed the Royals’ victory.

This story was originally published October 28, 2015 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Alcides Escobar opens World Series with a mad dash for Royals."