It took three decades, but the Kansas City Royals are once again world champions. The Royals ruined Matt Harvey's brilliant start with a ninth-inning comeback and then scored five runs in the 12th to earn a 7-2 victory and take home the title Sunday night.
Outfielder Lorenzo Cain drove in three runs, while series MVP Salvador Perez's groundout to third base drove in the game-tying run in the ninth. The Mets got eight shutout innings from Harvey, but manager Terry Collins' decision to keep him in for the shutout backfired. Harvey walked Cain, and then Hosmer drove an RBI double to left field before Collins came out and yanked his ace.
"He just came over and said, 'I want this game. I want it bad. You've got to leave me in,'" Collins said, per Adam Rubin of ESPN.com. "I said, 'Matt, you've got us exactly where we wanted to get.' He said, 'I want this game in the worst way.' So, obviously, I let my heart get in the way of my gut. I love my players. And I trust them. And so I said, 'Go get 'em out.'"
The decision might not have changed the outcome of the series as a whole; it was always unlikely that the Mets would make a comeback from 3-1. That said, it sends us into the offseason earlier than anyone expected. Here is a retrospective on the 2015 World Series, noting the best performers and top moments.
World Series Stars
Salvador Perez, C, Kansas City Royals
It's only right to start with the unanimous MVP. Perez hit .364/.391/.455 while scoring three runs and driving in two, all while helping guide the Royals pitching staff through a sterling series.
"He just had a phenomenal series," Royals manager Ned Yost said, per Christina Kahrl of ESPN.com. "I think if I had one regret during the whole playoffs, [it] was I had to pinch run for Sal there in that inning. But it opened up the door for us to score five. I really wish that Sal could have been out there to jump in [closer Wade Davis'] arms when we got the final out."
Most impressive about Perez's performance was his ability to play through a series of nicks and cuts. He'd taken a number of foul balls off his body during the series and played despite the pain, continuing to lead the Royals in nearly every offensive category.
It was a symbol of the leadership that's been apparent since Perez's arrival in the big leagues. Nearly everyone in the clubhouse acknowledges he's been at the forefront of this World Series push.
“He’s a beast,” Cain said, per David Waldstein of the New York Times. “He’s a monster, he’s our monster. That guy gives everything he has. Without him, we aren’t here right now.”
Curtis Granderson, OF, New York Mets
The Mets offense, so clutch during their run through the National League, failed in the World Series. Daniel Murphy went from October legend to November disappointment, hitting just .150 and failing to drive in a single run. David Wright, Yoenis Cespedes, Travis d'Arnaud? Not so much. Michael Conforto was the only Mets regular who hit over .300.
Granderson, meanwhile, had a power surge at a time the rest of his teammates were suffering an outage. The veteran outfielder hit three home runs, but they accounted for only four runs batted in. Because Granderson's the team's leadoff hitter, it's worth noting that only one of those bombs came in the first inning.
Granderson, Conforto and Wright were the only Mets players who drove in more than two runs.
“He’s a pretty special guy,” Lucas Duda said of Granderson, per Fred Kerber of the New York Post. “I don’t want to make his head too big, but he’s an unbelievable baseball player and an even better human being. I can’t say enough about him.”
Luke Hochevar, Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis, Kansas City Royals
The Royals would have gone nowhere the last two seasons without their bullpen. No team in baseball can shut a game down earlier when ahead, and this trio didn't miss a beat on baseball's biggest stage. Hochevar, Herrera and Davis combined to throw 14 shutout innings, striking out 16 batters and holding the Mets bats at bay.
Add in three shutout innings from the perpetually underrated Ryan Madson, and it's not hard to see why New York had so much trouble putting runs on the scoreboard. When the Royals tied Game 5 in the ninth inning, the entire clubhouse had the feeling they were going to pull off the comeback.
“And once we tied it, we knew we had it," Royals captain Alex Gordon said, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. "It was like, 'Here we go again.’ We weren’t going to lose the game. No one can match up with our bullpen."
"You look at our performances, (Edinson Volquez) was unbelievable," Yost said, per Mike Axisa of CBS Sports. "Herrera with a three-inning stint; he hadn't had one of those all year," said manager Ned Yost after Game 5. "And Hoch coming back on his third day for two innings to get the win. And Wade to close it out, our pitching was absolutely unbelievably good."
There's no telling how long the Royals can afford to keep these guys together. They've been so good over the last couple of years that teams are going to look at them as potential closers. For now, though, they can all bask in how a special bullpen carried them to a title.
Highlights From the Celebration
Because it is fun to see grown men pile thousands of dollars worth of alcoholic beverages on each other, here are a few notable highlights from Sunday night:
World Series Leaders
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