Alcides Escobar scored the first and last runs of the Royals 5 - 4 win in the opening game of World Series. The first play was spectacular and historic, as he crushed Matt Harvey's first pitch in the bottom of the 1st inning to the left-center field wall. Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto came close, but whether due to mixed signals or the ball's flight path, neither caught up. The ball bounced off Cespedes' leg, fell to the ground and rolled away, giving Kansas City an instant 1 - 0 lead. It was the first inside-the-park homer in Baseball's Fall Classic since Mule Haas of the 1929 Philadelphia A's -- and just the second time ever by a team's first batter of the game. Patsy Dougherty of the Red Sox did it in Game 2 of the 1903 Series -- the first Series ever. But there's no record whether that happened on the first pitch he saw, so we'll likely never know if Escobar accomplished a true baseball first.
The bookend took place leading off the bottom of the 14th. David Wright's throwing error on Escobar's grounder allowed him to reach safely. A flukey single off the 3rd base bag, followed by an intentional walk loaded the bases. Eric Hosmer ended the longest game in World Series history (there had been two other 14 inning games -- both years before TV slowed things down) on a sacrifice fly.
(This image of Escobar is from a May 2015 game at Yankee Stadium.)
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