The Royals started a World Series game unlike any team since the 1903 Boston Americans
The Kansas City Royals didn’t waste any time before doing something that had not been done in a long time.
On the very first pitch thrown by New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey in the very first inning of the very first game of the 2015 World Series, Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar hit an inside-the-park home run. No team’s leadoff hitter had begun a World Series game with an inside-the-park homer since Patsy Dougherty legged out a round trip for the Boston Americans in 1903, according to MLB.com.
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Escobar, named the MVP of the American League Championship Series, hit Harvey’s opening offering, a down-the-middle 95-mph four-seam fastball, to deep left-center field where Mets center fielder Yoenis Cespedes and left fielder Michael Conforto were unable to corral it in the spacious outfield at Kauffman Statdium.
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In Game 2 of the 1903 World Series, the inaugural modern edition of the event, Dougherty led off the home first with his historic inside-the-park home run off Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Sam Leever at Boston’s Huntington Avenue Grounds.
More than a century later, Escobar’s inside-the-park homer was the 12th in World Series history, according to MLB.com. Before Tuesday night, the most recent came in 1929 when Mule Haas of the Philadelphia Athletics pulled it off against the Chicago Cubs.
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After his inauspicious first pitch, Harvey settled down, escaping the inning without allowing another hit. The Mets’ official Twitter account opted to take as positive as possible view of the frame:
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