On a night when the start of the NBA season—and a Steph Curry heat check—threatened to take the spotlight, the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals stole the show in Game 1 of the World Series.

The Mets and Royals played late into Tuesday night—or, rather, early into Wednesday morning—and in the bottom of the 14th inning, Eric Hosmer delivered a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to give the Royals a 5-4 win.

Hosmer redeemed himself after his Bill Buckner-esque error in the eighth inning led to the run that gave the Mets a 4-3 lead.

It was a tough loss for the Mets, who took their lead to the bottom of the ninth inning, with Jeurys Familia, who had been untouchable in the postseason, on the mound. However, Familia gave up a home run to Alex Gordon and, as ESPN Stats & Info points out, blew his first save since late July:

The stats department at ESPN also had some other interesting nuggets about Tuesday’s Game 1, including a mention of the one and only Babe Ruth:

Chris Young earned the win for the Royals after pitching three sterling innings and striking out four Mets. Young allowed only one baserunner, and it was on a walk. Meanwhile, the ageless Bartolo Colon took the loss for the Mets.

The two clubs have to get over the drama of the series opener right away, as they will come back Wednesday night for Game 2. You can watch Game 2 live from Kauffman Stadium on Fox, with the first pitch scheduled for 8:07 p.m. ET.

The Mets will send Jacob deGrom, arguably their best pitcher in the postseason, to the bump to take on Johnny Cueto of the Royals. DeGrom is 3-0 in the postseason with a 1.80 ERA, while Cueto is 1-1 in playoff starts with a robust 7.88 ERA—so the pitching matchup clearly favors the Mets.

But having been in the Fall Classic just last year, the Royals have the playoff chops to make deGrom work. He will have little room for error after his team fell into a one-game hole, and he’ll need to be on his game to send the series to Queens tied at a game apiece. 

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