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The 2015 World Series has finally arrived, and the only certain aspect of an evenly matched series is that oddsmakers and bettors alike have a lot on their plates.

The Kansas City Royals haven’t won the world title in 30 years, and it’s been 29 for the New York Mets, but both clubs are playing lights-out baseball that suggests destiny is on their side. Reliable players in both dugouts seem intent on putting their teams on their backs en route to championship glory.

Simply put, a series that can go either way leaves plenty of enticing lines for bettors to choose from. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the odds for Game 1 and the best prop bets for the series, all of which are courtesy of Odds Shark.

Game 1 Odds

Prop Bets

The MVP prop bet is always the toughest of them all, but it never fails to produce intriguing odds and huge payouts.

It’s no surprise that Mets slugger Daniel Murphy leads the list by far after tearing through the postseason en route to a major league record six straight postseason games with a home run, but much more value can be found elsewhere. While Yoenis Cespedes may be shied away from due to an injury that has him “not playing with a full tank,” per Adam Rubin of ESPN.com, other sluggers have the chance to rewrite history. 

For instance, Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer has been unconscious with runners in scoring position, and his extra determination could have him taking home MVP honors, as Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star reported:

From Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson to Kansas City’s Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar, there’s no shortage of strong bats who could knock their way into the MVP conversation. 

If recent history is any indication, taking the over here seems like a sure bet.

But when given context, it’s pretty hard to see Murphy continuing his torrid home run pace throughout the World Series. Yes, he’s hit homers in six straight games, but nobody is more wary of that than the Royals, who will be doing everything they can to keep the ball away from him.

Plus, there’s that whole magazine curse he has to deal with, as noted by Rubin:

When it comes down to it, Kansas City is likely to intentionally walk Murphy when possible rather than let him have shots at hitting the ball out of the park. If that’s the case, hitting more than one home run in the series seems like a stretch—even for him. 

If there’s one bet you don’t want to take in this article, it’s predicting a four-game sweep.

Sure, the Mets swept the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS, but that series wasn’t competitive for a reason—the Cubs aren’t ready. However, the Royals are.

Both squads have some serious cheese on the mound that will make opposing lineups struggle, and that should lead to both teams notching at least a couple of wins throughout the series. Don’t bet on anything other than a six- or seven-game battle, which has the lowest odds for a reason.

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The anticipation is finally over, and the 2015 World Series will see the first pitch of Game 1 get thrown out Tuesday evening at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.

That’s where the Kansas City Royals will welcome the New York Mets for the beginning of what promises to be a back-and-forth series. The average baseball fan can only hope to see another series like last year’s championship battle, which saw the Royals take the San Francisco Giants to seven games.

While the Royals couldn’t end their long championship drought then, now they have the opportunity to bring a 30-year window without a title to a close. Meanwhile, the Mets have their own drought of 29 years to rid themselves of.

Here’s a look at everything to know.

Game 1 Info

When: Tuesday, October 27

Where: Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City

Time (ET): 8:07 p.m.

TV: Fox

Live Stream: Fox Sports Go

Preview

One team’s lineup has been finding ways over and over to get past great pitching and put runs on the board. The other team’s pitching staff is preventing opponents from having any breath of life on offense.

This World Series should be fun.

The Royals have once again defied the odds and advanced out of the American League, using their small-ball approach and timely hitting to their advantage. That style allowed them to avoid elimination in Game 4 of the ALDS despite a four-run deficit, before pushing them past the mighty Toronto Blue Jays in six games.

Timely hitting by Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain and others has paved the way for the Royals, but they’ll be hard-pressed to continue it Tuesday and beyond.

That’s because the Mets’ arms are dealing at a ridiculous rate. Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard are a three-headed monster of a rotation that has slain everything in its path.

As compared to the Royals pitchers, Jayson Stark of ESPN captured a stunning statistic:

In (the Mets’) nine starts in the first two rounds of this postseason, they got more swings and misses, 140, than balls put in play, 136. Seriously.

Want an idea of how crazy that is? The Royals’ starters have induced almost double the number of balls in play, 153, versus swings and misses, 84. And none of the other six teams that have played more than one game in this postseason are even close to the Mets’ ratio.

Of course, the Mets haven’t been propelled by pitching alone. There’s also a stout lineup and this guy named Daniel Murphy. 

Murphy has emerged from the shadows this postseason into one of the biggest folk heroes in New York sports history—and that’s elite company. He broke a major league record in Game 4 of the Mets’ sweep over the Chicago Cubs by hitting a home run for a sixth straight postseason game.

However, one daunting sports curse could be against him in the World Series, as Adam Rubin of ESPN noted:

It wouldn’t be surprising to see Murphy go the whole series without a home run, if only because the Royals have been planning for him for days. If they’re smart in that regard, they’ll avoid pitching to him altogether.

Tasked with that responsibility in Game 1 is Edinson Volquez, who hasn’t had the prettiest of postseasons prior to Tuesday. He dropped his only decision against Houston and allowed five runs in a loss in Toronto.

But Volquez‘s only home start in these playoffs was a great one, going six innings on two hits. The Royals will hope for more of the same Tuesday night, as he faces off against the Mets’ Harvey.

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Game 1 of the World Series between the Kansas City Royals and New York Mets wound up being an instant classic, as it took five hours and 14 innings to find a winner.

The Royals, with their postseason magic on full display, managed to scrape out a 5-4 victory to keep home-field advantage.

You could look at it as the Mets coughing up a game in which they had several leads or the Royals being a gritty team that never dies, but it’s probably a mixture of both. 

The Mets got off to a rough start as Yoenis Cespedes booted a routine fly ball to center field on the first pitch out of Matt Harvey’s hand. His misplay resulted in an inside-the-park home run for Alcides Escobar.

New York recovered, however, taking multiple leads that it later blew.

The Mets led 3-1 in the sixth when a cruising Matt Harvey allowed the Royals to even the score at 3. After Eric Hosmer gift-wrapped the Mets a 4-3 lead in the eighth inning, Jeurys Familia came on to blow his first save since July 30, giving up a game-tying home run to Alex Gordon in the bottom of the ninth. 

It was Hosmer who won the game for the Royals, completing a ridiculous script that couldn’t have even been written by the best authors around the world. Hosmer went from Game 1 scapegoat to World Series hero with a walk-off sacrifice fly.

Although the Mets should be thoroughly disappointed that they hit poorly with men in scoring position, left 17 runners on base and played bad defense with Cespedes’ misplay and a 14th-inning error by David Wright that got Kansas City rolling, they can take solace in the fact that Jacob deGrom, their true ace, will take the hill for Game 2 on Wednesday night.

The Royals will oppose him with the struggling Johnny Cueto as they look to take a 2-0 lead before the series shifts to New York.

Final: Royals 5, Mets 4, 14 innings

Dan Ferrara is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. Find him on Twitter @BigRed_BR for more analysis and insight. 

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The Kansas City Royals host the New York Mets in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series on Tuesday. 

For the Royals, this is a rare chance to get it right in the Fall Classic after losing in seven games to the San Francisco Giants last season. For a long-suffering franchise that is just one year removed from a 28-year postseason drought—which began right after the Royals won their lone World Series title in 1985—Kansas City is cherishing the opportunity while trying to seize all the glory it missed out on last year. 

The Mets are looking to end a championship drought that dates back to 1986. They last won the pennant in 2000 and have long been the misfit outfit in New York, playing in the shadow of baseball’s greatest franchise, the Yankees. Strong pitching and an otherworldly display at the plate from Daniel Murphy propelled them past the ultra-rich Los Angeles Dodgers and the tortured Chicago Cubs this postseason. 

Both squads have a right to claim underdog status in the grand scheme of things. Kansas City is looking to win one for the smaller markets, while the Amazin’ Mets are looking to make sure that nickname is no longer said in jest (at least, you know, temporarily).

Here is the schedule and streaming info for Game 1.

2015 World Series Game 1 Viewing Info

When: Tuesday, October 27 at 8:07 p.m. ET

Where: Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri

TV: Fox

Live Stream: FoxSportsGo

Tickets: ScoreBig.com

Pre-Series Comments

Naturally, the Royals have found plenty of motivation this year from coming within one game of a championship in 2014. Dismissed by some before the season as lacking power and a true staff ace, the Royals went on to win an American League-best 95 games.

They’ve again captured the pennant, but it’s not likely they find much satisfaction in that feat. Last year’s pennant symbolizes what could have been.

“You’re proud of the American League pennant ring,” said hitting coach Dale Sveum, via the Kansas City Star‘s Vahe Gregorian, “but I have a hard time wearing it because it just reminds me that we lost.”

Pain aversion indeed might be part of what’s fueling the team. 

“I mean, the world’s watching,” said pitcher Luke Hochevar, via Gregorian. “This is the big stage that everybody dreams of. … I don’t think you ever get over that. I don’t think you do.”

While the Royals come into this game with a wealth of experience from last year, the Mets might still be getting used to the idea of playing on baseball’s biggest stage.

“For all of us, we’re kind of sitting around the locker room all talking to each other, and I don’t think anything has really set in for us yet,” Matt Harvey said Monday, according to Newsday‘s Marc Craig. “Which in our minds I think is a positive.”

“If you would have told me I’d be here in April,” lefty starter Steven Matz said, via Craig, “I would have probably laughed at you.”

Public enemy No. 1 for Kansas City in this series is Murphy, who is having a playoffs for the ages. He has an absurd .421/.436/1.026 slash line, with seven home runs and 11 RBI in nine games. He’s drawing comparisons to Yankees’ playoff hero Paul O’Neill. 

“Mostly it’s the fire with which he plays that reminded me of O’Neill more than anything else,” said baseball scout Bryan Lambe, according to the New York Post‘s Ken Davidoff. The Mets will hope Murphy can be the difference-maker in a series that is likely to feature plenty of fanned hitters.

Power pitching will be a key reason to tune into this World Series. The Royals have the trio of Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto and Yordano Ventura, while the Mets can trot out Jacob DeGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Harvey.

Game 1 will see Volquez square off against Harvey, but pitching velocity will definitely be a factor through Game 3, per USA Today‘s Joe Lemire and Jorge L. Ortiz: 

Three of the four starters who most regularly threw 95-plus gas will take the hill in the Fall Classic. In Game 3, each league’s most consistently hard throwers will oppose each other: Syndergaard and Ventura. Syndergaard hit 95 on 59.7% of pitches — the sport’s only hurler to throw a majority at that speed — and Ventura’s rate was 45.7%, which barely edges out the Mets’ Harvey at 45%.

The Mets will be looking to blow down a balanced lineup featuring the likes of crafty center fielder Lorenzo Cain and sluggers Salvador Perez and Mike Moustakas. Cain believes his team can keep doing what it’s done better than most this season—clobber the fastball, per Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star:

I feel like we hit hard throwers well. It’s not that it’s easier to hit. We just hit fastballs well. But what we did during the season, it doesn’t matter. Right now, it’s go out there and hit these guys. They’re a very solid staff. We understand that. We know what we’re getting ourselves into. We know what they feature. Once we get between the lines, it’s about applying what you’ve seen.

Playing catcher day in and day out, Perez has drawn plenty of attention for his lasting presence behind the plate.

“He takes such a beating,” said Cain, per Dave Skretta of the Associated Press (h/t the Register-Guard). “Man, I know I couldn’t do it.” 

Per Skretta, Game 1 will see Perez behind the plate for the 312th time in the past two years. It’s a remarkable feat of endurance, and the Royals pitching staff surely welcomes the consistency. If Perez can get his tired legs to crank out a few more home runs—he already has four this postseason—even better.

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The time has come to decide which long-suffering franchise will put a storybook ending on their season, as the 2015 World Series begins Tuesday with Game 1 of what’s sure to be an enticing series.

The Kansas City Royals make an appearance in the World Series for a second straight year, coming drastically close to ending their now-30-year title drought last season when they took the San Francisco Giants to seven games. The New York Mets haven’t made it this far since 2000, when the Yankees edged them in the Subway Series.

We’ll begin to find out Tuesday evening which club is ready to make the ascension to world champions in Game 1, so let’s take a look at everything to know for that matchup.

Game 1 Info

When: Tuesday, October 27

Where: Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City

Time (ET): 8:07 p.m.

TV: Fox

Live Stream: Fox Sports Go

Preview

The Mets roster is pretty chock-full of players who are in no way experienced on the postseason stage. But you couldn’t tell it by the way they ripped through the previous round.

Against another young squad in the Chicago Cubs, the Mets dominated the National League Championship Series at the rate that made it not even look competitive. New York swept Chicago in four quick games, aided by Daniel Murphy’s continued unconscious hitting and timely knocks from the rest of the lineup.

Murphy’s six-straight postseason games with a home run—a MLB record—are getting a lot of the publicity, but it’s no secret the Mets’ arms are paving the way to this run. A three-headed rotation of Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard is proving too much for opposing lineups to deal with.

Even with all three in their first postseasons, they’re pitching like seasoned veterans and will have the Royals’ hands full, per Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News:

While no Mets player looks scared off by the bright lights of the postseason, the Royals obviously aren’t, either. A mere nine outs from elimination in the ALDS against Houston, Kansas City rallied back to get back in that series and edged the Toronto Blue Jays in impressive fashion.

The Royals’ arms don’t have the name recognition that the Mets’ arms have been getting, but they have a similar chance to dominate the series. Edinson Volquez gets the start in Game 1, while Yordano Ventura and Johnny Cueto have proven capable of shutdown performances.

When it comes down to it, the Royals are the ones who are experienced at this stage after coming one Madison Bumgarner performance away from the championship last year. But manager Ned Yost isn’t convinced that will play a part in the series, per Jacob Albracht of KWCH (Kansas City):

“I don’t really see it as an advantage,” Yost said. “We didn’t have any playoff experience last year, and we took it all the way to Game 7 of the World Series.”

Nerves may not have prevented the Royals from putting together a serious surge at the title last year, but they’re obviously going to feel a lot more comfortable this time around. Beginning the series in Kaufman Stadium will only help that, as Kansas City has gotten a considerable boost when playing in the confines.

The Mets will undoubtedly have to shake off some of those nerves early on, but they shouldn’t be expected to hang around for long. In the end, they’re just going out and doing what they’ve done their whole lives—playing baseball.

Only this time, the whole world is watching, and they’ll be forever remembered by how they perform.

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When the 2015 World Series finally comes to an end, so too will three decades of frustration for the Fall Classic’s two participants—the Kansas City Royals and New York Mets.

For it was 30 years ago, in 1985, that the Royals last won a world championship, besting the St. Louis Cardinals in a seven-game series. A year later, the Mets—with a little help from Bill Buckner—took down the Boston Red Sox, also in seven games.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Before we can start talking about streaks ending and Game 7, we have to deal with Game 1, which will be played under American League rules and pit New York’s Matt Harvey against Kansas City’s Edinson Volquez at Kauffman Stadium Tuesday night.

How important is winning Game 1 of the World Series? Over the past 10 editions of the Fall Classic, the team that emerged victorious in Game 1 went on to win it all nine times.

The only team that emerged victorious after dropping the series opener was the 2009 New York Yankees, who took down Philadelphia in six games after dropping the opening game 6-1 in front of a packed house at Yankee Stadium. 

What follows are the keys each team will have to hit on if they hope to wind up on the right side of recent history when things get underway at 8:07 p.m. ET.

Big Names Must Make Their Presence Felt

While it might seem as if Alcides Escobar and Daniel Murphy have been the only consistently productive hitters for the Royals and Mets in the playoffs, both teams have gotten quality performances from a handful of players.

Escobar, along with Kendrys Morales and Ben Zobrist, have essentially carried the Royals, while Murphy, Curtis Granderson and Wilmer Flores have been standouts for the Mets. Could they continue to swing hot bats in Game 1 of the World Series? Sure.

But should one (or more) of them falter, someone else has to pick up the slack—and there’s no shortage of big names on both teams that have yet to meet expectations in the playoffs.

You could build a formidable lineup with that list, one that would pose problems for nearly any pitcher the opposition could throw against it. Whether any of those eight players makes life difficult for Matt Harvey or Edinson Volquez will go a long way toward deciding which team jumps out to an early series lead. 

Matt Harvey Must Mix Things Up

New York may have finished the regular season with baseball’s third-highest average fastball velocity (93.4 mph), but each of the team’s four scheduled World Series starters—including Matt Harvey—has a heater that sits above 95 mph.

“Successful pitchers pitch to their strength,” Mets manager Terry Collins told the Wall Street Journal‘s Jared Diamond. “If that’s your main pitch, that’s what you’re throwing. What you’ve got to do is make good pitches with it.”

Making good pitches with the heater will be of paramount importance for Harvey, as he’ll be going up against what is arguably the best fastball-hitting team in baseball—especially when those heaters are leaving smoke trails on their way to home plate.

“It’s mixing our pitches and not relying on our effective velocity,” Harvey told Diamond. “We’ve done our homework here, and we know what Kansas City is about.”

What Kansas City is about is putting the bat on the ball. No team made contact more consistently than the Royals did during the regular season. They also struck out less than any other team, while only Miami drew fewer walks.

Those first two stats don’t bode well for a Mets rotation that has relied heavily on its ability to make teams swing and miss, with 69 strikeouts over 54.1 postseason innings.

While Harvey has shown the ability to pitch backward before, where he starts at-bats with breaking balls and off-speed stuff to set up his fastball later in the count, he’s never faced a lineup quite like the one he’ll be going up against in Game 1.

Should he begin to fall behind batters due to a lack of command (or questionable calls by the home plate umpire), it could be a dark night for the Dark Knight.

Both Teams Must Do a Better Job Controlling the Running Game

Neither Travis d’Arnaud nor Salvador Perez did a great job controlling the opposition’s running game during the regular season, which found both throwing out less than 33 percent of would-be base stealers.

That’s going to be a problem in the World Series, as the Mets (9-for-11) and Royals (7-for-10) have no problem sending a runner when the opportunity presents itself.

While it’s fair to say it will be more of an issue for the Mets once the series shifts to New York and National League rules, given the speed the Royals carry on their bench (especially Jarrod Dyson), it would be foolish and shortsighted to think we won’t see someone take off running in Game 1.

If both starting pitchers are at the top of their games and baserunners are at a premium in Game 1, momentum—and ultimately the game—could be decided by one frenetic 90-foot sprint.

Unless otherwise noted/linked, all statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.

Hit me up on Twitter to talk baseball: @RickWeinerBR.

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It’s finally here, baseball fans: The 2015 MLB World Series starts Tuesday night. 

Over the following days, the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals will take part in the latest installment of the Fall Classic.” Before the first pitch of Game 1 is thrown, let’s dive into some head-to-head matchups that could decide which team raises the trophy. 

Obviously, both the Mets and Royals have deep and talented rosters. New York’s run through October has been behind an elite starting rotation, while Kansas City has returned to the World Series behind a similar formula that gave it success last season. 

Both teams will be aware of the other team’s strengths and will key on countering them down throughout the course of the series.

Will Travis d’Arnaud be able to shut down the Kansas City running game? Which matters more: Johnny Cueto’s recent struggles or his career success over a good chunk of the Mets order? Will an overly aggressive Royals lineup play right into the hands of a strikeout-heavy Mets rotation?

We’ll take a closer look at those questions and try to determine which team may have the upper hand. Let us know what you think in the comments section below. What’s the key matchup in this series? What are some weaknesses that each team can exploit? 

Matchups matter in a seven-game series. Over the course of this slideshow, we’ll identify a handful of key aspects that will determine the World Series champion. 

Begin Slideshow

This might not have been the World Series matchup everyone was expecting, but the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals should create an interesting series.

The Royals entered the playoffs with the best record in the American League, although the Toronto Blue Jays offense and the Houston Astros’ young talent led many to predict an upset. Meanwhile, the Mets pulled off the surprise, winning the National League pennant despite having the league’s fifth-best record during the regular season.

Of course, none of that matters heading into the upcoming best-of-seven series. It will all start with both sides trying to get the edge in Tuesday’s all-important Game 1.

Game 1 Info

When: Tuesday, Oct. 27

Where: Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri

Time: 8:07 p.m. ET

TV: Fox

Live Stream: Fox Sports Go

Probable Pitchers: Matt Harvey (Mets) vs. Edinson Volquez (Royals)

Preview

The Mets were dominant in their National League Championship Series sweep of the Chicago Cubs, winning all four games without trailing for a moment. While the focus has been on the team’s young pitching, the hitting has been just as impressive.

Daniel Murphy has earned all of the headlines in the postseason thanks to his .421 batting average and seven home runs in nine games. Meanwhile, Curtis Granderson and Yoenis Cespedes have played well, too, with seven RBI apiece in the same stretch. David Wright, Lucas Duda and Travis d’Arnaud have also showed they are capable of picking up big hits.

The problem is that sweeps don’t always lead to success in the next round, as MLB Stat of the Day noted:

As hot as Murphy and the rest of the Mets hitters have been in the playoffs, a six-day break is not going to help them sustain their strong play.

Jon Morosi of Fox Sports looked at a positive side of the long layoff:

Of course, nine days off for Matt Harvey might be too long for him to stay in a rhythm, as well. The 26-year-old pitcher was excellent against the Cubs, allowing just two runs in 7.2 innings, but a long layoff and a road game in a hostile atmosphere could make things tougher.

Opposing starter Edinson Volquez has been inconsistent in the playoffs, giving up five runs against the Blue Jays in his most recent start after tossing six shutout innings in Game 1. Throughout his career, the 32-year-old veteran is 1-4 with a 6.56 ERA in the postseason.

One of the big differences, however, is that Volquez does not need to go deep into the game to be effective. If he throws five solid innings, the bullpen—led by Kelvin Herrera, Ryan Madson and especially Wade Davis—can take care of business.

This mindset also helps the Royals hitters, who know they can come from behind late. Alcides Escobar and Ben Zobrist were excellent in the American League Championship Series, but Kansas City will trot out a deep lineup featuring quality hitters such as Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer and others who are all capable of coming through with an RBI when the opportunity presents itself.

Manager Ned Yost discussed his confidence going into the series, which stems from the disappointment of last year’s heartbreaking World Series loss, per Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News:

Last year, we hadn’t been there – and we were one historic performance from Madison Bumgarner away from winning the World Series. Now, the experience definitely helps us a little bit on our side because we’ve been there before, we know what it’s like. The confidence that these guys have, and our abilities, they knew from the first day of spring training that we’d be back here, and here we are.

Nerves will not be a problem for the Royals, and you can expect them to keep fighting inning after inning.

Look for the Mets to build an early lead in Game 1 against Volquez before surrendering a few runs in the middle innings. It will be a long series, but the home team will come away with the opening victory.

Prediction: Royals win 4-3.

Follow Rob Goldberg on Twitter for more year-round sports analysis. 

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The Fall Classic has finally arrived, with the incumbent American League champion Kansas City Royals taking on the surprising New York Mets, who have made it to the World Series for the first time in 15 years.

This mouth-watering matchup, pitting the outstanding Mets starting pitchers against the resilient Royals lineup, has the odds at dead even, per Odds Shark, setting up what hopes to be a lengthy best-of-seven series.

With each team going for its first World Series title since Ronald Reagan occupied the White House, here is a preview of Game 1:

On Monday, Royals manager Ned Yost announced right-hander Edinson Volquez will be the Game 1 starter, per Matt Axisa of CBS Sports, opposite Mets righty Matt Harvey.

Unfamiliarity could steer the matchup in the Mets’ favor, as Alex Rios is the only Royals batter who has faced Harvey in his career, going 1-for-3 while playing for the Chicago White Sox in 2013, per Baseball-Reference.com.

Harvey is 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA in two playoff starts and will be pitching on nine days’ rest. He’s anchoring a quartet of high-velocity starters alongside Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz. Yost believes all four Mets starters are aces, per Erik Boland of Newsday.

“They’re all good,” Yost said. “You look at all four starters that they’re going to start, they’re all phenomenal. All of them.”

The Royals will counter with an offense that makes more contact than any other, putting the ball in play 74 percent of the time, according to Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated. Yost believes this efficiency gives the Royals a great advantage, per Boland.

“It does, and if you go back at our numbers, we do pretty well against power pitching,” Yost said. “So that definitely helps.”

The Mets are averaging 6.1 runs per game in the playoffs and have done so against star pitchers such as Zack Greinke, Clayton Kershaw, Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta—well above the pedigree of Volquez, who is 1-2 with a 4.32 ERA and coming off a 7-1 defeat in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series.

Experience could also be an early factor, as Curtis Granderson and Juan Uribe (who’s nursing a chest injury) are the only Mets with World Series experience, according to George A. King III of the New York Post. 

The Royals will be the first team the Mets have faced in the postseason with successful October experience. Kansas City has won four of its last five playoff series, dating back to last year.

The Royals will be playing with an unfinished-business bravado after last year’s heartbreaking loss to the San Francisco Giants, per Vahe Gregorian of the Kansas City Star.

“Maybe it’s true that even beating the Mets wouldn’t make that singular anguish vanish,” he wrote. “But the inverse might be true, too: The Royals wouldn’t be back here without the infusion of experience and motivation they derived from the way last season ended.”

The Mets will compete, but settling in may come at the expense of an early road loss at the hostile Kauffman Stadium.

Prediction: Royals win 5-4.

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One of the most evenly matched World Series in recent memory will open at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City on Tuesday when the Royals host the New York Mets in Game 1, which is listed as a pick’em at most sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.

According to oddsmakers, the series itself is also a toss-up, making the first two games important to see which team grabs the early momentum in the best-of-seven championship series.

New York will send Matt Harvey (13-8, 2.71 ERA) to the mound in the opener, as he looks to stay perfect in the playoffs after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs in his first two postseason starts.

Kansas City’s Edinson Volquez (13-9, 3.55 ERA), who has gone 1-2 in his three playoff starts this year with a 4.32 ERA, will oppose Harvey.

Volquez was brilliant in the lone win he earned at home against the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series, allowing only two hits in six scoreless innings with four walks and five strikeouts en route to a 5-0 victory.

The Mets have won five straight games heading into the World Series following a sweep of the Cubs in the National League Championship Series. They are 7-2 in the postseason overall, and it is worth noting that six of the last seven teams that swept their LCS opponents, including the past four, lost in the World Series.

The layoff between games could be a factor, as Game 4 of the NLCS was last Wednesday. The under is 4-1-1 in New York’s last six for totals bettors, according to the Odds Shark MLB database, and second baseman Daniel Murphy has hit seven home runs in the playoffs, including one in a record six consecutive games.

The Royals lost two games in each of their previous playoff series, topping the Blue Jays in six games in the ALCS and the Houston Astros in five games before that. They won the last two games against the Astros after trailing the AL Division Series 2-1, and they won the first two versus the Blue Jays before dropping two of three in Toronto.

Kansas City rebounded to take the ALCS in Game 6 with a 4-3 win at home last Friday, as the under cashed for the second straight time following a 5-1 run for the over at the sportsbooks.

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