Kansas City Royals Win World Series For First Time In 30 Years

The Kansas City Royals have earned their first World Series title in 30 years, staging a dramatic Game 5 comeback to beat the New York Mets 7-2.

They took home the series four games to one.

The final game featured a stunning extra-innings turnaround. It started as a pitchers' duel: the Mets' Matt Harvey against Kansas City's Edinson Volquez.

Volquez was back on the mound just a few days after a personal loss. His father died before Volquez started Game 1 on Tuesday, and his family requested that Volquez not be told before he pitched; this weekend, he returned to his team after attending the funeral.

And Volquez pitched strong. Through the first five innings, he allowed only a single hit. (Luckily for the Mets, that hit was a home run.)

But Harvey, aka "The Dark Knight," seemed to be the hero New York needed. He thrilled the crowd by pitching eight scoreless innings, striking out nine batters.

In the sixth inning, the Mets had the bases loaded with no outs. But Yoenis Cespedes took a painful foul off his knee, and ultimately New York managed only one more run.

That left the Mets up 2-0 in the seventh, when Kelvin Herrera took over for Volquez. And that's where the score stayed at the end of the eighth, when the New York crowd began to chant for Harvey (his pitch count in the triple digits) to stay for the ninth.

But when he did, Kansas City proved it wasn't over. Eric Hosmer hit an RBI double, narrowing the lead to 2-1. And after the Dark Knight finally returned to the dugout, Hosmer made it home on a wildly errant throw from Mets first baseman Lucas Duda.

Suddenly a nailbiter, the 2-2 game went into extra innings.

In the 12th, Christian Colon took the lead for Kansas City — and then the Royals ran to a crushing victory, 7-2.

Catcher Salvador Perez of the Royals was voted most valuable player.

It's the team's first title since 1985 — and only the second in franchise history.

You can find the latest updates from a celebrating Kansas City at member station KCUR.

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