The Kansas City Royals would not be denied. Over and over this postseason, the Royals appeared down. But they were never out.
A year after losing the World Series to the Giants in seven games, the Royals defeated the New York Mets in one of the more exciting short World Series in major league history. Here are the top 10 stats to know from this year’s Fall Classic.
1. The Royals won their second World Series title and first since 1985. Sunday was day No. 10,962 since the Royals' most recent World Series title.
2. The Royals are the first team since the 1989 Athletics to win the World Series a season after losing the World Series. They are the first AL team since the 1961 Yankees to win a World Series the year after losing Game 7 of the World Series.
3. The story of the series was the Royals' comeback ability. According to Elias Sports Bureau research, they are the first team to win three games in which they trailed in the eighth inning or later in a single World Series. Had each game lasted only seven innings, the Mets would have won four of the five games. The Royals outscored the Mets 15-1 in the seventh through 14th innings of the series.
4. This postseason, the Royals had seven wins in which they trailed by multiple runs. According to Elias research, that’s two more than any previous team had in a single postseason.
The Royals won three games in this series in which their win probability (per Fangraphs.com) was 16 percent or less.
5. One more note from Elias: The Royals are the third team to get a World Series-clinching win by overcoming a two-run deficit in the ninth inning or later. The other two were the 1929 Athletics and 1939 Yankees.
6. Salvador Perez won World Series MVP honors and was the first catcher to do so since Pat Borders of the 1992 Blue Jays. Perez hit .364 in the series and started the go-ahead rally in the 12th inning of Game 5.
He was 6-for-12 in two-strike situations this series. The Royals hit .202 in two-strike counts; the Mets hit .114. Perez also threw out two of three would-be base stealers. Perez went from being the last out of the 2014 World Series to the hero of this one.
7. The Royals' win was a team effort from the top to the bottom of their roster. Christian Colon’s first at-bat of the postseason was a go-ahead hit in the 12th inning of Game 6 of the World Series. Elias notes Colon is the first player to drive in a Series-clinching run in the first World Series plate appearance of his career.
8. The Royals pitching staff did an impressive job against the Mets' best hitters. The Mets were the first team since the 1999 Yankees to not get an extra-base hit from their Nos. 3, 4 and 5 hitters in a World Series. Daniel Murphy and Yoenis Cespedes each went 3-for-20 in the series.
9. One subtle factor that helped the Royals: They hit 13 ground balls with a man on first base and fewer than two outs, and only two resulted in double plays. The major league average is a double play once every three ground balls in those spots.
The Royals also had eight ground-ball hits with runners in scoring position in the series. The Mets had only two.
10. The major league season started at 7:17 p.m. CT April 5 at Wrigley Field and ended at 12:33 a.m. ET Nov. 2 at Citi Field. The season lasted 210 days, 5 hours, 16 minutes.
The combined length of every major league game this season added up to 310 days, 45 minutes.