KANSAS CITY, Mo. - It started the way no World Series game had started in 76 years, with the shock of an inside-the-park home run on the very first pitch of the bottom of the first inning.
It ended the way so many of these Kansas City Royals October classics have seemed to end these past two years. With one more heart-pounding, late-inning moment. With one more game-winning wave of the bat. With one more chance for 40,320 occupants of Kauffman Stadium to ask themselves, "Did that really happen?"
But in between, what we had here, as Tuesday night melted into Wednesday morning, was a World Series Game 1 unlike any of the 110 Series openers that came before it.