Take the Crown: The Kansas City Royals are the 2015 World Series champions

The comeback kids did it again. 

In what was their eighth comeback win of the postseason (easily a record), the American League-champion Kansas City Royals defeated the National League-champion New York Mets in Game 5 of the World Series, 7-2. 

Matt Harvey stifled the Royals for eight innings, giving up no runs and working with a 2-0 lead. After appealing to manager Terry Collins to keep him in the game to finish out the ninth, the Royals used their final three outs to the absolute best of their ability. 

Lorenzo Cain led off the inning with a walk. Then, Eric Hosmer doubled him home, prompting Collins to pull Harvey after a great performance, where he went eight innings, allowing five hits, and striking out nine while walking just two. Collins brought in closer Jeurys Familia to get the final three outs. 

Following a Mike Moustakas ground out, Salvador Perez drove home the game-tying run on a ground ball to third base, where Hosmer scored on a throw from first baseman Lucas Duda that was wide of the catcher. 

Three extra innings later, the Royals called upon Christian Colon, who did not have a single at bat this entire postseason, to pinch hit with Jarrod Dyson at third base and just one out. 

Colon delivered. 

He singled into left field, scoring Dyson, and giving Kansas City their first lead of the game and the lead that would give them the World Series championship. Four runs later and it was time for the Royals to close it out. 

As Wade Davis fell to his knees in the bottom of the 12th inning at Citi Field in Flushing, the Royals brought home their first World Series championship since defeating the Cardinals in the 1985 World Series.

Catcher Salvador Perez was named the World Series MVP after recording a hit in every single game. Overall, he went 8-for-22 (.364) with a double and one RBI. He also managed the Royals' pitching staff well and caught some great games defensively. 

The Royals' starting pitcher tonight was Edinson Volquez, making his first appearance since his father's death before Game 1. He was not the sharpest, going six innings of two run (one earned) ball, striking out five and walking five, but he delivered the type of performance the Royals needed to bring home the championship.

For the Mets, it was a somber end of an extremely successful season. After not even being expected to make the postseason, the team won 90 games and took the National League East divison crown from the heavily-favored Nationals, behind a deadly rotation of Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Steven Matz, Bartolo Colon, and Jon Niese. They played fantastic this season and should be a contender for years to come. 

But tonight, it's all Royals, as the team who was 90-feet away from a World Series win last year takes the crown tonight.

​--Devan Fink

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