Mets vs. Royals Game 1: Live World Series Score and Highlights

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.