Alcides Escobar hits 10th inside-the-park home run in World Series history

​American League Championship Series MVP Alcides Escobar needed only one pitch to make an impact in the World Series opener Tuesday night.

The Kansas City Royals shortstop drilled a fastball from New York Mets right-hander Matt Harvey deep to centre-field, where centre-fielder Yoenis Cespedes and rookie left-fielder Michael Conforto looked at each other as they converged on the ball but Cespedes missed on his attempted backhand on the run.

The ball then rolled along the warning track toward the left-field corner as Escobar sped around the bases. Conforto finally picked it up but there was no play at the plate as Escobar gave the hometown Royals a 1-0 lead.

It's the first World Series inside-the-park homer since Mule Haas of the Philadelphia A's in 1929.

There have been eight others:

• Jimmy Sebring, 1903, Game 1 (off Cy Young)
• Hi Myers, 1916, Game 2 (off Babe Ruth)
• Benny Kauff, 1917, Game 4
• Casey Stengel, 1923, Game 1
• Ross Youngs, 1923, Game 4
• Joe Dugan, 1923, Game 5
• Tommy Thevenow, 1926, Game 2
• Lou Gehrig, 1928, Game 3

Source: baseball-reference.com play index

Escobar is the first player in Series history to lead off his team's first inning with an inside-the-park homer.

Mark Kotsay of the Oakland Athletics was the last player to hit a post-season inside-the-park home run in Game 2 of the 2006 ALCS against Minnesota.

A notorious first-pitch swinger, Escobar swung at the game's first delivery in each of the last five regular-season games, then three times in the five-game AL Division Series and all six times in the ALCS. Tuesday's first-inning homer gave him eight hits in his past 11 at-bats on first pitches.

The slap-hitting Escobar feasted on first pitches against Toronto in the LCS, becoming the first player to lead off the first four games of a playoff series with a hit.

He torched Blue Jays pitching to the tune of a .478 batting average (11-for-23) with five runs batted in and six runs scored.

Escobar batted .230 over his final 29 regular-season games but has stepped it up in the post-season, entering Tuesday's contest with a .386 average in the ALDS and LCS.

Kansas City is 48 games above. 500 when Escobar is their leadoff hitter, a stretch that includes 18 victories in 25 playoff contests.

With Escobar slumping in early September, Royals manager Ned Yost actually removed him from the leadoff spot and used second baseman Ben Zobrist and left-fielder Alex Gordon as his table-setters but the team went 8-13, so Escobar was back atop the batting order with one week left in the regular season.