NEW YORK — They don’t play in a major market or have big-name stars like Thor and the Dark Knight, so the Kansas City Royals will just have to be the people’s champions.
The Royals Sunday night/Monday morning won the World Series for the first time in 30 years, beating the ever-collapsible New York Mets, 7-2, in a 12-inning Game 5.
The 2015 World Series ended at 12:33 a.m. when Wade Davis struck out Wilmer Flores, triggering a Royal celebration on the Citi Field lawn.
“I’m enjoying this moment right now,’’ said Royal catcher Salvador Perez, who was named Series MVP, one year after making the final out in a World Series Game 7 loss to the Giants. “Who cares about what happened last year? This is unbelievable. We have almost the same group and now we’ve won the World Series.’’
KC’s formula was the same throughout the 2015 postseason. The Royals would fall behind, rally in the eighth or ninth, then wait for the Mets to blunder. It worked just about every time as the Royals became the first team in baseball history to win three World Series games after trailing in the eighth inning or later. New York led in all five games, but lost four of them and heard boos from the home crowd during Kansas City’s five-run 12th.
Game 5 was perhaps the most excruciating for the Mets and their fans. Dark Knight Matt Harvey mastered the Royals for eight innings and it looked like the series was going back to Kansas City for a sixth game when the Mets batted while leading, 2-0 in the bottom of the eighth. That’s when Harvey could be seen talking to manager Terry Collins, convincing the skipper to send him out for the ninth.
Collins complied. And paid the price. His decision-making qualifies him for immediate entry into the John McNamara/Grady Little Hall of Managerial Blunders.
“I told him that was enough and he said, ‘I want this game,’ so obviously I let my heart get in the way of my gut,’’ said Collins. “It didn’t work . . . This is my fault.’’
Lorenzo Cain led off with a walk, stole second, and scored on a double by Eric Hosmer. That was it for Harvey. He gave the ball to New York closer Jeurys Familia, who quickly became the first man in hardball history to blow three saves in a single Fall Classic. Familia induced a couple of groundouts, but the second one scored Hosmer, thanks in large part to a terrible throw home by first baseman Lucas Duda.
The rivals remained scoreless until a Kansas City jailbreak in the 12th after midnight. The winning rally featured more bungling by the Mets, who found themselves in the unusual position of being booed at home in their final World Series inning.
The Royals demonstrated amazing resilience in their championship run. It all started when they trailed the host Astros, 6-2, in the eighth inning of an ALDS elimination game Oct. 12. KC rallied for five in the eighth and two more in the ninth to win, 9-6 and stay alive. The pattern was established.
The Royals were particularly Amazin’ against the sloppy Mets. Four outs from losing. Five outs from losing. Three outs from losing. The Royals rallied every time in this World Series.
And every time they got help from the Mets’ blunders. Three KC rallies. Three Met collapses.
You can bet your Clint Hurdle rookie card that Fox and the MLB suits were rooting for the Mets. The Royals are great for baseball purists, but the Mets are easier to mass market.
The Royals do all the little things well. They have a great bullpen. Their hitters make contact with the baseball. They run the bases well and play good defense. They don’t have nationally known stars. They don’t hit a lot homers (KC ranked 24th out of 30 teams in homers this year). They don’t have a raft of long-haired ace starters throwing 100 miles per hour like the Mets. They don’t play in a big market. They play in a place where it costs $25 to park your car in a stadium lot for the World Series.
They just win, God bless ’em.
They play baseball the way it is supposed to be played. And they are clutch. The Royals went 22-9 in postseason games over the last two years. This year they were 7-5 in postseason games in which they trailed going into the sixth inning. They came from behind in seven postseason games. In 2015, they won more postseason games after trailing by multiple runs than any team in baseball history. They outscored the Mets, 15-1, from the seventh inning on in five World Series games.
They got up off the mat after Alcides Escobar was floored by Noah Syndergaard’s 97-m.p.h. first pitch Friday. They vowed revenge and got it, rallying for three runs in the eighth inning to win Game 4. They completely undressed the Mets in the final four innings of the deciding Game 5.
Not bad for a franchise that almost disappeared from the sports landscape after 1994 when it endured losing seasons in 18 out of 19 years. The Royals lost 100 or more games four times in that stretch and had at least 97 losses three other times. They drew fewer than 2 million fans in 23 consecutive seasons. They just about fell off the baseball map.
The Royals got to Game 7 last year before losing to Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants. They had the tying run on third base when Perez popped up to end it. This year they finished the job.
In style.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @dan_shaughnessy.