Kansas City Royals took a 1-0 lead over New York Mets in baseball's World Series after a mammoth 14-inning encounter ended in a 5-4 win.

The third longest game in World Series history was finally completed in the bottom of the 14th after Eric Hosmer hit a sacrifice fly to right off 42-year-old reliever Bartolo Colon to score Alcides Escobar.

Escobar reached first on an error by third baseman David Wright and advanced to third on a single to right by Ben Zobrist. After an intentional walk to Lorenzo Cain, Hosmer hit  the long fly to right that set off a celebration on the diamond.

The five-hour, nine-minute battle, the longest ever World Series Game One, was won by scheduled Game Four starter Chris Young, who threw three hitless innings with four strikeouts.

The Mets were jolted by the first pitch thrown by their Game One starter Matt Harvey. Escobar drove a fly deep to left-center which glanced off centerfielder Yoenis Cespedes' glove after some miscommunication with leftfielder Michael Conforto, and was kicked away as Escobar dashed around the bases for an inside-the-park home run.
              
New York tied the game with a run in the fourth, took the lead on a Curtis Granderson solo home run in the fifth and made it 3-1 in the sixth.
              
Harvey had retired 11 Royals in a row heading to the bottom of the sixth but that streak ended when the Royals rallied with two runs to tie it.

The Royals sent the game to extra innings in dramatic fashion when, trailing 4-3 with one out in the bottom of the ninth, Alex Gordon clouted a long home run off Mets closer Jeurys Familia to tie it 4-4.

It was Familia's first blown save since July and Gordon's blast stunned the Mets.

Gordon said Familia tried to quick-pitch him, but that he was ready for it after seeing him try to slip a delivery past team mate Salvador Perez.

"I wanted to make sure when I got on the box I was ready to hit," Gordon said. "And he tried to quick pitch me and left the ball right there to hit, and with a guy like that you can't miss pitches that he gives you to hit."

As the game wore on, the managers turned to veterans Colon and Young, 36. They matched zeros for two innings before the climactic 14th.
              
"Two things you don't want in Game One of the World Series: One is to go 14 innings and the other is to lose," said Royals manager Ned Yost. "To find a way to grind that way out against a great team ... and to win it in the 14th inning was big."

It was revealed afterwards that Kansas City starter Edinson Volquez pitched six innings of the game only hours after the death of his father.
              
Game Two of the Fall Classic will be played on Wednesday at Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium.