NEW YORK (AP) — The Kansas City Royals keep finding new ways to win this October. And now with one more victory in November, they will be World Series champions.

Second baseman Daniel Murphy’s error on Eric Hosmer’s grounder in the eighth inning keyed yet another comeback for the tenacious Royals, and Kansas City startled the New York Mets 5-3 Saturday night to take 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Edinson Volquez returned Saturday from his father’s funeral in the Dominican Republic and gets a chance to pitch the Royals to their first World Series title in 30 years. He faces Matt Harvey in a rematch of Game 1, when Volquez went six innings just hours after his dad died.

Seemingly spooked by the raucous New York crowd early on Halloween, the Royals rallied for the seventh time in 10 postseason victories this year, this one from a 3-2 deficit. Rookie Michael Conforto homered twice as the Mets built their lead.

Murphy’s charmed October slipped away as the calendar was an hour from flipping to a new month.

With runners on first and second on a pair of one-out walks by Tyler Clippard, Jeurys Familia relieved. So steady in his new role as closer this year, Familia had allowed Alex Gordon’s ninth-inning, tying homer in a Game 1 loss.

This time, he came on with a 3-2 lead and got Hosmer to hit a soft grounder toward Murphy as 44,815 fans stood, waving their orange towels in hopes of an inning-ending double play.

But the slow chopper sneaked under the glove of the NL Championship Series MVP as he charged in. Murphy, who would’ve only had a play at first, appeared to glance at the runner and failed to get his glove down. The ball rolled helplessly toward right field, and Ben Zobrist raced home from second base as Familia crouched on the mound.

Surely no one in the silenced Citi Field stands expected this scary ending. It got worse for the Mets in a hurry, too.

Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez followed with RBI singles to break away.

Ryan Madson pitched a perfect seventh for the win, and Wade Davis worked two scoreless innings for his first save.

Not known for his defense, Murphy still made every play look easy in the NLCS and almost single-handedly slugged the Mets to their first World Series since 1986 with seven homers in nine playoff games. He has slumped in the Fall Classic but had a one-out infield single in the ninth.

Yoenis Cespedes followed with another single, but he was doubled off first base when Lucas Duda hit an easy liner to third base and Moustakas tossed it to first to finish off another incredible comeback for the Royals.

— Associated Press —

NEW YORK (AP) — Two balls launched over the wall, one fired over an opponent’s head and just like that, David Wright and the New York Mets are right back in this World Series.

Wright homered and drove in four runs, Curtis Granderson also connected and rookie Noah Syndergaard set a nasty tone at the start of a 9-3 victory against the Kansas City Royals that trimmed New York’s deficit to 2-1 Friday night.

“We get our offense going a little bit, we play better baseball,” Mets manager Terry Collins said.

Shut down at the plate in Kansas City, the Mets broke loose with 12 hits from nine different players as they chased Yordano Ventura early during the first Series game at Citi Field.

Pitching on Halloween eve, Syndergaard recovered from a scary start and went six innings, giving the Mets the winning performance they didn’t get from fellow young starters Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom at Kauffman Stadium.

“Real big game for us,” Collins said. “He delivered. He came through exactly as we expected.”

Another rookie, hometown favorite Steven Matz, tries to pull New York even Saturday night in Game 4 when he faces 36-year-old Chris Young and the Royals.

After the Mets fell behind in the first inning, Granderson started the bottom half with a single and Wright hit his first World Series home run, recharging a packed crowd of 44,781 that included Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Dennis Miller.

The captain, who entered batting .182 without an RBI in his first World Series, added a two-run single on Kelvin Herrera’s first pitch during a four-run sixth that broke it open. Pinch-hitter Juan Uribe, just back from a chest injury, had an RBI single in his first plate appearance since Sept. 25. Slumping slugger Yoenis Cespedes added a sacrifice fly.

Hoping to rekindle the comeback spirit of 1986, when the Mets rallied from an 0-2 World Series hole to beat Boston for their most recent championship, the team played its highlight video from that year on the large scoreboard during batting practice.

Local boy Billy Joel sang the national anthem, same as 29 years ago at Shea Stadium, and Syndergaard caught everyone’s attention with his first delivery to aggressive leadoff hitter Alcides Escobar.

Well aware of Escobar’s penchant for attacking the first pitch — the ALCS MVP opened Game 1 against New York with an inside-the-park homer — Syndergaard promised Thursday he had “a few tricks” up his sleeve for Escobar.

That turned out to be a 97 mph fastball fired just off the inside corner and way over Escobar’s head, eliciting a huge cheer from fans. The skinny shortstop went down to the dirt on his rear end and stayed there, legs splayed, catching his breath for several seconds.

“That surprised me,” Escobar said. “They said yesterday he said to the media, I have a plan for Escobar. That’s not a good plan. If you want to throw me inside, you can throw me down. You don’t need to throw to my head.”

Kansas City players spent the next few innings shouting at Syndergaard from the dugout.

“I think the whole team was pretty upset. The first pitch of the game goes whizzing by our leadoff man’s head,” Mike Moustakas said. “I think all 25 guys in that dugout were pretty fired up.”

Escobar whiffed on a 99 mph heater, yet the Royals hardly looked intimidated as they scored three runs in the first two innings.

Ben Zobrist doubled and scored on a groundout by Eric Hosmer that gave him 16 RBI in 14 postseason games this year. Alex Rios had an RBI single in the second, and another run scored on Travis d’Arnaud’s passed ball.

But the Royals ran themselves out of a chance at a bigger inning when Alex Gordon was thrown out at third by rookie left fielder Michael Conforto, the safe call reversed following a replay review.

Syndergaard was a little shaky fielding his position but helped himself at the plate. He singled leading off the third ahead of Granderson’s second homer of the Series, a line drive off Ventura into the front row of seats in the right-field corner.

“He just wasn’t sharp,” Royals manager Ned Yost said about his starter. “Fastball velocity was down. Made a couple mistakes.”

That put the Mets ahead to stay at 4-3, making it the first World Series game with three lead changes in the first three innings, according to STATS.

WELCOME TO THE BIG SHOW

Raul A. Mondesi, added to Kansas City’s roster Tuesday, became the first player to make his major league debut in the World Series. The 20-year-old son of 1994 NL Rookie of the Year Raul Mondesi pinch-hit in the fifth inning and struck out on four pitches.

POWER FIRST

New York’s leadoff hitter has a Game 3 homer in four of the club’s five trips to the World Series. Tommie Agee (1969), Wayne Garrett (1973) and Lenny Dykstra (1986) all went deep to start the game. Granderson waited until the third inning Friday — though the Mets did get a home run from their second batter of the night

UP NEXT

Royals: Young won the opener in relief Tuesday, throwing 53 pitches and striking out four over three hitless innings. “My body feels fine,” he said. “I’m not worried about bouncing back.” The 6-foot-10 Princeton product, who has overcome a string of substantial injuries, went 5-9 in 24 starts for the Mets from 2011-12.

Mets: Matz made all of six major league starts during the regular season, and his World Series assignment is storybook stuff. The 24-year-old lefty from Long Island grew up a Mets fan about 50 miles from Citi Field. He planned to sleep at his parents’ home Friday night and commute to the ballpark, just as he’s done for much of his rookie season. “We’re on off hours, so there’s not much traffic. It’s not too terrible,” Matz said. “It’s been pretty awesome to be able to do that.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Alex Gordon hit a tying home run with one out in the ninth inning, Eric Hosmer hit a sacrifice fly against Bartolo Colon in the 14th and the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Mets 5-4 Tuesday night in the longest opener in World Series history.

Making his Series debut at age 42, Colon escaped a bases-loaded jam in the 12th, then got out of trouble again after allowing a leadoff hit in the 13th.

Alcides Escobar, who hit an inside-the-park home run on Matt Harvey’s first pitch of the night, reached leading off the 14th on an error by third baseman David Wright, who bobbled his grounder and then made a wide throw that pulled Lucas Duda off first base.

Ben Zobrist singled him to third and Lorenzo Cain was intentionally walked, loading the bases. Hosmer flied to right, and Escobar scored standing up ahead of Curtis Granderson’s throw.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Royals will send Edinson Volquez to the mound in Game 1 of the World Series, choosing their most consistent starter to lead things off against the New York Mets. The more volatile Johnny Cueto will go in Game 2.

Royals manager Ned Yost announced his rotation Monday, the day the Series gets started at Kauffman Stadium. Yordano Ventura will get the ball when the teams head to Citi Field in New York for Game 3 on Friday, with veteran Chris Young offering a change of pace in Game 4.

“We wanted Johnny Cueto in Game 2 because Johnny really feeds off the home crowd, and we’re able to have Johnny in Game 2 and Game 6 here at home,” Yost said. “We think that gives us a bit of advantage having Johnny pitching at home in front of our home crowd.”

The Mets will start Matt Harvey in Game 1, followed by Jacob deGrom. Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz will follow in the first two games at Citi Field.

Volquez was 13-9 with a 3.55 ERA during the season as the replacement for departed veteran James Shields. And while he was just 1-2 with a 4.32 ERA in three playoff starts, he did toss six innings of two-hit ball to beat Toronto in the AL Championship Series opener.

“It’s a great honor to pitch in this game, especially pitching at home,” said Volquez, who had never made it past the divisional round in two previous postseason appearances.

“I don’t have to do anything different than what I’ve been doing,” he said. “I’ve got to stay focused in what you’re doing, especially this game, because this is a World Series game. You don’t have too many chances to make a lot of mistakes in those games.”

Cueto certainly knows the fine line between devastating and disastrous.

Spurred by the crowd at Kauffman Stadium, he allowed two runs on two hits over eight innings against Houston in the decisive Game 5 of their divisional series. But in a hostile environment in Toronto, he was hammered for eight runs in two innings, joining A.J. Burnett as the only pitchers to allow 11 baserunners in a playoff start lasting two or fewer innings.

Cueto said Monday the miserable outing is firmly in the past, and he’s prepared to do exactly what the Royals expected of him when they acquired him at the trade deadline.

“They brought me here for this,” he said. “That’s what they brought me here for, and I have to give it my all to make sure that the team that brought me here finishes off as champions.”

Ventura will start Game 3, in part, because he wouldn’t have been ready to pitch the series opener after starting Game 6 of the championship series. Young earned the final starting spot over Kris Medlen on the strength of his solid performance in Game 4 against the Blue Jays.

The two dovetail nicely, too. Ventura relies on a blistering fastball and hard-breaking curve, while Young provides a completely different look with his array of off-speed stuff.

“If we brought back Ventura in Game 1, he would have been a day early. We didn’t want that,” Yost said. “We really like Chris Young in Game 4. He’s a guy that it doesn’t matter — there is nothing that’s going to distract him. There’s nothing that’s going to slow him down.”

— Associated Press —