Royals, Mets one win away from World Series

Kansas City and the New York Mets have both moved within one win of berths in the World Series.

The Royals routed Toronto 14-2 to take a 3-1 series lead, with Ben Zobrist hitting a two-run homer off just the fourth pitch of the game from Blue Jays starter R.A. Dickey, and the visitors controlled the game throughout.

New York second baseman David Murphy hit a homer for the fifth straight game as the Mets won 5-2 at the Chicago Cubs to go up 3-0 in the National League Championship series.

Yoenis Cespedes and David Wright each had three hits for the Mets. Cespedes scored the go-ahead run in the sixth inning when he dashed in from third base on a two-out wild pitch by Trevor Cahill on a strikeout.

Murphy’s five straight playoff games with homers tied the record streak set by Carlos Beltran with Houston in 2004.

New York’s Jacob DeGrom pitched seven effective innings to improve to 3-0 in his first postseason.

Kansas City, looking to return to the World Series after losing to San Francisco last year, was quickly in control following Zobrist’s shot.

Lorenzo Cain scored on a passed ball and Mike Moustakas had a sacrifice fly in an LCS-record four-run top of the first.

Alex Rios homered in the second, and Kansas led 5-2 in the seventh before breaking away.

After flashing power to build a 5-0 lead on the long ball, the Royals scored nine runs with three more sacrifice flies, a barrage of slashing hits and canny baserunning.