Resilient Royals 'never gave up, never quit' in World Series

NEW YORK – As the Kansas City Royals’ celebration of their World Series title started to taper down around 1:40 a.m. ET, a bone-dry Dayton Mooresat in the visitors dugout at Citi Field entertaining news reporters’ questions.

Moore passed along credit for the Royals’ first championship in 30 years to the players, the coaching staff and the scouting folks, and even expressed his happiness that the clubhouse personnel would be receiving a nice chunk of postseason money.

At no point did he mention his role in assembling a resilient team that pulled off an unprecedented eight comeback wins this postseason, but the Royals players know better.

With his cap dripping champagne and a smile attached to his face, Lorenzo Cain was asked where the Royals found the resolve that allowed them to win seven times despite trailing by multiple runs.

“This is the kind of team Dayton put together,’’ Cain said. “He put together guys who never give up, never quit, always play hard. It starts with him. As a whole we all stepped up, showed up in a huge way throughout the entire season and the postseason as well.’’

When the ninth inning began with the New York Mets ahead 2-0 and Matt Harveytwirling a four-hitter Sunday, there was no sensible reason to believe this series wouldn’t head back to Kansas City for a sixth game.