Noah Syndergaard knew the assignment. The Kansas City Royals had been the aggressors at the plate in taking a 2-0 lead heading into New York for the first World Series game in Queens since 2000. Leading off was Alcides Escobar, who started the opener with an inside-the-park homer and had looked fairly comfortable against Mets’ pitching thus far.

Syndergaard zipped a 97-MPH fastball high-and-inside. Escobar dove out of the way, fell to the ground, and sat flustered in the batter’s box. From the dugout, a fired up Mike Moustakas shouted expletives in Noah’s direction.

Call it a statement, for lack of a better term.

Syndergaard’s first pitch may have ultimately been a tone-setter in a 9-3 victory, but it didn’t faze Kansas City right away. In fact, the Royals scored three times in the first two innings. The first run came on a passed ball by Travis d’Arnaud, and another after a botched double-play attempt in which Syndergaard and Lucas Duda collided as they both tried to cover first base.

Syndergaard eventually settled down and his offense caught up, featuring the best Mets’ moment of the series and arguably the best moment of David Wright‘s career.

He had spent 12 seasons waiting to reach the Fall Classic. He had spent several months just hoping to return to the field healthy. And in the first World Series at-bat in New York, with a runner aboard, he sent a towering drive over the left-center field fence and into the packed stands.

Wright’s classic swing put the Mets on top, 2-1. Syndergaard retired 12 straight Royals (after an Escobar single in the second), using his breaking pitches to get ahead in the count and fastballs to strike out six.

Curtis Granderson helped New York re-establish momentum in the bottom of the second after the Royals re-took the lead. He clubbed another two-run blast in the third. Syndergaard had singled ahead of Granderson and was set on keeping the Mets in front for good.

Syndergaard wouldn’t run into trouble again until the sixth, when he walked two straight batters to load the bases. But his slider got Alex Rios to ground softly to shortstop to end the inning and depart up 5-3.

The Mets were not done scoring, and Wright wasn’t done tallying RBIs. He brought in two more with a single to center field to put the game out of reach.

The Mets went on to their only victory of the 2015 World Series as the Royals maintained their relentlessness at the plate in overcoming late New York leads to take the final two games at Citi Field. But at least on this night, New York could celebrate and (for the time) felt like they had a more than reasonable chance of winning it all.