KANSAS CITY -- The Kansas City Royals and New York Mets get set to battle in the 111th World Series starting on Tuesday in a best-of-seven clash with intriguing match-ups between teams aching to end long title droughts.
  Showdowns abound with the Mets' young, fireballing starting pitchers going against a battling Royals team that have been the hardest to strike out in Major League Baseball.
  Kansas City will pit their relentless hit and run, pressure offense against a Mets attack that features the hottest hitter on the planet in Daniel Murphy, who along with other slugging New Yorkers will test their power in spacious Kauffman Stadium.
  What the two teams have in common is a fierce desire to end decades of frustration by hoisting the championship trophy, with oddsmakers making Kansas City a narrow favorite.
  The Royals are in the World Series for a second consecutive season after last year ending a 29-year postseason drought only to fall painfully shy of beating the San Francisco Giants.
  The last Mets' appearance in the Fall Classic came in 2000 when they lost in five games to the crosstown rival Yankees.
  Kansas City last reached the MLB winner's circle in 1985, while the Mets have not won since 1986.
  Those Royals, led on the field by Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett, were a perennial contender. Those 1980s Mets were a powerhouse built around young stars Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry.
  Kansas City came agonizingly close last year, pushing the Giants to a Game Seven at home before going down to defeat against valiant emergency reliever Madison Bumgarner with the tying run on third in the bottom of the ninth.
  "I think it was a driving force for all of these guys back in spring training, knowing that we wanted to get back to that situation and get that one more run," Royals leftfielder Alex Gordon said at a workout in advance of the Series.
  The Mets' success starts with their young pitchers - Noah Syndergaard, who hits 100 miles per hour with his fastball, Matt Harvey, who throws in the high 90s, the moving 96 from Jacob deGrom and all the strikeouts they log.
  They combine that sizzle with curves and change-ups that can buckle the knees of batters braced for high heat.
  "We're going to strike people out," said Mets manager Terry Collins.
  Power pitching has been combined with power at the plate by the Mets, who have soared this postseason with the home run surge by the astonishing Daniel Murphy.
  Murphy, who hit a modest, career-high 14 homers this season, carries an MLB record of six home runs in six straight games into the World Series and is backed by power-hitting Yoenis Cespedes and Lucas Duda in the Mets' batting order.
  The Royals' pitching edge comes from a deep bullpen anchored by closer Wade Davis and flamethrowing set-up man Kelvin Herrera, who routinely reaches 100 mph himself, that preserves late-inning leads like clockwork.
  Then again, the Mets never trailed once during their four-game sweep of the Cubs in the NL Championship Series.
  Kansas City relies on a different type of attack, standing second from last in the American League with 139 home runs, but second best in stolen bases with 107.
  The Royals, including Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar, AL Championship Series MVPs the last two years, make the most consistent contact in the majors.
  The pennant-clinching run against Toronto demonstrated their resourcefulness as Cain raced from first base all the way home on a single by Eric Hosmer down the rightfield line.
  "It was an unconventional way to score a run, but that was Royals baseball," said Kansas City manager Ned Yost. "We did it on speed and athleticism."

MUMBAI-- Quinton de Kock, Faf de Plessis and AB de Villiers all scored hundreds as South Africa crushed India's bowling attack to post 438-4 and win the deciding one-day international by 214 runs at the Wankhede Stadium.
  With the five-match series tied at 2-2, de Villiers won the toss and opted to bat in hot and humid conditions and could not have been a happier man at the close of their innings as his team matched their second highest score in the 50-over format.
  A 58-ball 87 from local boy Ajinkya Rahane and a 60 from out-of-form opener Shikhar Dhawan brought some cheer for the crowd but it was never going to be enough for the hosts, who folded for 224 inside 36 overs.
  Kagiso Rabada took four wickets while pace colleague Dale Steyn took three for the touring side to complete a 3-2 series win, their first in ODIs in India.
  It was only the second time that a team had scored three centuries in an ODI innings after South Africa did it against West Indies in January this year on their way to their highest total of 439 for two.
  De Kock (109) continued to make merry against the Indian bowlers, scoring his fifth century in nine innings against the opponents after South Africa had lost Hashim Amla (23) early.
  The left-hander hit 17 fours and a six on his way to his eighth ODI hundred and laid the perfect platform for de Villiers's onslaught with a 154-run stand with du Plessis (133 retired hurt).
  India compounded their misery by dropping catches and du Plessis made the most of his good fortune to score his first century against India and his fifth overall after being put down twice, on 45 and 85.
  The right-handed batsman suffered severe cramps during the later part of his innings and had to retire but had added 164 runs with de Villiers for the third wicket before that.
  De Villiers, the owner of the record for the fastest hundred in the format, needed no invitation to launch into the Indian bowlers with the stage set perfectly for his pyrotechnics.
  The 31-year-old reached his century, his 23rd in the format, in just 57 balls and cleared the boundary ropes with ease. The right-hander hit 11 sixes and three fours in his knock.
  India medium paceman Bhuvnehwar Kumar ended with figures of 1-106 in his 10 overs, the second most expensive in ODIs behind Australian Mick Lewis's 0-113 against South Africa in 2006.
  The two sides will play a four-test series with the first match starting at the Northern Indian city of Mohali on Nov. 5.

AUSTIN, Texas-- Lewis Hamilton's life has changed gear just as fast as the Mercedes he drives on the Formula One racetrack.
  This time last year he had only one world championship to his name and now he has three, a career dream come true as he pulls level with his boyhood idol, the late Brazilian great Ayrton Senna.
  The first Briton to take back-to-back titles, and only his country's second triple champion after Jackie Stewart in 1973, Hamilton is living life in the fast lane like never before and loving it.
  "It's hard to get the balance of life right but I've got a mega balance now," says the 30-year-old. "It's awesome and it couldn't be better. I'm having the most fun outside (Formula One) and the most fun inside."
  The United States, where Hamilton spends much of his downtime with friends from the music industry and Hollywood, was a fitting place for the first black world champion to clinch his triple crown.
  The multi-racial boy from an underprivileged background is now a man who keeps up with the Kardashians, hangs out with Rihanna and attends fashion shows with other regulars of the celebrity gossip pages.
  Happy to flaunt his millions and the trappings of success, he is also reaching out to new audiences.
  Only he, when asked how the sport could create more enthusiasm in urban black America, could talk about karting with black kids and describe being overtaken as "like seeing myself come by".
  The fierce and sometimes bitter rivalry with German team mate Nico Rosberg, who took last year's title battle right down to the final race, has been replaced by something close to dominance.
  Formula One's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, Hamilton's 84-year-old compatriot who has known most of the sport's world champions since the 1950s, could not have asked for more.
  "He does a fantastic job, a better job in my opinion outside the car than inside the car," said Ecclestone, who has criticised champions in the past for not selling the sport sufficiently to a wider public.
  "What he does for us, for the sport, is incredible."
  Hamilton, by his own admission, sticks out like a sore thumb in Formula One.
  He may rub shoulders with the rich and powerful, Russian President Vladimir Putin handing him a winner's trophy only two weeks ago, but nothing in his background suggested he was destined for such fame and fortune.
  The private jet, the garage full of luxury sportscars, the clunky gold chains and diamond ear studs are the visible rewards.
  But Hamilton never forgets that he grew up in social housing, sleeping on his father's sofa on a Stevenage council estate.
  With money tight, and his parents divorcing when he was two, father Anthony held down multiple jobs to fuel the passion for karting that his son first discovered on a low-cost family holiday to Spain.
  When Hamilton came home from school, he would put on a video of Senna and dream.
  "I wanted to be like him. I aspired to one day drive the way he drove, and achieve something similar to what he achieved," he recalled last month before equalling Senna's tally of 41 race wins.
  "At the time, I felt that if I could get anywhere close to doing anything similar to him I would be super-proud of myself. That is what I set my sights on all those years ago."
  The grandson of a Grenadian who emigrated from the West Indies to work on the London underground rail system, Hamilton owes everything to his talent -- even if Mercedes and McLaren spotted it early on and bankrolled his progress.
  "Who would ever have thought it of us Hamiltons turning up at the track in the first year in karting, the only black family there?" Hamilton recalled last year when he became the most successful British driver in terms of race wins.
  "It was almost like everyone thought 'what are they doing here?' It was so funny. We had the crappiest little box trailer. I feel very proud."
  Hamilton could have taken the crown in his sensational 2007 debut season, losing out to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen by a single point after a stormy year at McLaren, but he did it the next year to become the youngest ever champion at 23.
  Five seasons of frustration, albeit with plenty of wins, followed as compatriot Jenson Button triumphed for Brawn and then Sebastian Vettel took four titles in a row for Red Bull.
  He was once seen as over-controlled by McLaren group boss Ron Dennis, but Hamilton's move to Mercedes allowed him to become his own man, even if not everyone is a fan of his fashion sense.
  "Until this year, I cared what people thought and tried to live to people's own expectations rather than my own," he said in September after sporting a new dyed blond look.
  "But I turned 30 over the winter and I have really got to a point in my life where I am comfortable in myself...I am more at ease within my job, within my skin and with how I drive and where I stand."

KANSAS CITY-- Kansas City used some daring base-running to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 in Game Six of the American League Championship Series on Friday as the Royals advanced to the World Series for a second consecutive year.
  Lorenzo Cain scored from first on a single down the right field line by Eric Hosmer with no one out in the bottom of the eighth to snap a 3-3 tie and set up a Fall Classic against the National League champion New York Mets.
  The best-of-seven Major League Baseball championship will begin on Tuesday in Kansas City.
  Cain's mad dash around the Kauffman Stadium bases led him home as Toronto outfielder Jose Bautista pirouetted after reaching the ball and fired toward second to keep Hosmer at first base, not thinking Cain would try to score on the play.
  Toronto threatened in the ninth with a similar aggressive approach on the basepaths as pinch-runner Dalton Pompey stole second and third with no one out and Kevin Pillar walked to put men on first and third.
  However, closer Wade Davis struck out pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro and Ben Revere before getting Josh Donaldson to ground out to third to secure a 4-2 series triumph with a nail-biting victory that unleashed wild celebrations on the diamond.
  Kansas City had led 3-1, aided by a controversial home run for Mike Moustakas in the second inning, going into the top of the eighth when Bautista belted a two-run blast off reliever Ryan Madson to tie the game.
  Bautista also supplied the first run of the game for Toronto with a towering hit in the fourth inning to halve a then 2-0 Kansas City lead.
  Rain forced a delay of some 40 minutes before the start of the bottom of the eighth and Cain's dash to the plate for the winning margin.
  Kansas City will be trying for their first World Series title in 30 years, while the Mets seek their first Fall Classic crown in 29 years after most recently losing to their cross-town rival Yankees in the so-called Subway Series of 2000.