The Royals have won the World Series, but there’s still a much more important matter to settle: who emerged victorious in our Sky Kalkman-inspired World Series prediction contest. Ten pairs of statistical categories were presented to Effectively Wild Facebook group members, who simply had to pick one in each case, plus the average time of game and the series outcome. Here’s how they got on.

Royals starter IP def. Mets starter strikeouts

After a poor start, the Mets starters mounted a strong comeback but ultimately had dug themselves into too big of a hole by only striking out four through the first two games, while the Royals got two strong performances from Volquez and Cueto.

Edinson Volquez IP def. Mets middle relievers

Similarly, Volquez’s excellent showing also denied the Mets middle relievers in the second-face off, with two six-inning outings proving too much for the bullpen arms to make up. Had the Mets pushed the series to seven, this could have been close.

Wade Davis saves def. Jeurys Familia saves

Wade Davis made it 3-0 to the Royals, although it wasn’t because of a lack of opportunities for Jeurys Familia. Familia’s three blown saves despite only giving up one earned run naturally sparked an entertaining discussion between Ben and Sam.

Royals home runs def. Daniel Murphy home runs

Although the poll results were lopsided, the Royals never improved on their two home runs, making this a surprisingly close contest despite Murphy’s zero. The Rockies aren’t deterred by Murphy’s lack of pop in the Fall Classic; they’re considering signing him to play first base.

Royals stolen bases def. Mets home runs

In the matchup that was perhaps the most representative of the series as a whole, the Royals stormed to a comeback win by stealing four bases in Game 5, after going in 5-3 down. Two players made up the bulk of this production: Lorenzo Cain stole four bases to Curtis Granderson’s three homers.

Royals singles + doubles def. Mets home runs + walks

The contact-hitting rally masters cruised this one, posting at least 6 singles in each of the 5 games, while the Mets had two games with just a single walk. In hindsight, this would have been more of a contest had we double-checked and realised the suggestion we received was actually for strikeouts, and not walks, on the Mets side (in which case it would have been a 46-45 New York win).

Mets pitcher hits def. Alcides Escobar walks

The Mets finally get on the board in the team-specific matchups in a thrilling 1-0 victory. Esky knows better than to waste his time waiting for four balls, and so Noah Syndergaard’s Game 3 single was enough to make the difference.

Triple away from the cycle performances vs no-hitters through four innings ended in a no contest

There was on average almost a triple away from the cycle performance per day of the regular season, but it wasn’t to be here. There was an Esky Magic cycle over the course of the series, while Volquez and Jacob deGrom both carried no-hitters into the fourth inning in Games 1 and 2 respectively.

Matt Harvey relief IP vs Johnny Cueto relief IP ended in a no contest

The series really needed to go longer for this to have a winner, and had the infamous events of the ninth inning of Game 5 not unfolded, there would at least have been a chance of Harvey coming back to pitch in Game 7. Cueto likely wouldn’t have made a relief appearance no matter what, given his impending Game 6 start.

Royals errors defeated bench-clearing incidents

Two rare misplays by Eric Hosmer, who made just four errors in 154 games at first base during the regular season, made this a 2-0 win. Syndergaard did his best to clear the benches with his controversial first pitch to Escobar in Game 3, but it wasn’t to be.

The Kalkman Klassic C(K?)hampion!

Ultimately, there was a single outright winner, who incredibly picked all 8 of the results that it was possible to get correct (excluding the two 0-0 matchups) and the Royals in five. The enigmatically named ‘Paul P’ is our 2015 Kalkman Klassic champion! Special mention also to Joe Cole and Tyler Furney, who were tied for second on 10 points. The final sortable, searchable standings are below:

Congratulations also to Chris Holhubner, who correctly picked the average time of game tiebreaker as 3:50. If pro-rated over nine innings, five people were spot on with a guess of 3:15, but were considerably less forthcoming with their full names: justarobert @BHIndepMO, Alex S, Nick, and one of our anonymous respondents.

Thanks to everyone for playing, be sure to check out Sky’s next 32 Predictions contest, and see you all next year!