The Fall Classic, otherwise known as the World Series, is once again upon us. This is the time of year when the two best teams in Major League Baseball compete for a championship title.

Two teams without a World Series victory in three decades, the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets, will compete in the 2015 World Series.

The best-of-seven series begins Tuesday in Missouri at Kauffman Stadium, with the Royals holding home-field advantage over the Mets. 

Royals and Mets 2015 Playoff SeriesTeamRound/OpponentSeries OutcomeRoyalsNLDS/Houston Astros/td>Royals win 3-2MetsNLDS/Los Angeles DodgersMets win 3-2RoyalsNLCS/Toronto Blue JaysRoyals win 4-2MetsNLCS/Chicago CubsMets win 4-0

The Royals’ home-field advantage is due to the American League winning the All-Star Game, which ultimately decides which league gets home-field advantage during the World Series.

Royals manager, Ned Yost, was the American League manager in the All-Star Game and ultimately helped his team’s fate in gaining home-field advantage. 

Pundits across the nation have spent the weekend pouring over statistics, probabilities and history in an attempt to discern which team may emerge the victor. This leads to some wild speculation, but may prove to have some merit.

For instance, this is the second consecutive World Series appearance for the Royals, who lost last year in Game Seven against the San Francisco Giants.

The Royals are the sixth team in baseball history to reach the World Series after losing the previous year in a winner-take-all game. The previous five teams all won the World Series the next year, according to the MLB’s official site. 

Another interesting statistic which could have meaning in the series both team’s pitching.

The Mets pitched extremely well in their sweep of the Chicago Cubs to win the National League Championship Series. They have also posted a 2.81 earned run average in the postseason ― the best ERA out of all playoff teams, according to the MLB’s official site.  

Not only do the Mets have a good starting rotation, but they also have three relievers who have posted 0 ERAs this postseason. 

On the other hand, the Royals have a 4.41 ERA in the postseason, which raised significantly after a particularly putrid outing by former Cincinnati Reds ace, Johnny Cueto, in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

Cueto left the game in the third inning after surrendering eight runs on six hits.

Despite the teams poor pitching in the playoffs, the Royals’ closer Wade Davis has the lowest career ERA among relief pitchers who have pitched at least 200 innings in the history of all recorded baseball.

The team also has two other solid relievers in Luke Hochevar and Kelvin Herrera. Both have pitched well in this postseason, with Hochevar recording a 0.00 ERA and Herrera recording a 1.04 ERA, according to the MLB’s official site.

The key for the Mets to not fall behind early in the series, is to take the Kansas City starting pitching to task and get as many runs out of them as possible before the bullpen comes in and shuts down the offense.

Royals should orchestrate play similar to how they did in their previous series against the Toronto Blue Jays. In this series, they attacked offensively and scored 38 runs in six games, according to ESPN’s official site.

This play will keep the Royals in the ballgame and also see more pitches from starting pitchers, while presumably getting to the Mets bullpen quicker.

In the end, the stats could prove to be worthy or mean nothing depending on how the series goes. It all comes down to team play and who wants it more — not how well they played in previous series. 

No World Series discussion is complete without a prediction. The Kansas City Royals will win their second World Series, and first since 1985, in six games.Â