The New York Mets are back in business in the World Series.

Backs up against it after dropping the first two games of the best-of-seven series to the Kansas City Royals on the road, the National League champions roared back Friday night with 12 hits by nine different players, including home runs by David Wright and Curtis Granderson, in a 9-3 victory before the largest crowd ever for a baseball game at Citi Field.

The pomp ahead of the first World Series game in the six-year-old stadium’s history, which included a performance of the national anthem by Billy Joel and a ceremonial first pitch thrown by Mike Piazza, quickly gave way to early two-way action. The first pitch of the game – a 98mph fastball by Mets rookie starter Noah Syndergaard that whizzed over the head of Kansas City’s Alcides Escobar – augured the wild start that loomed: the first World Series game ever with three lead changes in the first three innings.

The Royals struck first when Eric Hosmer reached first on a would-be inning-ending double play to drive in Ben Zobrist, who had doubled and advanced to third on Lorenzo Cain’s infield hit.

But New York responded immediately when Wright drove a 96mph fastball over the left-center field wall following a leadoff infield single by Granderson, pushing the hosts ahead 2-1 and sending a well lubricated crowd of 44,781 into hysterics.

The Royals fired back in the top of the second when Salvador Perez and Alex Gordon singled, followed by an Alex Rios base hit to left that scored Perez and moved Gordon to third. Yet the Mets were spared further damage when the play at third was challenged, and the umpires in the replay room ruled Gordon out. Rios, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt, scored on a passed ball through the catcher Travis d’Arnaud’s legs to move the Royals back ahead 3-2.

In the bottom of the third Syndergaard fell behind two strikes but managed a single to right field, setting the stage for Granderson, who drove a 2-1 pitch just feet over the right-field wall for his second home run of the postseason, to give the Mets a 4-3 lead.

From there, Syndergaard settled down, retiring 12 straight Royals during the middle frames.

“He started to make better pitches,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “You look at the first two innings and they were getting balls that were on the plate, a lot on the plate. He started using his breaking ball throwing it for strikes, getting ahead of the count with his off-speed stuff. I don’t think they could just site on one pitch from the third inning on.”

The Mets stretched it to 5-3 when Duda singled and D’Arnaud doubled to open the fourth, before Royals starter Yordano Ventura inexplicably failed to cover first on Michael Conforto’s infield single. Ventura was chased from the game before the inning was out having allowed five runs on seven hits.

“You could tell he was starting to get a little flustered at that point, started losing his focus and concentration,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He just wasn’t sharp today.”

Said Ventura, the hypothetical Game 7 starter whose postseason ERA bloated to 6.43 on 15 runs, 27 hits, five home runs in 21 innings: “The cold wasn’t a factor at all. I felt great out there. I don’t know why the velocity was down. [The weather] was a part of it, I guess, but I felt good and the cold wasn’t a factor at all.”

The Mets weren’t finished.

After Syndergaard escaped from a bases-loaded jam in the top of the sixth by enticing a Rios groundout to the shortstop, the Mets plated four runs in the bottom half as Kansas City came undone.

Lagares singled to left off reliever Franklin Morales, who then hit Wilmer Flores with a pitch before surrendering an RBI single to pinch hitter Juan Uribe in the 36-year-old utility man’s first at-bat in six weeks. The Mets loaded the bases when Granderson reached first on a come-backer to Morales that found the pitcher confused and uncertain where to throw.

“It was a ground ball right back to him, and his instincts were right: he was going to turn around and fire to second,” Yost said. “I haven’t talked to [catcher Salvador Perez], but Franklin said he heard Salvy say ‘home’. So he stopped and turned and it was a mess from that point.”

The lefty was removed before the next batter for Kelvin Herrera, whose first pitch of the night was driven by Wright into center for two more runs, extending the New York lead.

Jeurys Familia sat down the final three Royals in order to seal the win after 3hr 22min, and a series of fireworks went off from the perimeter of the stadium.

The last Mets club to win the World Series – in 1986 – rallied from a two-games-to-none deficit to win the title.

That team suffered a one-run loss in Game 1 and a six-run loss in Game 2 before turning the series with a six-run win in Game 3 – an eerie parallel with this year’s club that Mets supporters can only hope continues into November.

Game 4 is Saturday night in Queens.