KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bartolo Colon wasn’t the last man standing for the Mets, but manager Terry Collins was in no hurry to pry the ball from the veteran right-hander Tuesday.

After getting the Mets through the 12th and 13th innings unscathed, Colon took the loss in the 14th on Eric Hosmer’s sacrifice fly that gave the Royals a 5-4 victory in Game 1 of the World Series.

Sean Gilmartin was behind Colon in the bullpen, but Collins stuck with the 42-year-old righty after David Wright committed a throwing error on Alcides Escobar’s grounder leading off the 14th.

“It was an in-between hop,” Wright said. “I tried to rush the throw a little bit.”

Ben Zobrist singled and Lorenzo Cain was intentionally walked to load the bases.

Colon’s run was unearned. He entered with a 3.38 ERA in five appearances this postseason.

Kelly Johnson started at DH on Tuesday, and did little to hang on to the assignment. He went 0-for-1 and left in the seventh inning when he was pinch-hit for by Michael Cuddyer.

Terry Collins suggested center fielder Juan Lagares would be in the lineup for Game 2 against righty Johnny Cueto, who fares better against lefties. That would push Yoenis Cespedes to left field and make rookie Michael Conforto the DH.

When Collins studies the Royals, he sees an NL East foe.

“They are like the Nationals,” Collins said. “They can all run, they all have the potential to hit a homer, they play very good defense, there is nothing wrong with their starting pitching. For me they resemble the Nationals a lot.”

Collins was named NL Manager of the Year by the Sporting News in a vote of his peers.

“The only reason why I’m sitting here is I have good players,” Collins said. “And I owe them everything, for any award that you get, you better look behind you and see the reason why you get those awards, because it’s certainly the job — their execution is what helped.”

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America will announce its Manager of the Year selections next month.

Billy Joel will sing the national anthem before Game 3 of the World Series on Friday at Citi Field.