It took the Kansas City Royals 29 years to return to the playoffs. They weren't about to let the run end before playing baseball in October.
Behind an array of singles, sacrifice bunts and stolen bases, Ned Yost's squad scored four runs in the eighth and ninth innings and added another comeback in the 12th to keep their season alive with a thrilling 9-8 instant-classic win over the Oakland Athletics.
ESPN Stats & Info put the marathon in historical perspective:
Eric Hosmer reached base five times and had three hits, including a triple to spark the final comeback, while Salvador Perez went from goat to hero with a game-winning single just past the outstretched glove of Josh Donaldson at third base:
It capped one of the greatest comebacks in do-or-die baseball history, per SportsCenter:
"This will go down as the craziest game I've ever played," said Hosmer, via the Associated Press' Dave Skretta. "This team showed a lot of character. No one believed in us before the game. No one believed in us before the season."
For the Athletics, it simply marked the continuation of an ugly trend under general manager Billy Beane, according to ESPN Stats & Info:
Throughout much of the game, it looked like the A's, just two days after clinching the final wild-card spot in Texas, were going to spoil Kansas City's magical season on the heroics of Brandon Moss.
Halving his home run total from the second half of the season (four), Moss went yard twice and drove in five runs, providing what looked like an insurmountable lead.
As ESPN Stats & Info and A's baseball information manager Mike Selleck noted, it was a historically potent performance from Moss to help Oakland book a meeting with their AL West rivals, the Los Angeles Angels:
Moss got the 2014 postseason scoring started with a towering two-run shot in the top of the first inning, but it seemed like Royals starter James Shields had settled down directly following that blast. He retired 13 of the next 15 hitters, and Kansas City moved in front thanks to RBI from Billy Butler, Lorenzo Cain and Hosmer.
In the sixth inning, things unraveled for the Royals.
Shields allowed a single to Sam Fuld and walked Josh Donaldson, prompting manager Ned Yost to give his ace the quick hook after just 5.0 innings, five hits, two walks, six strikeouts and 88 pitches. He turned to fireballer Yordano Ventura, who immediately surrendered a three-run homer to Moss to dead center field, putting Oakland in front, 5-3.
Unsurprisingly, Yost, who has drawn relentless criticism for his decisions throughout the season, was chastised for the controversial move. Radio host Mark Carman, Baseball America's Ben Badler and Rotoworld's Ryan Boyer all questioned the strategy:
Bill Arnold noted a particularly intriguing stat:
Derek Norris and Coco Crisp added RBI singles off Kelvin Herrera to complete the five-run sixth, and by that point, starter Jon Lester was in cruise control.
The trade-deadline acquisition, who was so crucial in Boston's World Series run a year ago, labored through the first three innings but settled in quickly after that. He retired 12 in a row during one stretch and had the Royals completely off balance with his curveball.
Announcer Ron Darling, via Turner Sports' Twitter feed, put it simply:
While Yost was punished for an early hook, though, Athletics manager Bob Melvin was done in by just the opposite. He brought out Lester for the eighth inning, and the Royals began to cut into the lead with small ball. A single here, stolen base there, walk here, another three stolen bases there.
They set a new record on the basepaths, per ESPN Stats & Info:
After chasing Lester and battling Luke Gregerson, the Royals cut the lead to 7-6 with the tying run on third and just one out. Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan provided a look at the electric environment:
Gregerson struck out Perez and Omar Infante to escape the jam, but in the ninth, the Royals manufactured another run off closer Sean Doolittle. Josh Willingham singled, Alcides Escobar bunted over pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson, Dyson stole third and Norichika Aoki hit a sacrifice fly.
Just like that, with a mere four singles as their only hits, the Royals had scored four runs in the eighth and ninth to send the game to extra innings.
Kansas City stranded a runner at third in both the 10th and 11th innings but seemed in good shape as 21-year-old rookie Brandon Finnegan struck out three through his first two postseason frames. As Rotoworld's Drew Silva notes, the TCU product amazingly wasn't far removed from pitching against the likes of West Virginia:
All momentum seemed on the side of the home team, but Finnegan walked Josh Reddick to start the top of the 12th, and Alberto Callaspo delivered an RBI single off Jason Frasor a few batters later to put the A's in front.
But the wild ping-ponging of emotions wasn't done yet. With all air sucked out of the stadium, Hosmer tripled off the top of the wall in left field and Christian Colon followed up with basically the exact opposite—a swinging-bunt single—to tie the score once again.
MLB's Twitter feed and Baseball Prospectus' Jordan Gorosh summarized things, both in words and pictures:
After Colon moved to second on Kansas City's seventh stolen base of the night, Perez, who was 0-for-5 in his previous five at-bats, singled down the left field line to seal the unbelievable victory.
Kansas City gets a day off to try to recuperate after one of the most memorable games in recent postseason memory before starting the ALDS with the Angels, owners of baseball's best record.
The Royals went 3-3 against the Halos this season, and if they can recover in time, this has the makings of a thrilling series. Cain, via The Kansas City Star's Andy McCullough, certainly likes his team's chances:
For Oakland, its last game was a microcosm of the season: red-hot in the first half, and a catastrophic collapse in the second.
from Bleacher Report http://ift.tt/1wWL19m
via IFTTT September 30, 2014 at 10:10PM
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