Royals Up 2-1 in World Series

Without the benefit of the DH at the National League park, Ned Yost was forced to make some fielding and lineup changes. Those changes worked as the Royals beat the Giants 3-2 to take a 2 games to 1 lead in the World Series.

Yost moved Lorenzo Cain from center field to right field and inserted Jarrod Dyson in center. Cain made two very good plays on sinking line drives and appeared comfortable in his new position. Yost also moved Alex Gordon from 6th to 2nd in the lineup and Gordon responded with a clutch RBI double in the 6th.

Kansas City jumped on top in the 1st when Alcides Escobar doubled to lead off the inning. Alex Gordon grounded out to move Escobar to third and Escobar scored when Lorenzo Cain grounded out to short. KC had the early lead 1-0.

The Royals added to their lead in the top of the 6th. With one out, Alcides Escobar singled to center. Alex Gordon then doubled off the wall in right to score Escobar. After Lorenzo Cain grounded out to third, Javier Lopez relieved Tim Hudson for the Giants. Eric Hosmer had what is called a quality at bat against Lopez. Hosmer singled on the 11th pitch of the at bat to score Gordon and the Royals had built a 3-0 lead.

San Francisco rallied in their half of the 6th. Brandon Crawford singled to lead off. Mike Morse, pinch hitting for Javier Lopez, doubled to left to score Crawford. Kelvin Herrera relieved Royals' starter, Jeremy Guthrie and promptly walked Gregor Blanco. Joe Panik sent a high chopper to the mound to move the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Buster Posey then grounded to second to score Morse and the Giants had cut the lead to 3-2.

Neither team scored again and Greg Holland pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the Royals to preserve the win for Guthrie and pick up his 1st save of the World Series and 7th save of this postseason, an MLB record. The Royals bullpen became the first bullpen in MLB history to have 7 wins and 7 saves in a single postseason.

Royals Take Commanding 3-0 Lead in ALCS

The Kansas City Royals have won their seventh consecutive game in the 2014 American League playoffs. Jason Frasor got the win while Greg Holland picked up the save. Wei-Yin Chen suffered the loss for the Orioles.

Although Kansas City is up 3 games to none in the ALCS, Game 3 was not assured until Steve Pearce grounded out to second for the third out of the Orioles 9th inning.

Jeremy Guthrie started for the Royals and threw 5 innings of 3 hit ball giving up the lone O's run. He threw 94 pitches of which 63 were strikes. Wei-Yin Chen started for the Orioles and matched Guthrie pitch for pitch through 5 1/3 innings, giving up 7 hits with 1 walk and 4 strikouts while allowing 2 earned runs. Chen threw only 80 pitches and 53 of them were strikes. Both starters were around the plate all night.

The Orioles would get on the board first. Guthrie gave up back-to-back doubles to Steve Pearce and JJ Hardy. Pearce scored the only O's run in the game on Hardy's double and Baltimore led 1-0.

In the bottom of the 4th, Lorenzo Cain singled with one out. Eric Hosmer singled to right and Billy Butler walked to load the bases. Alex Gordon then grounded out to second to score Cain and the game was tied at 1.

Chen gave up a lead off single to Norichika Aoki in the Royal's half of the 6th. Jarrod Dyson entered the game as a pinch runner for Aoki. After Lorenzo Cain struck out, Eric Hosmer singled and Dyson moved to third. Billy Butler hit the second pitch he saw from O's reliever, Kevin Gausman, to deep left for a sacrifice fly that scored Dyson and the Royals had their first lead of the night at 2-1.

Kelvin Herrera worked a perfect 7th, striking out two. Wade Davis worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning and Royal's closer, Greg Holland, got Adam Jones to pop up to second, Nelson Cruz to foul out to right and Steve Pearce to hit into a ground out to second to preserve the win for Frasor and pick up his third save.

34 teams have been down 3 games to none in MLB playoff history and only the 2004 Boston Red Sox have come back to win and advance.

Ned Yost, manager of the Royals, joins Clint Hurdle as the only managers in MLB history to win their first 7 playoff games.

40,183 Royals fans watched their team get to within one game of the World Series. The ALCS continues tonight and a Royals win will have them in the World Series for the first time since winning it all in 1985.

Royals Take Game 1 of ALCS with Extra Inning Win in Baltimore

The Kansas City Royals, in this postseason, have doubled the rate at which they hit home runs during the regular season. Almost  4% of their at bats have resulted in home runs.

Coming into this postseason no Royal hitter had ever hit a go ahead home run in extra innings. These Royals have done it three times. Alcides Escobar homered last night. He had only 3 HRs in 500+ at bats during the regular season.

Why all the talk about home runs. The Royals didn't hit many HRs during the season. They won the small ball way. They won with speed on the basepaths, good bunting, timely hitting and good pitching.

Alex Gordon of the Royals had this to say about the power surge, "We know we're capable of hitting home runs. We didn't do it during the regular season, but it doesn't really matter. This is the postseason and we're starting to swing the bats better now."

After 162 regular season games it's nice to know the Royals are finally warming up.

Kansas City threatened to walk away with game 1 early when they scored 4 runs in the top of the third. With one out, Alcides Escobar sent a Chris Tillman 0-2 pitch over the wall in left for a 1-0 lead. Norichika Aoki singled to left and Lorenzo Cain drew a four pitch walk. Billy Butler beat out an infield single to load the bases. Alex Gordon then worked the count full before doubling to right to clear the bases and drive in 3 of his 4 runs on the night. The Ryals led 4-0 after their half of the 3rd.

Baltimore got a run back in the bottom of the 3rd. Nick Markakis doubled off of James Shields. Adam Jones singled to drive in Markakis to narrow the lead to 4-1.

In the top of the 5th, Lorenzo Cain hit a lead off double to right. Cain moved to third on an Eric Hosmer ground out to second. Tommy Hunter relieved Orioles starter Chris Tillman and Billy Butler hit a sac fly to center to score Cain for the 5-1 lead.

Baltimore came roaring back off Shields in the bottom of the 5th. Nick Markakis singled to left and Alejandro De Aza singled to right. Adam Jones hit into a fielder's choice that got Markakis at third. Nelson Cruz doubled to score De Aza and the Orioles had runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out. Steve Pearce walked to load the bases. After JJ Hardy struck out, Ryan Flaherty singled to drive in Jones and Cruz and the lead was now 5-4.

Brandon Finnegan replaced Shields to start the bottom of the 6th. Lead off hitter Jonathan Schoop waited out an 8 pitch walk. Nick Markakis singled and the Orioles had runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. Alejandro De Aza reached on an infield single to score Schoop and that would be all for Finnegan. Kelvin Herrera replaced Finnegan and got Adams to hit into a fielder's choice and Nelson Cruz to ground into a 6-4-3 double play, but the Orioles had tied the game at 5.

The scored remained knotted at 5 until the top of the 10th. Darren O'Day in relief of Zach Britton gave up a lead off home run to Alex Gordon and walked Salvador Perez. Buck Showalter replaced O'Day with Brian Matusz. Mike Moustakas worked the count to 2-2 before parking a Matusz pitch into the bleachers in right center.. the Royals had an 8-5 lead through 9 1/2 innings.

Greg Holland came in for the Royals to close out the victory. He quickly got two outs then Ryan Flaherty singled. Jimmy Paredes, hitting for Nick Hundley, walked. Delmon Young, pinch hitting for Jonathan Schoop, singled to score Flaherty. The Royals lead was down to 8-6. Holland got Nick Markakis to ground out to second to preserve the Royals 4th extra inning victory in their last 5 games.

Wade davis picked up the win for Kansas City while Dan O'Day took the loss for the Orioles. Greg Holland recorded the save.

Royals Take Out Angels on Hosmer's 2 Run HR in 11th

Who are these Kansas City Royals to think they can travel to LA and beat the best team in baseball?

The Angels have 2 former MLB MVPs and a Cy Young Award winner on their roster. The won 98 games during the 2014 regular season and locked up a playoff berth by the 23rd of September. The Royals counter with the likes of Salvador Perez, Norichika Aoki and Mike Moustakas. Las Vegas oddsmakers gave KC no real chance of winning this series.

In last night's game the starter for the Angels, Matt Shoemaker, game into the game with a 16-4 season record and a 3.04 ERA. Houston Street, the Angels closer, saved 41 games and had a 1.37 ERA. The Royals starter had been the reliever in the Wild Card game who gave up a three run homer to Brandon Moss that almost cost the Royals a chance to play in the ALDS.

On paper the Royals didn't have a chance. This series, on paper, was just a warmup so that the Angels could stay loose for the ALCS series against the Orioles or the Tigers.

But that's why the games are actually played. Things happen in baseball. Strange things. Some would say miraculous things. The ALDS series between the Royals and Angels in LA is one of those things.

The Royal's starters and relievers have held the hard hitting Angels to just 3 runs in 22 innings. KC beat Jared Weaver, possible Cy Young winner in 2014, in game one and Matt Shoemaker in game 2. The Royals have taken a commanding 2-0 lead in the ALDS best-of-five series.

Of all the games played so far in the MLB Playoffs, this game turned out to be the pitchers duel that most thought would come from the marquee pitchers who started each game 1.

Yordano Ventura, of the Royals, went 7 strong innings giving up 1 run on 5 hits, while Shoemaker went 6 complete allowing 1 run on 5 hits.

Eric Hosmer led off the KC second with a single and moved to second on an error by right fielder Kole Calhoun. After Billy Butler struck out, Hosmer scored on a single to center by Alex Gordon.

Ventura silenced the Angel's bats until the bottom of the 6th. Kole Calhoun singled to center with 2 outs. Mike Trout walked. Albert Pujols singled to center to drive in Calhoun and the score was tied at 1.

The pitchers duel continued until the top of the 11th. Relievers on both teams did an outstanding job of keeping their teams in the game while waiting for the offenses to get to work.

In the top of the 11th, with Kevin Jepsen on the mound for the Angels, Lorenzo Cain beat out an infield single. Eric Hosmer followed with a home run to right, scoring Cain and giving the Royals a 3-1 lead. After pinch hitter Josh Willingham popped out to second, Alex Gordon walked. Vinne Pestano relieved Jepsen. Gordon stole second and went to third on a throwing error by Angel's catcher Chris Iannetta. That error proved costly as Gordon scored on an infield single by Salvador Perez.

The Angels couldn't mount any threat against Greg Holland in the bottom of the 11th and the Royals had the victory.

These 2 teams will meet for game 3 of the ALDS on Sunday the 4th of October.