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.

It's On To The World Series After KC Downs O's 2-1 In Game 4 Of ALCS

The Royals jumped on top of the Baltimore Orioles 2-0 in the bottom of the 1st and never looked back.

Alcides Escobar reached on an infield single to deep short off of O's starter, Miguel Gonzalez, to lead off the inning. Norichika Aoki was hit by a pitch. Lorenzo Cain sacrificed the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Eric Hosmer grounded into what looked like a fielder's choice but a throwing error by Orioles catcher, Caleb Joseph allowed Escobar and Aoki to score. The O's got out of the inning but the damage was done.

Baltimore got a run back on a solo home run by Ryan Flaherty in the top of the 3rd to make it a 2-1 ball game but the Royals pitching staff took over and shut down the O's the rest of the way.

Jason Vargas went 5 1/3 innings for the win, allowing 1 earned run on 2 hits with 3 walks and 6 strikeouts. Kelvin Herrera allowed 1 hit and no runs in 1 2/3 innings of work. Wade Davis held Baltimore scoreless in the 8th and Greg Holland picked up his 4th save shutting down the Orioles in the top of the 9th.

Lorenzo Cain became the first #3 hitter to lay down a sacrifice bunt in the first inning in a postseason game since Steve Garvey did it in the 1984 World Series.

Ned Yost takes over the top spot for consecutive wins by a manager in a postseason series with his 8th consecutive win.

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.

Royals Take "Wild" Card Win Over Athletics

The 2014 Kansas City Royals brought excitement back to their fans last night with a thrilling 12 inning, 9-8 win over the Oakland Athletics.

Thrilling because the game was only the second game in MLB history, in a winner-take-all situation, that lasted 12 or more innings. The last one was the 1924 World Series 7th game between the NY Giants and the Washington Senators. Thrilling because the Royals stole 7 bases to tie the 1907 Chicago Cubs and the 1975 Cincinnati Reds for the most thefts in playoff game history. Thrilling because the A's became the third team in MLB history to score 8 runs in a win or go home scenario and lose, the last team being the 1960 Yankees who lost to the Pirates on Bill Mazeroski's now famous home run. But most of all thrilling because the Royals had not been to the playoffs in any form since 1985.

The game was billed as a pitchers duel between Jon Lester of the A's and James Shields of the Royals. Through 5 innings it was pretty much that. Shields gave up 2 runs in the first before settling down and Lester gave back one run in the bottom of the inning. The Royals had men on 1st and 3rd with two outs in the bottom of that 1st inning when Billy Butler, for some reason, found himself caught off 1st and during the ensuing rundown Eric Hosmer was thrown out at home to get Lester out of the inning.

KC scored two runs in the third as Mike Moustakas singled, advanced to third on a sacrifice and a ground out and scored on a double by Lorenzo Cain. Cain would score on a single by Hosmer and the Royals led for the first time 3-2.

In the top of the 6th, Shields put the first two runners on and Royals manager Ned Yost brought in the rookie reliever, Yordano Ventura, to face Brandon Moss who had homered in the first to drive in the A's two runs. Ventura promptly gave up Moss' second home run of the night, a 3 run blast that travelled 432' and gave the A's a 5-3 lead.

Moss became the first Oakland player to hit 2 home runs and drive in 5 runs in a playoff game. Gene Tenace of the A's hit home runs in his first two at bats against the Reds in the 1972 World Series but only drove in 3 runs.

Derek Norris and Coco Crisp drove in the fouth and fifth runs of the inning to increase the Oakland lead to 7-3. At this point the game seemed out of reach and the Royals fans, who had been so boisterous in the beginning, were quieted. Jon Lester was in a groove and retired 12 in a row before Omar Infante reached first on a dribbler up the first base line in the bottom of the 7th.

The Kansas City relief pitchers, Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland, kept the A's scoreless giving time for the Royal's bats to come alive in the 8th. Billy Butler and Lorenzo Cain had RBI singles and Eric Hosmer scored on a wild pitch by Luke Gregerson. The Royals had narrowed the gap to 7-6.

Closer Greg Holland, for the Royals, came on to pitch the ninth. He got the first two outs and then walked the bases full. One of those walks was intentional. Holland worked out of the jam by getting Josh Reddick to fly out to right.

In the ninth, Josh Willingham, pinch hitting for Mike Moustakas, singled and was replaced by pinch runner Jarrod Dyson. Alcides Escobar sacrificed Dyson to second and Dyson stole third. Norichika Aoki then hit a sacrifice fly to right to tie the game at 7.

While Oakland was unable to mount a scoring threat in the next two innings, Kansas City had runners on third in both the 10th and the 11th but failed to score.

Brandon Finnegan, on for his third inning of relief for the Royals, walked Josh Reddick to start the 12th. Jed Lowrie moved Reddick to second with a sacrifice bunt. Jason Frasor replaced Finnegan. Frasor threw a wild pitch that moved Reddick to third and then gave up a single to pinch hitter Alberto Calaspo that put Oakland back into the lead at 8-7.

Lorenzo Cain led off the Royals 12th with a weak grounder to first for the 1st out. Eric Hosmer then drilled a ball off the wall in left center for a triple. Two feet higher and the game would have been tied. Christian Colon then hit a high chopper to third for an infield single that scored Hosmer to tie the game at 8. Fernando Abad relieved Dan Otero and got Alex Gordon to foul out to third for the second out. Jason Hammel, a starting pitcher all year for the A's, relieved Abad. Colon then stole second setting up the game winning hit by Salvador Perez. Perez sent a hard shot past the third baseman that scored Colon and the Royals advance to face the Angels with a 9-8 victory.

Dan Otero took the loss for Oakland while Jason Frasor picked up the win in relief for the Royals.

It wasn't the best looking win of the year for the Royals but it sure was their most important one. They now move to LA to take on the Angels on Thursday the 2nd of October.