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.

Playoff Baseball Returns to Kansas City

Playoff baseball returns to Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City tonight for the first time since the fall of 1985 when the Royals bested the St. Louis Cardinals in an exciting 7 game World Series.
That series will always be remembered for the Dan Denkinger missed call at first, in the top of the 9th of the 6th game with the Cards leading 1-0, that allowed Jorge Orta to reach first. Some people forget that Orta was thrown out on a failed sacrifice bunt attempt by the next batter. The Royals would go on to win the game 2-1. What people also forget is that the Cards started their ace, Joaquin Andujar, in game seven and got crushed 11-0.                                                                                      

Let's take a trip back in time to see what was going on in the US in 1985. Ronald Reagan was sworn in for his second term as President of the United States. Michael Dukakis was Governor of Massachusetts and Bill Clinton was in his third term as Governor of Arkansas.

The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins 38-16 in the 1985 Super Bowl. Mike Tyson made his professional boxing debut.

The eighth seeded Villanova Wildcats win the first ever 64 team NCAA Basketball Tournament with a 66-64 victory over the Georgetown Hoyas. In August, Rod Carew became the 16th MLB player to record 3,000 hits.

"We Are the World" was recorded by USA for Africa. A 21 year old Whitney Houston released her first album. (Notice I didn't write CD) VH-1 began broadcasting music videos in January of 1985. Route 66 was officially decommissioned as a US Highway. Ford Motor Company introduced the Ford Taurus in '85.

In June of 1985 the Royals drafted both Brian McRae, in the 1st round, and Deion Sanders, in the 6th round, of the MLB amateur draft. Only McRae would sign with the Royals. Brian's dad, Hal McRae was a member of the 1985 KC Royals.

Bud Black, current manager of the San Diego Padres, was on that '85 team and was 10-15 as a starter, with a 4.33 ERA, 122 Ks and 59 walks. John Wathan would play his last professional game on October 6th and come back to manage the Royals from 87-91, albeit with less success than the '85 team had. Dane Iorg drove in the winning run in that controversial 9th inning of game 6.

Current Fox Sports color commentater for the LA Angels, Mark Gubicza, was on that team but didn't get a World Series start because manager Dick Howser decided to go with a four man rotation that left Gubicza on the outside looking in.

You may remember some of the players from that team. How about George Brett, he of the pine tar bat incident in July of 1983 vs the Yankees, had 30 HRs/112 RBIs/.335 AVG. Willie Wilson 4/43/.278/43 SBs, Lonnie Smith 6/41/.257/41, Steve Balboni 36/88/.243 and DH Hal Mcrae 14/70/.259 were the backbone of the offense.

A 21 year old Bret Saberhagen anchored the pitching staff with a 20-6 record and a 2.87 ERA. Charlie Leibrandt was 17-9 to go along with a team leading 2.69 ERA. Danny Jackson, Bud Black and Mark Gubicza rounded out the starters and Dan Quisenberry saved 37 games with a 2.87 ERA for the team.

That was quite a year in KC. The 2014 Royals have their own team. Their own players. It's a new time, a new playoff system and a new baseball world. There is no dynasty to uphold, no long traditions to live up to. Their only concern today is playing a team, in the Oakland Athletics, that backed into a wild card berth on the last day of the season. If the Royals win this one game playoff, they must face arguably the best team in baseball, the LA Angels in LA. Win that series and it's off to play the Orioles or the Tigers in Baltimore or Detroit. Get through all of that and we could have a repeat of the Royals/Cardinals 1985 World Series with KC as the home team again!

MLB Wild Card Teams To Meet

The 2014 Major League playoffs begin in Kansas City on Tuesday the 30th of September. The Oakland Athletics, a team that went 9-16 over their last 25 games, and didn't clinch a wild card berth until the last day of the season, will take on the Kansas City Royals, who haven't been to the playoffs since winning the World Series in 1985.

The Royals start their ace, James Shields. Shields was 14-8 on the year with a 3.21 ERA. Oakland counters with Jon Lester, 16-11 with a 2.46 ERA, a trade deadline pickup from the Boston Red Sox. The winner on Tuesday night will take on the LA Angels. All of the ESPN experts are picking the Athletics to advance. My prediction is Kansas City with the relief pitching of the Royals saving the victory for Shields.

Read the ESPN story

The San Francisco Giants will travel to Pittsburgh, PA to meet the Pirates in the one game National League Wild Card matchup. Madison Bumgarner, 18-10 and a 2.98 ERA is scheduled to start for the Giants against Edinson Volquez of the Pirates. Volquez was 13-7 on the year with a 3.04 ERA. The Giants finished 6 games behind the LA Dodgers in the NL West, while the Pirates had a chance to force a one game playoff with the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central, but the Pirates lost and the Cardinals won, so the Pirates finished 2 games in back of the Cardinals. The winner of this game will take on the Washington Nationals. The experts are split over this game. My prediction is that the pitching of the Giants will overcome the streaky hitting of the Pirates

Read the ESPN story of the National League matchup.

Sporting News MLB Video Preview of Wild Card  Games