Buck Showalter won his third Manager of the Year award for the job he did with the Baltimore Orioles in 2014. Showalter polled 25 first place ballots from the Basaball Writers Association to beat out Mike Sciosia of the LA Angels and Ned Yost of the Kansas City Royals for the award.
Matt Williams was named the National League Manager of the Yar on 18 ballots after he led the Nationals to a 96 win season in 2014. Williams, a rookie manager for the Nationals beat out Clint Hurdle of the Pirates for the Award.
W.D. Barr's unique perspective on what's important in the world of Mexican Baseball!
Showing posts with label Ned Yost. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ned Yost. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Giants Take Game 4, 11-4 Even Series at 2
The Kansas City relievers failed Ned Yost last night as the San Francisco Giants evened the series at 2 games apiece with an 11-4 victory over the Royals.
Read the ESPN recap here.
Read the ESPN recap here.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
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.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
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.
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.
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