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.
