Kansas City Royals Steal Wild Card Victory from Oakland

Sep 30, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals center fielder

Lorenzo Cain

(6) steals second base against Oakland Athletics shortstop

Jed Lowrie

(8) during the eighth inning of the 2014 American League Wild Card playoff baseball game at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

On Tuesday night, the the Kansas City Royals put 29-years of bad baseball to rest with a never-say-die victory for the ages. The much-maligned Royals lineup simply wouldn’t quit, overcoming deficits of 2-0, 7-3, and 8-7 to pull off a 9-8 victory over the Oakland A’s on Salvador Perez‘s 12th inning RBI single.

It’s an emotional win that stands up to any moment in Royals history. And they won the Royals way, countering Oakland’s power with 7 stolen bases.

Kansas City ran their way back into their do-or-die coin-flip game against the Oakland A’s. Behind 7-3 after 7 innings, the Royals then proceeded to steal 4 bases in a 3-run 8th, that included a wild pitch to pull within 1-run.

The Royals tied the game in the 9th when pinch hitter Josh Willingham started off the inning with a single. Alcides Escobar bunted pinch runner Jarrod Dyson to 2nd. Speed-burner Dyson then stole third, and scored on Nori Aoki‘s sacrifice fly to right.

With the score tied, the game turned into sudden-death baseball.

The evening started off poorly for Kansas City after Coco Crisp opened the game with a single, followed by a 2-run bomb by Brandon Moss to put Oakland up 2-0 in the 1st inning.

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Kansas City clawed back one run in the bottom of the first to prevent an early momentum shift on Billy Butler‘s RBI single. Butler, however, made a terrible blunder on the basepaths by getting picked off 1st with 2 outs, and Eric Hosmer on 3rd. Hosmer broke for the plate with Butler hung up between 1st and 2nd, but failed to score on a fairly close play at the plate.

The play proved significant because A’s catcher Geovany Soto, who was playing because he had a stronger arm than normal starter Derek Norris, injured his hand tagging Hosmer. Soto could not continue, which put Norris into the game.

The Royals seized the lead in 3rd inning on Mike Moustakas‘ leadoff single, Lorenzo Cain‘s RBI double, and Eric Hosmer‘s RBI single to put KC up 3-2.

Kansas City held onto their slim lead through the fifth inning until their pitching imploded in the 6th. A mere 3 outs from the Royals dominant bullpen triumvirate of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland, James Shields allowed a leadoff single to Sam Fuld. In a critical moment, Shields threw a ball with a full count on Josh Donaldson as Fuld ran on the pitch. Fuld was out by a wide margin at second, but the ball was outside for a walk. That put runners at 1st and 2nd with no outs

Royals manager Ned Yost then made an odd decision to pull Shields in favor of 23-year-old rookie starter Yordano Ventura. The move backfired on Yost, when an anxious Ventura threw two balls before grooving a fastball to Brandon Moss, who slammed the ball over the center-field wall. The crushing blow put Oakland up 5-3.

Sep 30, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; A Kansas City Royals fan holds a sign during the 2014 American League Wild Card playoff baseball game against the Oakland Athletics at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

Kelvin Herrera then proceeded to give up two more runs for a commanding 7-3 Oakland lead. At that point, Kansas City’s Cinderella ball looked like it would end in a crushing defeat.

Then came Kansas City’s wild 8th inning—an improbable inning that saved a seasson. The Royals combined 3 singles with 4 stolen bases and a wild pitch to score 3 runs. That left Kansas City with the tying run on 3rd with 1 out. Alex Gordon walked and stole 2nd to put both the lead and tying run in scoring position, but A’s reliever Luke Gregerson struck out both Salvador Perez and Omar Infante to hold onto a 1-run Oakland lead.

Kansas City then tied it up in the 9th.

The game remained tied into the 12th inning, until Oakland took an 8-7 lead on Josh Reddick‘s leadoff walk, moved to 2nd on a sacrifice bunt, and advanced to 3rd on a wild pitch by Jason Frasor. Then former-Royal Alberto Callaspo hit a key single to left to give Oakland the lead.

Eric Hosmer then pulled out some more comeback magic, hitting a deep triple off the left centerfield wall (just about a foot shy of a home run) with one out in the 12th. Christian Colon followed with a chopper to short that Hosmer beat home despite a drawn-in infield to knot the game up at 8-8.

Kansas City went back to the stolen base well again, sending Colon with 2 outs. The A’s had a pitchout on, but catcher Derek Norris flubbed the ball allowing Colon to take 2nd. Then Salvador Perez slammed a ball down the 3rd base line for a titanic walkoff win.

The Royals put on a show with what is sure to become one of the legendary victories in franchise history. To stare down defeat multiple times and pull off an improbable win not only advances Kansas City into the divisional round, it’s the kind of victory that can define a franchise. The Royals have just laid the cornerstone to what can become a dynasty.

Hello baseball, the Royals are back!

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