Kansas City Royals: Top Ten Moments of 2016 Season
Best Moments of the 2016 Season – Number 2: Don’t Call it a Comeback
One would think that after all of the comebacks KC Royals fans experienced over the past few years, that we’d be used to such a thing by now. That wasn’t the case though.
On May 28th, the Royals hosted the Chicago White Sox at Kauffman Stadium and were trailing 7-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning. While this was familiar territory for this team, what we were about to experience was completely crazy.
First, Paulo Orlando struck out looking and there were pnly two outs left to get six runs and tie things up. Cheslor Cuthbert then singled and new guy Brett Eibner doubled to get Cuthbert to third. Somehow, Omar Infante drew a walk to load the bases.
From there, Alcides Escobar also drew a walk, which scored Cuthbert and kept the bases loaded. New guy Whit Merrifield singled to score both Eibner and Infante. The score was now 7-4.
This game was un freaking real. We’d seen these type of comebacks time and time again, but it’s one of those games that you’d have to see to believe.
Lorenzo Cain grounded out, but another run scored. 7-5 Chicago. The White Sox kept David Robertson on the mound, which was a big mistake. Eric Hosmer made him pay with a double that scored Cain from first and made it a one-run game for Chicago.
Chicago finally replaced Robertson, bringing in Tommy Kahnle to try and record the final out and prevent a crazy comeback from happening.
Yeah, no dice, Tommy.
Drew Butera stepped up to the plate and was able to smash a double to left field to tie the game up and send Kauffman Stadium into an eruption of cheers. A wild pitch got Butera to third and after Orlando and Jarrod Dyson (who was pinch hitting for Cuthbert) was intentionally walked, rookie Brett Eibner stepped back up to the plate.
Eibner had doubled earlier in the inning, but was new to the majors. The White Sox were obviously hoping that the pressure would get to the 27-year old rookie and were using that to their advantage.
Eibner showed them though, shooting a single along the first base line and completing the wild comeback for the boys in blue.
This game was un freaking real. We’d seen these type of comebacks time and time again, but it’s one of those games that you’d have to see to believe. It was that crazy.