Top Moments (#90 - #81) of the 2014-2015 Kansas City Royals.

This group of Moments include a pair of wild and memorable defensive plays, three tie-breaking home runs, and the wingmen in some of the most important rallies of the last two years. And we’re still not in the Top 80.

Moment #: 90

Date: October 2, 2014

Game: 2014 ALDS Game 1, @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Score: Kansas City 2, Los Angeles 2, Bottom of the 7th

Situation: Two outs, man on third

Count: 0-0

Matchup: C.J. Cron vs. Wade Davis

Result: Flyout to right field

WPA: 7%

Summary: With the go-ahead run on third base in the bottom of the 7th of the ALDS opener, Nori Aoki atones for a bad route on C.J. Cron’s fly ball with a terrific, game-saving catch.

Link to video: Here.

THIS GAME. OH MY GOD THIS GAME.

— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) October 3, 2014

How do you describe Nori Aoki? The best I can do is call him baseball’s version of Bean – a comically clumsy player who is constantly stumbling into good fortune. There may be no finer exhibit of both those traits than this play, coming just one inning after Aoki saved Jason Vargas and Ned Yost with one of the most unlikely catches I have ever seen. This catch wasn’t nearly as unlikely, or at least it shouldn’t have been before Aoki used his route to pay tribute to Magellan.

Um, are all playoff games like this? How are all of you non-Royals fans still alive?

— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) October 3, 2014

Game 1 of the 2014 ALDS was still tied in the bottom of the 7th inning when Kelvin Herrera began the inning by walking David Freese on five pitches – and then came out of the game with an elbow issue that had us all convinced he was about to undergo Tommy John surgery. (Instead, he was back in action three days later for Game 3.) Brandon Finnegan replaced him and gave up a sacrifice bunt to Erick Aybar, followed by a groundout to Josh Hamilton that moved Freese to third base. Ned Yost then called on Wade Davis to face C.J. Cron with the go-ahead run 90 feet away and two outs. On the first pitch, Cron hit a deep fly ball to right field. Aoki turned and ran almost directly to the wall, and then, realizing that the ball was not only hit behind him but also well to his left, made a 90-degree turn and started running parallel to the wall along the warning track, before making a diving catch to preserve the tie. It shouldn’t have been this dramatic. Had Aoki run a better route, this play wouldn’t rank in the Top 100. But then we wouldn’t have had this Moment, and the past two seasons would have been that tiny bit less fun.

Remember: Nori Aoki is what you get when you cross Ichiro Suzuki with Benny Hill. Which may be why I've laughed like a hyena twice tonight.

— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) October 3, 2014

Top Moments (#100 - #91) of the 2014-2015 Kansas City Royals.

We have entered the Halls of Valhalla now, the sacred resting place of the 100 best moments of the past two years. If you’re a Royals fan, there is no excuse for not remembering every one of these plays. Fortunately this link will always be here to remind you.

Moment #: 100

Date: October 12, 2015

Game: 2015 ALDS Game 4, @ Houston Astros

Score: Kansas City 6, Houston 6, Top of the 8th

Situation: One out, men on second and third

Count: 3-2 (+4 fouls)

Matchup: Drew Butera vs. Luke Gregerson

Result: Walk

WPA: 0%

Summary: Drew Butera faces Luke Gregerson’s Slider of Death and emerges victorious. And soon, so do the Royals.

Link to video: Here.

I AM SO PROUD OF YOU DREW BUTERA. YOU HAVE NO IDEA

— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) October 12, 2015

THIS was the moment that I had in mind when I decided to write about the Top 100 Moments, and when this project more than doubled in size, I made sure to keep this Moment at #100. If you’re not a Royals fan, or if you were six years old in 2015 and are coming to read this column ten years later to learn more about the team that you got to miss school for to see in a parade, you may have no idea this Moment ever happened. But if you are a Royals fan and watched this game, you’ll never forget it.

That Drew Butera was in this game in the first place was unlikely enough; Salvador Perez had played literally every inning of every game in the 2014 postseason (Erik Kratz, then the backup catcher, never appeared in a playoff game.) But with the Royals down a run in the 7th inning, Perez had been hit by a pitch with one out. With the season on the line (and Salvy clearly hurting; he had also taken a pitch off his mask earlier in the game), Ned Yost decided it wasn’t too early to open the silo and arm the speed nukes, calling upon Terrance Gore to try to tie the game with his legs. Gore obliged by stealing second, and then stole third with two outs, and then was called out on review because apparently he stole the base with too much élan or something. And then Carlos Correa and Colby Rasmus had homered to give the Astros a 6-2 lead with six outs to go.

And then suddenly, and incredibly improbably, by the time Perez’s spot in the lineup came back around and Butera was locked in to bat, the game was tied, the Royals had two runners in scoring position, and there was only one out. The only problem was that Drew Butera can’t really hit. I don’t even mean that as an insult – it’s not his fault he can’t hit, he’s a very good defensive catcher and seems like a really good guy and has hair I would strangle a kitten for, but he’s one of the worst hitters you will ever see. In his career, Butera has hit .185/.241/.266, with an OPS+ of 41. In his career, Zack Greinke has hit .220/.261/.337, with an OPS+ of 65. In fact, the only player in the 21st century with 800+ plate appearances and a lower OPS+ than Butera is…Livan Hernandez. (Third on that list: Tony Pena Jr.)

But it’s not just that Butera can’t hit – it’s that no one even expects him to hit, it’s just accepted that he won’t hit. On at least one occasion during the season he hit an RBI single, and the reaction of the crowd – and Ryan Lefebvre! – was the kind of unexpected joy that you only hear when a pitcher drives in a run.

And Butera was facing Luke Gregerson, possessor of one of the best sliders in baseball, and you knew what was going to happen: Gregerson was going to throw slider after slider after slider until Butera struck out, and the Royals would miss a golden opportunity to drive in the go-ahead run in an elimination game without a base hit. After all, that’s what Gregerson had done the last time the Royals had been down by four runs in the 8th inning of an elimination game, the Wild Card Game, when – after giving up a single to Billy Butler and then a wild pitch had put the tying run at third base with one out – Gregerson had struck out the man Butera had replaced, Perez, on three pitches, and then struck out Omar Infante to end the rally.

And sure enough, Gregerson threw slider after slider after slider, most of them right on the outside corner, too close to the strike zone to take but almost impossible to hit with authority. And Butera…well, Butera kept fouling off slider after slider after slider, doing a tremendous job of staying alive. Seven, eight, nine pitches, and he was still alive, and the count was full. And finally, Gregerson threw a slider a little farther outside, and Butera started to swing, and…he held up. It was ball four. Butera had walked on 10 pitches, making this plate appearance the third-longest of his career. (Incredibly, the longest plate appearance of his career – a 12-pitch walk – had occurred in his previous game, the season finale against Minnesota on October 4th.)

Butera hadn’t driven in a run; he wouldn’t score a run. All he had done was keep the line moving. All he had done was set up someone else – in this case, Alex Gordon – to be the hero. But given his talents, the talents of the pitcher he was facing, and the stakes involved…it was one of the greatest plate appearances I’ve ever seen. Even with everything else we’ve seen these last two years, this was a Top 100 Moment for sure.

Top Moments (#110 - #101) of the 2014-2015 Kansas City Royals.

We’re almost in the exalted air of the Top 100 now, and in complete honesty, it’s almost unbelievable to me that these moments are not among the 100 best Moments of the last two years. There are fan bases that would kill to have had any of these moments in the last two years.

Moment #: 110

Date: October 11, 2014

Game: 2014 ALCS Game 2, @ Baltimore Orioles

Score: Kansas City 0, Baltimore 0, Top of the 1st

Situation: One out, men on second and third

Count: 0-0

Matchup: Eric Hosmer vs. Bud Norris

Result: Single, two go-ahead runs score

WPA: 12%

Summary: Eric Hosmer starts Game 2 of the 2014 ALCS by dropping a single into no-man’s land in left field to score two runs.

Link to video: Here.

Put the ball in play. Run like hell. Get lucky.

— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) October 11, 2014

One theme that I only recognized after watching highlight after highlight from every playoff game is this: Eric Hosmer blooped a lot of RBI singles to left field in the perfect spot. I don’t want to call it “lucky”, because maybe there’s some skill involved, but it certainly couldn’t have been planned that way. But there was the RBI single in the 3rd inning of the Wild Card Game (Moment #131). There was his RBI single in Game 2 of the 2015 ALDS, one of the ugliest productive swings I’ve ever seen. And there was this hit, largely forgotten, which differed from the other singles in that it drove in two runs.

Another theme that I sort of knew going into this project, but has really been beaten into my head from watching the highlights, is that the Royals have been kissed by good fortune so many times that they now owe child support. With two runners in scoring position and one out, Chris Tillman threw the first pitch to Hosmer where he wanted it, on the inside part of the strike zone, and got the result he wanted – from the sound, I’m pretty sure (and the announcers agree) that Hosmer broke his bat. The ball managed to elude J.J. Hardy, who would have made one of the all-time great catches had the ball traveled about three feet shorter. The Royals scored two runs, and the game was tied going to the 9th inning instead of the Royals losing by two. On such small things – so many such small things – have balanced two AL pennants and a world championship.

And yet one more theme that this highlight reminds us of: Hosmer – and certainly his RBI total – have greatly benefited from having Lorenzo Cain on base ahead of him. Cain committed early to the notion that this ball was uncatchable and took off from second; he briefly held up when it looked like Hardy might catch the ball, but when it drops, Cain is able to score easily. It wouldn’t be the last, or most important, run that Cain scores on a Hosmer single thanks to some nifty baserunning.

Top Moments (#120 - #111) of the 2014-2015 Kansas City Royals.

This (stuff) – as the Kansas City Star would transcribe it – is starting to get real. Some tie-breaking hits, some crucial insurance runs, and three clinching moments in this set of ten, and we’re not even to the halfway point in this series.

Moment #: 120

Date: October 2, 2014

Game: 2014 ALDS Game 1, @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Score: Kansas City 0, Los Angeles 0, Top of the 3rd

Situation: Two outs, man on first

Count: 2-2

Matchup: Alcides Escobar vs. Jered Weaver

Result: Double, go-ahead run scores

WPA: 14%

Summary: Alcides Escobar doubles with two outs, and aided by Josh Hamilton’s misplay, Mike Moustakas scores the first run of the ALDS all the way from first base.

Link to video: Here.

Jered Weaver treating MIKE MOUSTAKAS like Rickey Henderson. Hangs one for Escobar. THE ROYALS ARE IN THEIR HEADS.

— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) October 3, 2014

How many things have had to go right for the Royals to be where they are today, the defending world champions and two-time AL pennant winners? Let me rephrase the question: how many moments have there been in the last two years in which, if you just change the outcome slightly, the whole championship run unravels?

This is one of those moments, and it says something about how charmed an existence the Royals have enjoyed that you probably don’t even remember it. Game 1 of the 2014 ALDS was scoreless through two innings, and it looked like it would be scoreless in the middle of the 3rd as well when Jered Weaver struck out Salvador Perez and Omar Infante to start the top of the inning. But then Mike Moustakas walked on a full count, and then after doing his best to hold Moustakas and his game-changing speed at first base, Weaver then left a slow curveball up for Alcides Escobar,who drove a ball beyond Josh Hamilton’s reach in left field.

And even then, the Royals should not have scored. Moustakas isn’t exactly a burner on the basepaths, and Hamilton has a strong arm; if he just plays this ball for a double, Moustakas holds and then doesn’t score when Nori Aoki grounds out. But Hamilton tried to be the hero and catch the ball, and when he didn’t, it bounces off the short wall and back towards the field; by the time Hamilton gets to the ball, Moustakas has passed third base and he scores without a throw.

Like the following night, when (Moment #156) Alex Gordon turns a single into a double when Mike Trout briefly loses the fly ball in the lights, and then scores on two fly outs, a fielding misplay so minor that no one would think to call it an error nevertheless turns into a run. And like the following night, the game would be deadlocked after nine innings only for the Royals to win it in extras. If Hamilton concedes the double and plays the ball off the wall, the Angels probably win Game 1. If Trout doesn’t lose Gordon’s ball in the lights, the Angels probably win Game 2, and the Royals, not the Angels, are the ones playing for their lives in Game 3.

It is the nature of the sports fan to lament the tiny things that derailed your team’s path to a championship; as someone who has rooted for a Marty Schottenheimer-coached football team, I know that feeling all too well. It is not the nature of the sports fan – or the human being, frankly – to reflect on the tiny things that derailed the other team’s path to beating yours. One of the goals of this project were to make sure those things weren’t forgotten. I feel like the project has been validated by the fact that there were even more of those things than I had remembered.

Top Moments (#130 - #121) of the 2014-2015 Kansas City Royals.

These ten plays include some terrific defensive plays, the inciting plays for the biggest inning in Royals postseason history, and conclude with the greatest back-to-back exhibits of speed I have ever seen on a baseball diamond. We’ve climbed into lofty territory now, even if we’re not even halfway home.

Moment #: 130

Date: October 29, 2014

Game: 2014 World Series Game 7, vs. San Francisco Giants

Score: San Francisco 3, Kansas City 2, Bottom of the 5th

Situation: No outs, bases empty

Count: 1-1

Matchup: Omar Infante vs. Madison He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named

Result: Single

WPA: 6%

Summary: Omar Infante greets Madison He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, who had just come out of the bullpen in Game 7, with a single, sparking hopes of a Royals rally.

Link to video: Here.

Game 7 of the 2014 World Series would be the crowning achievement for Madison He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, coming out of the bullpen on two days’ rest and throwing five shutout innings while protecting a one-run lead the entire time. But we didn’t know that would be the case when he came into the game to start the bottom of the 5th inning. We knew that he had just thrown a shutout in Game 5, and allowed a single meaningless run in seven innings in Game 1, but those were both starts, on normal rest, with plenty of time to prepare along his normal routine. This was a relief appearance on short rest, and maybe he wouldn’t be in peak form.

And on his third pitch of the game, Omar Infante drilled a line drive to right field for a leadoff single. Suddenly it looked like the Royals might get to him after all; let us not forget that He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named’s career ERA in the 1st inning, 4.27, is 80 points higher than his ERA in any inning from the 2nd to the 7th. You can get to him early. Infante got to him right away, and it felt like the Royals were in business.

And then Alcides Escobar bunted Infante to second base.

I’m not certain that this was a mistake. Esky Magic notwithstanding, he’s a below-average hitter, and against a #1 starter you can make the case that a bunt there may increase the Royals’ odds of scoring one run in the inning. It no doubt reduced their odds of scoring more than one run, but with the Royals’ bullpen, and the stat fact that I wrote about in Moment #140, you could argue that tying the game is all the Royals should have been concerned about. But I may always wonder, given He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named’s documented first inning struggles, if this might not have been the time to go for the jugular - particularly since Escobar was ahead in the count 2-0 when he put the bunt down.

I loved keeping the bunt on with a 2-0 count there exactly as much as you would think I did.

— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) October 30, 2014

Instead, the Royals gave up one of their outs voluntarily. And then Nori Aoki batted, and hit another ball right on the screws toward the left field corner, and when it left the bat I thought the game was tied for sure. And then I turned and saw Juan Perez, who was starting over Travis Ishikawa for his defense, shaded perfectly – with the slashing opposite-field predilections of Aoki, Perez was set up waaaaay to the left of your typical left fielder. What should have been an easy double down the line turned into a fairly routine running catch. Lorenzo Cain struck out, and the Royals would not have another baserunner until there were two outs in the 9th.

I thought the decision to bunt with Escobar, and especially the Giants’ outfield shifting against Aoki, would haunt me for the rest of my days. Instead it was about 12 months. And the next time the Royals faced a left-handed ace coming out of the bullpen in a winner-take-all playoff game, they would make him pay.

Top Moments (#140 - #131) of the 2014-2015 Kansas City Royals.

We continue our journey into rarefied territory with a group of ten plays that were not only dramatic in their moment, but set up even more dramatic Moments later in the game.

Moment #: 140

Date: October 23, 2015

Game: 2015 ALCS Game 6, vs. Toronto Blue Jays

Score: Toronto 3, Kansas City 3, Top of the 8th

Situation: Two outs, man on second

Count: 3-2

Matchup: Troy Tulowitzki vs. Wade Davis

Result: Strikeout swinging

WPA: 8%

Summary: Wade Davis keeps Game 6 of the ALCS tied in the 8th after the Royals had blown a 3-1 lead earlier in the inning, setting the stage for their game-winning rally.

Link to video: Here.

Wade Davis walks off the mound in the 8th, doing his job just like we thought he would...and the game is tied, because Yost didn't do his.

— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) October 24, 2015

Not only have the Royals not lost a single playoff game in the last two years that they led at any point after six innings, there has been only one instance in which the Royals temporarily blew a lead after the 6th inning. This is that game, famously, when Ned Yost – no doubt trying to avoid using Wade Davis because of the impending thunderstorm blowing through Kansas City – let Ryan Madson pitch the 8th inning with the Royals six outs away from the World Series, and with one out Madson gave up a game-tying home run to Jose Bautista that just landed…wait…just one more second…now. Madson then walked Edwin Encarnacion, forcing Yost to do the thing he didn’t want to do and bring Davis in anyway. Davis got Chris Colabello to pop out, but Encarnacion moved up to second base on a wild pitch, putting the go-ahead runner in scoring position while Davis did battle with Troy Tulowitzki. Davis ended the threat by striking out Tulowitzki on a full count fastball in the perfect spot, just beyond the outside corner, too close to take but where Tulo could do nothing but wave at it.

The momentum may have swung to Toronto, but as the Royals have proved over and over again these last two years, momentum means nothing. Having a lead – or even having the game tied – in the late innings means everything.

Don’t believe me? Consider this wild and crazy stat: the Royals did not lose a postseason game these past two seasons in which, at any point from the end of the 6th inning onward, they had a lead or the game was tied. If MLB had passed a rule which immediately ended the game and awarded the win to Kansas City the moment the Royals had a lead or simply tied the game after the 6th inning, no game would have had its outcome changed. That’s insane.

As for Wade Davis and Game 6 of the ALCS…we’re not done with him. Not even close.

Top Moments (#150 - #141) of the 2014-2015 Kansas City Royals.

We’re in the Top 150 now, so these are Moments you should be paying extra careful attention to. There will be a quiz later.

Moment #: 150

Date: October 30, 2015

Game: 2015 World Series Game 3, @ New York Mets

Score: Kansas City 0, New York 0, Top of the 1st

Situation: No outs, bases empty

Count: 0-0

Matchup: Alcides Escobar vs. Noah Syndergaard

Result: Ball one

WPA: N/A

Summary: Noah Syndergaard tries to send a message to the Royals by throwing the first pitch of Game 3 way up and in.

Link to video: Here.

I can't believe Escobar didn't swing at that.

— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) October 31, 2015

By Game 3 of the World Series, pretty much the whole world knew that 1) Alcides Escobar was almost certainly going to swing at the first pitch of the game and 2) he and the Royals were having an inordinate amount of success doing so. Escobar had been named the ALCS MVP after going 11-for-23 against the Blue Jays with three extra-base hits, 5 RBIs, and 6 runs scored in six games. He had swung at the first pitch of the game in all six ALCS games, putting three of those pitches into play, two for hits. (He went 4-for-6 in his first plate appearance of each game, the four hits coming in the first four games.) In Game 1 of the World Series he had famously swung at the first pitch and been gifted an inside-the-park home run by Yoenis Cespedes; on the first pitch of Game 2, he had flied out to right field.

Along with all his personal success, the Royals had a baffling tendency to, you know, win games. Escobar had swung at the first pitch in nine straight games, going back to Game 5 of the ALDS, and the Royals were 7-2 in those games. (He didn’t swing at the first pitch in Games 1 and 4 of the ALDS; he hit an infield single on the first pitch in Game 3, and fouled off the first pitch in Game 2.) As Sam Miller detailed back when this phenomenon was first getting a lot of attention, the Royals had a better record during the regular season when Escobar swung at the first pitch than when he didn’t.

Syndergaard decided to try to derail that correlation by making it essentially impossible for Escobar to swing at the first pitch, which in and of itself was not objectionable. The manner in which he did so – buzzing Escobar’s noggin with a high pitch – was questionable, although I take it on faith that given the control wielded by an elite major league pitcher, that Syndergaard was not trying to hit Escobar and in fact placed the pitch exactly where he wanted it to go. His comments after the game, saying of the Royals, “If they have a problem with me throwing inside, then they can meet me 60 feet, 6 inches away,” well, those are fighting words, quite literally. But they also insure that this pitch, which had no outcome on the game or the Series, will nonetheless be remembered for a long, long time.