This set of ten Moments includes the second-biggest stolen
base of Jarrod Dyson’s career – which means it’s the second-biggest stolen base
in Royals history – a pair of huge leadoff at-bats from Alcides Escobar, two game-tying
hits, four at-bats that gave the Royals the lead, and a curtain call. And we
still have 50 Moments to go.
Moment #:
60
Date: October 12, 2015
Game: 2015 ALDS Game 4, @ Houston Astros
Score: Kansas City 0, Houston 0, Top of the
2nd
Situation: One out, man on first
Count: 1-2
Matchup: Salvador Perez vs. Lance McCullers
Result: Home Run, two go-ahead runs score
WPA: 18%
Summary: Before the
Miracle at Minute Maid starts, Salvador Perez crushes an opposite-field home
run to give the Royals an early 2-0 lead.
When Salvador Perez was young and new to the major leagues,
he crushed opposite-field home runs with some regularity. But over the years he
has become far more pull-happy with his home runs, and not coincidentally, his
batting average has dropped from .331 to .301 to .292 to holding steady at .260
the last two years. Compare his spray chart from 2012 to the one from 2014-15:
Perez had more home runs to the opposite field in 2012 (4)
– when he played in only 76 games – than he did in 2014 and 2015 combined (3).
So it was a very pleasant surprise, and a very welcome
relief, when Perez opened the scoring in Game 4 of the 2015 ALDS by hitting a
97 mph outside fastball from Lance McCullers on a 1-2 count deep into the right
field seats. It came with a man aboard, and were the only two runs the Royals
had scored before The Miracle started in the 8th. His home run has been
forgotten by all the drama that followed it, but it was enormous in the moment,
and even more significant in retrospect. The Miracle only happened because
Perez’s home run meant they still had a prayer to begin with.
This set of ten Moments includes two key moments in a
five-run inning against David Price, two enormous strikeouts with a pair of men
on base, two huge plate appearances from the 8th inning of the Wild Card Game, the
first three at-bats of the Miracle at Minute Maid, and concludes with what was
then the biggest Royals moment in 29 years. And we still have 60 Moments to go.
Moment #:
70
Date: October 17, 2015
Game: 2015 ALCS Game 2, vs. Toronto Blue
Jays
Score: Toronto 3, Kansas City 0, Bottom of
the 7th
Situation: No outs, bases empty
Count: 0-0
Matchup: Ben Zobrist vs. David Price
Result: Single
WPA: 5%
Summary: Ben Zobrist lofts
a pop-up that Ryan Goins and Jose Bautista allow to drop between them. But there
was no one on base and the Blue Jays led 3-0 and David Price was on the mound,
so what was the worst that could happen?
There are a lot of Moments on this list, but this might be
the only one that involves the Royals’ hitter throwing his bat down in disgust
after putting the ball in play.
For a quarter century, it was the Royals that allowed
routine pop-ups to turn into singles. For pretty much the entirety of the
Allard Baird Era in Kansas City, I was terrified by every pop-up that was hit between the infield and the outfield –
and with good reason. Do these names bring back any painful memories: Chip
Ambres…Kerry Robinson…Terrence Long?
But just as the 2014-2015 Royals bulldozed through the
postseason, they were turning the tables on the franchise’s own history. Now it
was the other teams making silly mistakes, and it was the Royals who were
taking advantage. Now it was the Royals who were hitting the pop-ups, and their
opponents who were letting them drop for singles. On a Saturday afternoon at
Kauffman Stadium, in Game 2 of the ALCS, Ben Zobrist led off the bottom of the
7th inning against David Price, who after allowing a single to lead off the
game had retired 18 batters in a row. Zobrist skied the first pitch to right
field and flung his bat to the ground.
Who says home field advantage doesn’t matter? If the Royals
hadn’t retaken the league’s best record from the Blue Jays during the final
weekend of the regular season, they wouldn’t have been at home for Game 6, when
they got a pair of questionable ball-strike calls to go their way in the 9th inning.
And they wouldn’t have been at home for Game 2, when a raucous home crowd made
it difficult for second baseman Ryan Goins and right fielder Jose Bautista to
hear each other, and then one of our own (I’m convinced this happened) called
out “I GOT IT!” and confused Goins, who let the ball drop. (Addendum: as astute reader Chris Esch reminded me, in the middle of the 7th inning, the Royals played their well-known clip of Royals fan Eric Stonestreet (along with co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson) - in character as the flamboyantly gay Cameron Tucker in Modern Family - rooting on the Royals and exhorting the fans to "Let's make some noy-oyse!" But then Crown Vision went live to Stonestreet, sitting in the stands and taking in the game that afternoon. That definitely added a buzz to the crowd, which hadn't worn off by the time Zobrist hit the first pitch, and the crowd noise was undeniably a crucial part of this play. So let's give an assist to Stonestreet. As a reward, he can pelt Jimmy Kimmel with a paintball gun.)
The Blue Jays had made a mistake, but it was still up to
the Royals to make them pay. The Royals would make them pay. By the time the
inning ended, they would lead, 5-3, making it the Royals’ most dramatic
postseason comeback since…well, since Monday.
This set of ten Moments commences with the most important
wild pitch in franchise history, continues with a handful of iconic defensive
plays, wraps up with a pair of game-icing home runs, and concludes with an event
so unlikely it nearly broke the space-time continuum. And we still have 70
Moments to go.
Moment #:
80
Date: September 30, 2014
Game: 2014 Wild Card Game, vs. Oakland
Athletics
Score: Oakland 7, Kansas City 5, Bottom of
the 8th
Situation: One out, men on second and third
Count: 0-1
Matchup: Alex Gordon vs. Luke Gregerson
Result: Wild pitch, one run scores
WPA: 11%
Summary: In the midst of
the Royals’ furious 8th-inning comeback in the Wild Card Game, Luke Gregerson
throws a wild pitch to score a run and moving the tying run to third base with
one out.
When did I start to believe that the Royals not just could,
but would, win the Wild Card Game? Probably around the time that Luke Gregerson
bounced a slider to Alex Gordon in the dirt. Billy Butler had just singled to
drive in the second run of the inning and bring the Royals to within two;
Terrance Gore had pinch-run for Butler, and on the first pitch to Gordon, Gore stole
second base (Moment #173) like it was nothing. Eric Hosmer was already on third
base, so Gore represented the tying run, meaning that all the Royals had to do
was bring home The Fastest Man In Baseball from scoring position.
And then Gregerson threw this slider too low and too
inside, and Derek Norris let it bounce crazily off his glove, and Hosmer
scored, and now The Fastest Man In Baseball was on third base with one out. It
felt like destiny at that point. It felt like the Royals had all the momentum
on their side. But as you know from the fact that I mentioned the word
“momentum”, that’s not what happened at all. Gregerson walked Gordon, but
rebounded to strike out Salvador Perez on three pitches (Gordon stole second
base on the last of them), and then he struck out Omar Infante on four pitches.
My faith was perhaps never tested more than it was at that moment, when a
potentially historic four-run rally in the 8th inning of a double elimination
game fell short because the Royals could not bring home Terrance Gore from
third base with one out. (True story: after Perez struck out, I had such little
confidence in the matchup between Infante and Gregerson that in the stands I
was pushing for Gore to try to steal home. Come on: like you wouldn’t have wanted
to see him try?)
Dying. Dying. All Gregerson does is throw sliders in the dirt. WHY DO WE HAVE TO SWING AT THEM
But thanks to this wild pitch, the Royals exited the inning
down only one run instead of two. And while Gore’s stolen base was ultimately
in vain, the Royals had another ace baserunner up their sleeve.
(Also, just to cut off the protests in advance: Todd
Worrell’s pitch in the 9th inning of Game 6 of the 1985 World Series was scored
as a passed ball, not a wild pitch.)
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
