Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 20: Royal Theft

2014 American League Wild Card Game: Oakland Athletics at Kansas City Royals

September 30, 2014, Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri

The celebration started well before the first pitch in Kauffman Stadium that night. There was a good reason for that: the 2014 AL Wild Card game was the first postseason baseball game in Kansas City since Game 7 of the 1985 World Series. After nearly three decades of mediocrity, the Royals were back.

The 2014 Royals would have fit right in with some of the teams from the 80s, as they were last in the American League in home runs and first in stolen bases. They used their speed whenever they could, and if they built any kind of lead, they gave the ball to one of their flamethrowers in the bullpen to lock it down. 

It was a strategy that appeared to be working through five innings of the Wild Card game, as the Royals used their speed, combined with some sacrifice bunts and well-timed wild pitches, to build a 3-2 lead over Oakland. Starting pitcher James Shields was pitching well and the Royals' bullpen was rested and ready to go. Everything was going the way the Royals wanted.

But then Shields gave up a single and a walk to lead off the 6th, and Kansas City had to act quickly. Manager Ned Yost reacted in a confusing way. Despite having the best bullpen in the league, he called for one of his starters, Yordano Ventura, to relieve Shields. This might have made sense at the beginning of the 6th if Yost thought it was too much to ask his bullpen to get four innings of work, but it was a strange decision to bring in a starter in relief with runners on base. That's something relievers are used to doing, not starters. 

Ventura, visibly uncomfortable, started with two straight balls out of the strike zone, then gave up a three-run home run to Brandon Moss. It was Moss' second home run of the game, and it left the Royals shell-shocked; the A's took advantage with two more runs before the inning mercifully ended with Oakland up 7-3.

Now most teams throw the brakes on the running game when they're down by multiple runs. The idea is that baserunners are too valuable to risk losing them, especially so late in the game. But the Royals weren't most teams. Not only did they keep the running game going, they doubled down on it. In the bottom of the eighth, they used three singles, two walks, and three stolen bases to cut the deficit to 7-6, and there was still only one out. But it's really hard to steal home, and with two runners on base with nowhere to go, the last two Royals batters struck out to end the eighth.

Oakland did their best to extend the lead in the top of the ninth, making Brad Pitt proud by drawing three walks to load the bases before Jed Lowrie lined out to right to end the threat.

It was then, down by one entering the bottom of the ninth, that the Royals' small-ball enterprise went into overdrive. After a single by Josh Willingham, Jerrod Dyson pinch-ran for him. Much like Dave Roberts of the 2004 Red Sox, everybody knew Dyson was going to try to steal a base. But it was a sacrifice bunt that moved him over to second. But despite drawing all sorts of attention from A's closer Sean Doolittle, Dyson stole third, safe by inches, then scored one pitch later on a sacrifice fly to tie the game.

The small ball wasn't done, either. The Royals got a leadoff single in the bottom of the 10th and moved the runner over to second on a bunt before failing to score. Same story in the 11th - leadoff single, sacrifice bunt, two straight outs.

Oakland finally broke the pattern by jumping ahead in the 12th. Josh Reddick drew a walk, moved to second on a sacrifice (so many bunts), moved to third on a wild pitch, then scored the go-ahead run on a pinch-hit single by Albert Callaspo.

In the bottom of the 12th, Eric Hosmer forgot about Kansas City's identity, crushing one the opposite way to left field. The ball was placed perfectly - exactly between outfielders Jonny Gomes and Sam Fuld, and one foot above either of their gloves. The ball hit the wall, Gomes and Fuld hit each other, and Hosmer ended up on third with a one out triple. Christian Colon was next up, and he followed with a perfectly hit ball of his own, bouncing one right off the plate, high enough that a charging Josh Donaldson had no chance to throw out either Hosmer or Colon. 

After writing all that about stolen bases, it only makes
sense to show a picture of the slow-as-molasses
catcher getting the winning hit.

And so it was tied again. And I probably don't need to tell you that Colon stole second. Two pitches later, Salvador Perez finally ended things with a single that glanced off the glove of a diving Donaldson to win the game.

As the Royals celebrated their win in shallow centerfield and the A's players slowly walked off the field, you couldn't help but think the Royals literally stole the game. After all, they stole seven bases as a team (with seven different players stealing a base), and five of those runners came around to score. 

As they continued through the playoffs, the base stealing slowed down - the Royals "only" stole six bases combined in their two straight sweeps over the Angels and Orioles, then only one in their seven-game World Series loss to the Giants. 

2014 AL Wild Card game Overall Rank: 20 Top 10 Swing: 217 Top play: Perez's single (WPA of 39% for Kansas City) Loser's largest WE: 97 Oakland up 7-3 entering the 8th Average LI: 1.63 Highest leverage moment: 5.92 (Twice; both times the Royals had the tying run on third with one out)