Kansas City Royals: Ten Biggest Plays Of 2015

Nov 3, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals catcher

(13) and third baseman

(8) celebrate the World Series championship at Union Station. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

The KC Royals had a stellar 2015, winning the franchise’s second World Championship by becoming the best comeback team in major-league playoff history.

2015 was a banner year (literally) for the Kansas City Royals. They won 95 games, which was the most regular season wins since the 1980 team won 97 games on their way to the first pennant in franchise history. The KC Royals also won their first division title since the 1985 team won the American League West. That’s so long ago that baseball only had 26 rather than 30 teams and had only four divisions instead of six.

Among the team achievements included setting playoff records for most comeback wins in a post-season (8), most multi-run comebacks in a post-season (7), and the most runs scored after the sixth inning (51). The Kansas City Royals somehow managed to win a five-game World Series in which they led at the end of only 15 out of 53 innings (with the Mets holding a lead at the end of 24 innings).

In fact, the New York Mets held leads in EVERY World Series game, eighth inning leads in three out of the four games they lost, and ninth inning leads in two games that ended in KC celebrations. Mets closer Jeryus Familia blew all three of his save chances, after many pundits christened him the best reliever in baseball down the stretch.

Of course, no one wins a World Series without making numerous important plays. With a 162-game season consisting over 1,400 innings and more than 150,000 pitches there are more impressive plays than any single memory can hold.

In this story, I’ve attempted to select the plays that I believe defined the Kansas City Royals 2015 season. By paring the list down to five, I’ve left ample room for debate. Since I used a fuzzy standard like “important”, there’s bound be many differing opinions.

I’ve also excluded muffed play by the other team. Otherwise this list would consist of little more than a litany of post-season errors by Astros, Blue Jays, and Mets middle infielders.

Hey, that makes it personal. Along with giving a nutshell version of the 2015 season’s critical moments, my choices will say something about how I think. And for this admittedly subjective exercise, I chose to emphasize plays that I think had the biggest impact on the course of the season rather than individual games.

With the New Year coming at midnight, here’s a look a back at the Kansas City Royals biggest plays of 2015:

Next: April 18, 2015

10. April 18, 2015: Yordano Ventura plunks Brett Lawrie

On April 17, 2015, Oakland A’s third baseman Brett Lawrie slid with his spikes high into Kansas City Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar, who was covering second on a force play. Escobar ended up missing a couple of games after the incident, which continued an early-season trend of Royals players getting dinged by opposing teams.

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On opening day, Chicago White Sox free-agent acquisition Jeff Samardzija hit Lorenzo Cain after giving up a home run to Mike Moustakas. After a hot start to the season, Alex Rios broke his hand after Minnesota’s J.R. Graham hit him with an inside pitch on April 13. Through the first two weeks of the season, Kansas City Royals batters had been struck by pitchers more than any other team

By the time Lawrie slammed into Escobar, the KC Royals were fed up.

With the A’s leading 5-0 in the fourth inning against 24-year-old Yordano Ventura, the hot-headed Dominican plunked Lawrie as playback resulting in an ejection and another bench-clearing incident.

The play was significant because not only did the Kansas City Royals stand up and refuse to be intimidated after early opponents tried to “get tough” with the defending AL champs, the play ended up defining the team’s early-season identity. The ugly weekend with the A’s caused the KC Royals to transform from the beloved underdog that pulled a miracle playoff run in 2014 into the “bad boys” of baseball. 

It might not have been pretty, but the Kansas City Royals refused to let themselves be pushed around. New to the ranks of contenders, much of the early-season angst came from the KC Royals players perception that fans, pundits, and their peers believed their 2014 World Series run was a fluke.

However, after opening the season with an MLB best seven straight wins, and a 15-7 April record, the Royals quickly refuted their skeptics.

Next: July 8, 2015

9. July 8, 2015: Alex Gordon tears his groin muscle

By early July, the Kansas City Royals had opened up a 4.5 game lead on Minnesota, and a seven game lead over four-time defending AL Central champion Detroit. Though they had suffered injuries to three starting pitchers in May, the first real challenge to their post-season march came when Tampa’s Logan Forsythe opened the fourth inning with a deep drive to left.

With the Royals holding a 2-1 lead, most fans expected Gordon to make one of his signature run-into-the-wall catches to deny Forsythe a hit. Instead, the ball fell for a double as Gordon crumpled to the turf after slamming into the wall. Forsythe jogged home from second as Alex Gordon stayed down.

Alex Gordon needed a cart to leave the field. Word soon came that he had torn his groin muscle.

Though the KC Royals won the game 9-7 over Tampa Bay, Gordon’s injury cast a pall over the team’s post-season ambitions. News quickly came that Gordon would miss at least a month, creating an opening for Detroit and Minnesota to make a run at the division-leading Kansas City Royals.

Instead, the KC Royals rallied to win eight of their next 11 games. By the end of July, the Kansas City Royals had extended their AL Central lead to eight games over the Twins and 11.5 over the Tigers.

However the loss of Gordon likely played a role in general manager Dayton Moore deciding to trade five prospects to land: 1) a replacement for Alex Gordon in Ben Zobrist, who would play in Gordon’s LF spot until moving to second base on Gordon’s return in September, and 2) landing Cincinnati ace Johnny Cueto.

Would Moore have been as aggressive at the trade deadline without Alex Gordon’s injury? We’ll never know, but the immediate need couldn’t have hurt. Both Cueto and Zobrist ended up playing big roles in KC’s successful championship run.

Next: July 12, 2015

 8. July 12, 2015: Paulo Orlando Homers To Down Blue Jays Before The All-Star Break

Kansas City Royals fans didn’t have long to wait before the team showed their mettle. Four days after losing team leader Alex Gordon, the Royals locked up in a back-and-forth contest with future AL East champion Toronto Blue Jays in the final game before the All-Star break.

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The KC Royals seemed to have put the game away by zooming out to a seven run lead by the sixth inning, but committed a series of uncharacteristic errors to help Toronto to score 10 runs in the sixth and seventh innings.

That’s when we found out about Kansas City Royals burning desire to win.

In a game which had a last-day-of-school feel, it would have been easy for the KC Royals to simply let it go and take off for the holiday. Instead, they mounted a furious comeback, aided by sloppy defense from the Blue Jays, to claw their way a 10-10 tie in the bottom of the eighth.

At this point, both teams had blown large leads, and both had played a messy game. In the end, it was the Kansas City Royals that won the ugly game when Paulo Orlando led off the eighth with a solo home run.

Not only did Alex Gordon’s backup show he could step in for the team leader, the  KC Royals gave their fans a taste of the late inning “devil magic” that would carry them to the 2015 title.

Next: September 30, 2015

7. September 30, 2015: Eric Hosmer‘s 10th Inning Home Run Spurs Winning Streak

The Kansas City Royals came into September with an 11 game division lead, and clearly lost focus despite the Toronto Blue Jays passing them for the best record in the American League, and home field advantage in the playoffs.

The September swoon saw the KC Royals fall into a 3-9 skid during the middle of the month, which caused many fans and pundits (including me) to worry that the team would fall flat during the playoffs.

Heading on the road for the fianl two series of the season to Chicago and Minnesota, the Kansas City Royals dropped the first game 4-2 and promptly fell behind 1-0 in the second inning. Kansas City tied the game in the third, took a 3-1 lead in the 6th, but Kelvin Herrera gave up the tying run in the bottom of the eighth.

Given the recent play of the team, it appeared as if the KC Royals would blow another game.

Then Eric Hosmer slammed a two-run home run in the 10th, and Wade Davis closed out the game in the bottom of the inning to give the Kansas City Royals a much-needed 5-3 win.

The victory spurred a five-game winning streak that saw the Royals overtake the Blue Jays for the American League’s best record, and helped the team go into the post season on a high note.

Next: October 9, 2015

6. October 9, 2015: Alcides Escobar Smacks Key Triple To Trigger First Playoff Comeback

Game 2 of the American League Division Series against play-in survivor Houston had turned critical. The KC Royals lost Game 1 at home 5-2, and were trailing Game 2 4-1 after the Astros hung four runs on starter Johnny Cueto.

With 2015 Cy Young award winner Dallas Kuechel scheduled to start Game 3 in Houston, the Kansas City Royals found themselves  in an almost must-win situation against a surging young team that had gained playoff confidence.

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The Royals pushed across a run in the 4th, and staged a two-run rally to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth highlighted by hacktastic catcher Salvador Perez driving in the tying run on a bases-loaded walk.

Alcides Escobar led off the seventh inning and made the Astros pay for their shallow outfield alignment by shooting a triple into the right field gap. Escobar scored when Ben Zobrist blooped a single to put the Kansas City Royals ahead 5-4.

Kelvin Herrera, Ryan Madson, and Wade Davis closed out the victory by holding the Astros scoreless over the last three innings.

Game 2 proved to be the first of many multi-run comebacks by Kansas City in the 2015 post-season. Though lost among more dramatic comeback wins later in the World Series and ALCS, Escobar’s play proved to critical after the KC Royals did indeed drop Game 3.

Dallas Kuechel proved to be as good as advertised. The only thing that staved off a shocking Houston sweep might have been Escobar’s key triple.

Next: October 12, 2015

5. October 12, 2015: Drew Butera‘s Walk Loads Bases For Alex Gordon

After losing Game 3 to Dallas Kuechel, the Kansas City Royals once again had their backs to the wall against Houston.

The KC Royals trailed  6-2 in the eighth inning, largely due to 21-year-old Houston shortstop Carlos Correa‘s two home runs.

Call to the Pen

With the Minute Maid Park anticipating victory, the Kansas City Royals pinged four singles against Astros reliever Walt Harris. Lefty Tony Sipp took the mound and gave up another single, before Carlos Correa muffed a potential double play grounder that allowed the KC Royals to tie the game at 6-6.

However, the game still remained tied with runners on second and third after Mike Moustakas struck out. The Astros brought in closer Luke Gregerson in an attempt to escape the inning still even.

Enter Drew Butera.

The little used backup catcher, who came into the game after manager Ned Yost pinch ran for Salvador Perez in the 7th, now faced the Astros closer with the game on the line. If Gregerson managed to strike out the light-hitting Butera for the second out, the Astros could stave off disaster.

Despite falling behind 0-2, Butera fouled off four tough pitches to eek out a walk. With the bases now loaded, Alex Gordon’s grounder scored Eric Hosmer to put the Kansas City Royals ahead 7-6.

Drew Butera’s walk proved to be a key cog in keeping the line moving all the way to the World Series.

Next: October 17, 2015

3. October 23, 2015: Lorenzo Cain Scores From First On Single To Win ALCS

This time, it was the Blue Jays that rallied from a two-run deficit in the late innings to tie Game 6 of the ALCS 3-3. The Blue Jays were threatening to send the series to a seventh game after knotting the score in the top of the eighth in Kauffman Stadium.

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Cain led off the bottom of the inning for the Kansas City Royals by working a walk against reliever Roberto Osuna. That’s when the fun started.

Eric Hosmer stroked a deep single to right that Jose Bautista appeared to cut off the ball to prevent a double, but third base coach Mike Jirshele knew that Bautista tended to throw to second base in such a situation rather than hit the relay man for a play at the plate.

Jirshele decided to wave the hard-charging Lorenzo Cain around third base and send him home. Cain easily scored the lead run to put the Kansas City Royals ahead 4-3.

After some late-inning drama that included a rain delay between the eighth and ninth innings, KC Royals closer Wade Davis managed to earn a five-out save despite allowing a single and two stolen bases to put the tying run on third with no outs in the 9th.

Davis then struck out the next two hitters, before getting AL MVP Josh Donaldson on a grounder to second that gave the Royals their second consecutive AL pennant.

Next: October 27, 2015

2. October 27, 2015: Alex Gordon Slams Solo Home Run To Tie World Series Game 1 In The 9th.

The New York Mets seemed destined to take a 1-0 lead in the 2015 World Series after three-time gold glove first baseman Eric Hosmer muffed a grounder to first. The play allowed the Mets to take a 4-3 lead into the final frame in Kansas City.

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Mets closer Jeurys Familia, who had not allowed a run during the post-season coming into World Series play, retired Salador Perez to open the 9th inning. At that point, things look bleak for the KC Royals. ESPN’s game outcome projector estimated the Royals with only an 11% chance to salvage the game.

Then Alex Gordon slammed a 1-1 pitch over the centerfield wall to tie the game at 4-4.

Gordon’s blow turned an 11% chance at victory into 58%. Though the Kansas City Royals needed five more innings, they pushed across the winning run in the 14th when Eric Hosmer’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded scored Alcides Escobar. They got a big assist when Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy allowed a grounder to slip beneath his glove for an error that put Escobar on first.

Game 1 was in the bank for Kansas City.

Next: November 1, 2015

1. November 1, 2015: Eric Hosmer’s Mad Dash Home

Really, could any other play be bigger? Eric Hosmer’s crazy gamble to tie Game 5 of the 2015 World Series is not only the biggest play of the season, it’s already an iconic moment that will define this generation of Kansas City Royals baseball.

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Seriously. Hosmer’s play to tie Game 5 will likely become as memorable as Pete Rose running over catcher Ray Fosse at home plate in the 1970 All-Star game, or Carlton Fisk waving his home run fair in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series.

Met’s ace Matt Harvey appeared to be the first Mets starter to take over a game after the New York media touted the Mets starters as the dominant force that would decide the World Series.

Harvey finished the 8th inning with a 2-0 lead after striking out nine and allowing only four hits and one walk to Kansas City Royals hitters. When Mets manager Terry Collins wanted to pull him for closer Jeurys Familia, Harvey pleaded with his manager to finish the game.

While down 3-1, a win would send the series back to Kansas City but with the Mets rotation threatening to assert themselves after a rough beginning to the Series.

Convinced by Harvey’s passionate plea, Collins sent Harvey back out for the ninth to the delight of the home crowd. Mat Harvey, however, didn’t count on Eric Hosmer ruining his party.

After Lorenzo Cain drew a leadoff walk and stole second, Eric Hosmer doubled to left to score Cain. After Mike Moustakas’ groundout advanced Hosmer to third, Salvador Perez came to the plate.

Perez slapped a weak ground to Mets third baseman David Wright who froze Hosmer with a look and threw to first base for the putout on Perez.

The Kansas City Royals scouting report, however, instructed the team to take any chance to test the arms of Wright and first baseman Lucas Duda. Hosmer instantly put the report into action by breaking for home as Wright turned his attention toward making the throw to first.

Buoyed by the knowledge that making an out at home would simply send the series to Kansas City with the Royals still up three games to two, Homser trucked into home with a headfirst slide.

To the eternal agony of Mets’ fans, Duda’s throw sailed beyond the reach of catcher Travis D’Arnaud, allowing Hosmer to tie the game at 2-2.

Though the Mets escaped the inning without surrendering the lead, the entire stadium appeared to feel that it was only a matter of time before the KC Royals put them away. Not only did the fans seem broken, the Mets players appeared stiff and wooden in the dugout.

Next: Ten Biggest Plays From The 2015 KC Royals Season

It took until the 12th inning, but the Kansas City Royals bludgeoned Bartolo Colon for a five-run rally that gave Kansas City an insurmountable lead—and their second World Series victory in franchise history.