KC Royals: Five Memorable Ben Zobrist Plays With Royals

2) October 23, 2015: Getting Things Started The Right Way

The KC Royals played the powerful Toronto Blue Jays, who boasted a lineup that scored a major-league high 891 runs with the biggest run-differential in more than a decade at +221).

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While the Royals led the series 3-2, with the final two games in Kansas City, they definitely wanted no part of a Game 7 matchup against Toronto. To take the ALCS in six games, they needed to beat Toronto rental ace David Price.

Ben Zobrist got things going the right way with one out in the first inning by slamming a 367 home run off Price that put the KC Royals ahead 1-0 in the first inning. The run proved critical when the Blue Jays rallied to tie the game 3-3 in seventh inning. Lorenzo Cain made his now-famous mad dash around the bases that allowed him to score from first base on a single by Eric Hosmer in the eighth inning.

Closer Wade Davis shut the door in the ninth after allowing a single to catcher Russell Martin and two steals to pinch runner Dalton Pompey that put the tying run on third with no outs. Davis struck out the next two hitters before getting 2015 MVP Josh Donaldson to ground out to third.

But the KC Royals would have been looking at extra-innings without Ben Zobrist’s home run.

Next: October 31, 2015: Trick Instead Of Treat