Royals Lighter Side: Alcides Escobar Shines, Fans Rejoice

The Royals came from behind Tuesday night vs the Washington Nationals with 3 runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Lorenzo Cain came through (after “definitely struggling, BAD”-his words), fans erupt.

In the 8th inning the KC Royals were behind 3-6. They ran an ad on TV for “Dress To The Nines Day” an upcoming promotion celebrating the Negro Leagues in Kansas City. “First 10,000 get a T-shirt!”

Bipolars: Mark your calendars. That’s similar to having a nudist beach party, first 10,000 get a parka.

Then the Kansas City Royals turned it all around.

Alcides Escobar, Cain and Eric Hosmer combined for a run in the eighth to make the score 4-6. Chien-Ming Wang looked good when he came in to record a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

Then it all went bonkers. Jonathan Papelbon came in to close the game for Washington, who had won 107 straight games when leading after eight innings. Papelbon has an estimated 14,737 saves in his career. Maybe playing the defending champions made the Nats feel like it was October and it was time to choke.

The inning started with a seeing eye infield single by a struggling Alex Gordon against the shift. “That’s how it starts!” screamed Hoz from the dugout. Salvador Perez lined a single into the left-field corner moving Gordo to third. Terrance Gore pinch ran for Salvy and it seemed like every person in Kansas City was up on their feet. Even the ones who were lying in the graveyard.

As far as I know, even the Democratic and Republican grass roots organizers residing in the KC area were so enthralled by the drama that they failed to register the zombies to vote in the upcoming election. You KNOW that Kansas City has become a baseball town when the KC Royals can make politicos forget to cheat.

Gore tried to steal second on the first pitch but got a “terrible jump” that was so bad he would “normally would have shut it down”. A perfect throw to ‘the’ Daniel Murphy was right on Gore’s foot, which kicked the ball out of Murphy’s glove.

The umpire was seen reaching for the ‘out’ call but ruled Gore safe when the ball bounced away. Papelbon got Omar Infante to strikeout as I was wondering why Mike Moustakas (did not start due to “soreness” and a “bruised” right hand) didn’t pinch hit for Infante.

Maybe the key to #RoyalsDevilMagic is to persuade the other team to acquire Daniel Murphy. You’d think the Nats general manager would have noticed that Murphy botched grounder after grounder in the World Series for the Mets. With Daniel Murphy on the field, there’s no lead the Kansas City Royals can’t overcome.

Moose came out to pinch hit for Christian Colon and the excellent crowd of 33,729 was already in a loud frenzy at the K, and only got more rabid when he was announced. Moose hit a nice grounder up the middle. Had the typical Moose shift been on, it would have been a ground out. Since Moustakas wasn’t in the starting lineup in either game, the shift was somehow not deployed. Both runs scored and the game was tied 6-6.

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The fans exploded. Jarrod Dyson flied out to left for the second out and Cain came to the plate. I wrote what everyone would have been thinking if their brains hadn’t been blown to smithereens: “He’s due for a game winner“.

Cain got down in the count 0-2 then launched a shot to center that landed just past the outstretched glove of a diving Michael Taylor.

The KC Royals win 7-6 on Cain’s 4th walk-off game winning RBI in his career. He was awarded a single but it rolled all the way to the wall in center with Taylor on the ground, a certain triple at least. It might have been fun watching them try to get Cain out at home. They wouldn’t have.

The speedsters Gore and Dice got to Cain first and a mobbing straight from 2015 ensued. Hey, the Kansas City Royals needed to prepare the Nationals for what the post-season will be like, if they face KC in the World Series.

Wang got the win and Esky went 4 for 5 in this crazy Royals style come-from-behind victory.

Up tomorrow: School Day At The ‘K’!

The series is tied 1-1.

See you out there!

Next: The Numbers Behind The Royals Struggling Offense

Let’s Go Royals!

The Royals came from behind Tuesday night vs the Washington Nationals with 3 runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Lorenzo Cain came through (after “definitely struggling, BAD”-his words), fans erupt.

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