Five Games that Could Have Landed Kansas City Royals a Playoff Spot

5.) April 9 at Houston Astros

Needless to say, there were many games the Kansas City Royals can point to as ones that cost them a postseason berth. So we thought it would be fun to limit our selections to no more than one per month.

The terrible start to the season left plenty of losses strewn across the calendar. However, several of those defeats—thanks to a lack of offense—could hardly be called heartbreaking. This one, though, definitely qualifies.

After suffering a season-opening sweep in Minnesota, the Kansas City Royals were attempting to move back to 3-3. The team had already captured two road wins over Houston. On April 9, the Royals were looking for the sweep.

George Springer led off the bottom of the first with a home run—his third leadoff homer in six games—to stake the Astros to a 1-0 lead. Salvador Perez answered with a solo shot in the second to knot the score at 1-1.

Raul Mondesi had a rare RBI on a sacrifice bunt in the fifth. Mike Moustakas hit his third home run of the young season in the sixth to give the Kansas City Royals a 3-1 lead.

In the seventh inning, Travis Wood served up a game-tying blast to Marwin Gonzalez. But Brandon Moss, who had struggled mightily out of the gate, got him off the hook with a solo homer in the top of the ninth.

It was his first home run of the season and had the Royals in position to win. However, Kelvin Herrera gave up a one-out home run to Jake Marisnick to send the game to extra innings.

Matt Strahm completed the collapse in the 12th inning. Springer singled and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, forcing an intentional walk to Jose Altuve. Carlos Correa grounded into a fielder’s choice before consecutive walks to Brian McCann and Evan Gattis—both on full-counts—forced in the winning run.