Nightengale: Royals can't believe what they just saw
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Royals, their eyes stinging from the champagne, their throats burning from screaming, kept trying to make sense of it all.
They know they somehow won this crazy game, one that was already being declared as the most exhilarating postseason victory in franchise history.
But they still can't find the words.
'It was the craziest game I've ever been part of, in all my life,'' Royals left fielder Alex Gordon says. 'It didn't look good there for a while, but we just kept battling and battling. It's like we weren't ready to go home.
'And then we won. Please don't ask me how.''
The Royals pulled out a stunning 9-8, 12-inning victory over the Oakland A's, refusing to quit when it would be so easy to do so.
They were down by four runs in the eighth inning, facing one of the greatest postseason pitchers of all-time in Jon Lester, and still won.
They were down by a run in the ninth inning, and were down to their final two outs, and still won.
They were down by a run in the 12th inning, and again down to their last two outs, and still won.
'Have you ever seen anything like that in your life,'' says Royals scout Art Stewart, the Royals' longest tenured employee. 'I saw it, but I still can't believe it.''
The Royals played 4 hours and 45 minutes, in a game with 41 players and 13 pitchers, and the pitching star is a kid, Brandon Finnegan, who was pitching at Texas Christian University just three months ago.
'He saved our season,'' Royals GM Dayton Moore said of Finnegan, who dominated the A's in throwing scoreless 10th and 11th innings.
The guy who got the game-winner had been hitless the entire game - hitting the ball out of the infield just once - but Salvador Perez was the hero with a sharp grounder the squirted just inches past Athletics third baseman Josh Donaldson's glove. Donaldson lay face down in the dirt while Christian Colon ran past him, scoring the winning run, with bedlam breaking out around him.
'What an unbelievable feeling,'' Perez said.
The Royals fans, who waited 29 years for a playoff game, absolutely erupted when Colon crossed the plate. It was as if this were Don Denkinger calling Jorge Orta safe at first base, and Dane Iorg hitting the game winner in Game 6 of the '85 World Series. No one's ever seen anything like it in these parts, with Royals icon George Brett quietly sipping a drink in the hallway, speaking softly and almost reverently of what just took place.
'It's the most incredible game I've ever been part of,'' Royals manager Ned Yost says. 'Our fans, were, man, unbelievable. Our guys never quit. When we fell behind, they kept battling back.
'They weren't going to be denied.''
Yes, and they certainly reminded this community what they've missing out on for the last 29 years, with nothing like postseason baseball.
The Royals, who already packed their bags and brought their suitcases to the ballpark for a flight they didn't know they would take, are off to Anaheim, Calif., where they play a best-of-five American League Division Series beginning Thursday against the Angels.
'This team just might do something,'' Royals pitching coach Dave Eiland said. 'Watch out.''
Certainly, this is an unconventional team.
They hit a major-league low 95 home runs, just 116 fewer than the Baltimore Orioles.
But, oh, can they run, and they ran the A's silly on this night, stealing seven bases, including two by Jarrod Dyson in the ninth inning. It tied the most stolen bases by a team in postseason history.
'We're not going to beat you with homers,'' Dyson says, 'but we can sure beat you with the speed. We've shown that all year.''
And, oh yeah, do they have heart.
It would have been so easy to surrender when they were trailing 7-3, and Lester absolutely dealing. Lester retired 12 consecutive batters at one point, and 13 of 14 when he entered the eighth inning.
'We haven't done a whole lot of coming back this year,'' Moore says, 'but you've got to stay positive, even though your gut, and your head, is telling you something different. Our players just kept grinding it out, and battling, and the fans were right there with them.''
Yet, when the A's finally took an 8-7 lead in the top of the 12th, behind Albert Callaspo's single, and the only blemish off Finnegan, the Royals finally looked done.
The fans, all 40,502, looked emotionally spent. They had nothing more to give.
Eric Hosmer changed all of that, batting with one out, hitting a towering fly ball to left field. Originally, he thought it would be caught. This ballpark simply plays too big. Yet, on this night, the ball was carrying, and it drifted just past the four outstretched arms of left field Jonny Gomes and center fielder Sam Fuld.
'When I saw it bounce,'' Gordon says, 'I'm thinking inside-the-park homer.''
Hosmer settled for a triple, and with the crowd now re-energized, there was Colon hitting a bouncer off the plate, and Hosmer diving head first across the plate for the tying run.
Christian Colon scores the game-winning run as A's catcher Derek Norris reacts as the Royals complete a 9-8 walk-off win in the AL wild card game.(Photo: Jeff Roberson AP)
And one out later, there was Perez's smash barely eluding Donaldson.
The players mobbed the field, and the fans stood in their seats screaming, not ready to go home.
'This reminds me just like the night we won the World Series,'' says Stewart. 'It had the same feel. The electricity. The emotions.
'Really, the clubs are so similar. That club was built with homegrown players that relied on great pitching and defense.
'The only difference is that this club doesn't have a Steve Balboni who hit 36 home runs.'And, oh yeah, it doesn't have George Brett.''
No, there are no Bretts on this team, or a potential Hall of Famer, but after this night, they have now established their own identity.
They carved their own niche in Royals folklore.
'This was a crazy game,'' Gordon says. 'It's been a crazy season. Now, we're just getting started.
'Who knows what you might see next.''
We can hardly wait.
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