Extra innings is winning time for the Kansas City Royals.
For the second night in a row, Royals pitching silenced the high-powered Los Angeles Angels’ offense en route to victory. The Wild Card winners jumped out to a commanding 2-0 lead in the American League Division Series following a 4-1 win in 11 innings on Friday night in Anaheim.
Going back to the AL Wild Card Game, they’ve now won three postseason games in extra innings, which ties the current record, per MLB.com’s Paul Casella:
The other five teams have all won the World Series, per ESPN Stats & Info:
During the regular season, the Royals batters combined to hit 95 home runs, which was last in the majors and 10 fewer than the next closest team. Now, in consecutive nights, they’ve hit go-ahead dingers in extra innings in the postseason.
MLB.com’s Andrew Simon likely isn’t the only one astounded by this development.
Eric Hosmer was the man of the hour on Friday, drilling a two-run home run in the top of the 11th inning off Kevin Jepsen to provide the difference in the game. ESPN’s Keith Law wonders if the 24-year-old, who’s yet to truly fulfill the promise he showed in the minors, might finally hit his stride after what’s been a strong start to the playoffs:
“We’ve been doing it any way we can,” said Mike Moustakas, who was the hero on Thursday, per ESPN.com. “It’s somebody different every night.”
Kansas City manufactured another run in the 11th in typical Royals fashion. After reaching first on a walk, Alex Gordon stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error. He scored on an infield single by Salvador Perez.
Baserunning is one of Kansas City’s biggest strengths, and manager Ned Yost hasn’t been afraid to use the advantage at any available opportunity, per ESPN’s Buster Olney:
The Royals have not only wrested home-field advantage away from the Angels, but they’ve now given Los Angeles little breathing room. The No. 1 seed in the AL has to win three games in a row just to survive.
The Angels wasted yet another great pitching performance, this time from Matt Shoemaker, who allowed one unearned run on five hits in six innings. His start was particularly impressive considering he went nearly a month without meaningful action, per ESPN’s Pedro Gomez:
On the other side, Yordano Ventura was just as good.
Yost came under fire for bringing Ventura out of the bullpen in Kansas City’s eventual 9-8 Wild Card Game win over the Oakland Athletics. Ventura allowed a three-run home run to Brandon Moss in the sixth inning, which put Oakland ahead, 5-3.
In his more natural starting role, the rookie more than redeemed himself, throwing seven innings and striking out five Angels hitters.
Some wondered if Yost might have scarred his young pitcher from the Wild Card nightmare. Grantland’s Rany Jazayerli believed that myth was thoroughly debunked:
Kansas City drew first blood in the top of the second inning. Hosmer led off with a single to right field and moved to second on an error from Kole Calhoun. The defensive miscue came back to bite L.A. in a big way as Alex Gordon laced a single to center, scoring Hosmer and giving the Royals an early 1-0 lead.
Los Angeles threatened in the bottom of the fifth, getting runners on first and second with nobody out. David Freese killed the rally with a double play, however, and Josh Hamilton lined out to Nori Aoki in right field to end the inning.
The Royals had a scary moment during Hamilton’s at-bat as his bat connected with the helmet of catcher Salvador Perez on the follow-through. The Royals’ medical staff examined Perez on the field and deemed him fit to continue.
After the inning was over, Perez headed to the clubhouse. Bleacher Report’s Will Carroll explained that the All-Star catcher received treatment rather any sort of concussion test:
Heading into the sixth, Ventura still looked strong, hitting triple digits on the radar gun, per Jorge L. Ortiz of USA Today:
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Kole Calhoun singled with two outs and Mike Trout walked, putting runners on first and second. Albert Pujols stepped to the plate next and delivered a single to right that scored Calhoun and moved Trout to third:
The Angels looked primed to take the lead in the bottom of the eighth, by which time Wade Davis was pitching for Kansas City. C.J. Cron led off the inning with a double down the left-field line. In an effort to add a little bit more speed to the basepaths, Angels manager Mike Scioscia opted to have Collin Cowgill pinch run for Cron.
Chris Iannetta was the next batter, and he flied out to Jarrod Dyson in center field. Although the ball wasn’t particularly deep, Cowgill attempted to tag up from second. Dyson was running full speed to his right, so he needed the throw to be perfect to nail Cowgill at third, which it was.
Just like that, the Angels went from a runner in scoring position with nobody out to nobody on with two outs. Rotoworld’s Matthew Pouliot didn’t disagree with the decision to send Cowgill, noting that the lack of a more specialized baserunner on the bench hurt in that scenario:
One of the bigger stories from an Angels perspective in Game 1 was the inability of Trout, Pujols, Howie Kendrick and Hamilton to do anything offensively. Combined the quartet went 0-for-18.
Hamilton’s funk continued in Game 2 as he went 0-for-4 and never looked particularly good in any of his at-bats. Baseball Prospectus’ Sam Miller joked that Bartolo Colon might be a better hitter at this point:
The other three weren’t much better, going a combined 2-for-12.
With a chance to win the game for the Angels, Trout, Pujols and Kendrick went down in order in the bottom of the ninth against Jason Frasor. Trout also struck out to end the game with a runner on base.
That about sums up how the series has unfolded for L.A. so far.
The Royals will have their ace on the mound as they return home for Game 3 on Sunday. James Shields will face off against C.J. Wilson. Over the years, Shields earned himself the nickname “Big Game James,” so Kansas City will likely feel confident about its chances of closing out the series.
Until Trout, Kendrick and Pujols start hitting, it’s hard seeing the Angels coming up with enough runs to overcome the Royals’ great pitching and timely hitting.
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