More extra-inning magic! Royals and Hosmer stun Angels to take 2-0 lead in series
One win away, Royals fans. One win away from advancing to the American League Championship Series.
For the second straight night, the Royals stunned what many consider the best team in baseball, the Los Angeles Angels, 4-1 in 11 innings on Friday night.
The Royals thus roared to their third straight postseason extra-inning win, the first team in history to claim such a feat.
Eric Hosmer blasted a two-run homer in the top of the 11th to give the Royals the lead, Sal Perez pushed home another run in the inning with an infield hit to score Alex Gordon, and closer Greg Holland closed out the Angels for the second straight night.
The result means the Royals will come home Sunday night with Big Game James on the mound in an attempt to sweep the Angels and advance.
"Whatever we can do to keep winning and advancing," Hosmer said on the TBS postgame show.
Hosmer, with Lorenzo Cain on first, crushed a fastball into the right-field seats in the 11th, his first postseason homer.
"I was just looking for a fastball to drive," Hosmer told TBS.
Watch the Boulevard Royals Live postgame show on FOX Sports Kansas City after every Kansas City Royals postseason game.
Gordon then walked, stole second and went to third on a throwing error, and scored on Perez's soft single.
"Hopefully, we can go home and take care of business," Gordon told TBS.
The Royals pushed it into extra innings thanks to a phenomenal effort from rookie starter Yordano Ventura, who was widely criticized as manager Ned Yost's choice to start. Ventura gave up just one run through seven innings.
"When he's on," Gordon said, "he's got electric stuff."
Added Yost, "He was very calm and composed for a 23-year-old kid."
3 UP
-- Moose bunt. Hey, it took only 165 games, but Mike Moustakas finally decided to try and beat the shift by laying down a bunt, something Royals fans have been pleading for him to do all season. In the third inning, Moose laid down a perfect bunt to third and, with the shift on, no one was there to defend it. Then Alcides Escobar bunted him to second. But from there, Nori Aoki, after a horrible call on 2-0 changed his approach, flied out on a 2-1 pitch. Then Cain had three terrible swings and struck out.
-- Is Alex back? We keep waiting for Gordon or Perez or Omar Infante to bust out of their slumps. Maybe, Gordon started to on Friday night. With Hosmer on second in the second, Gordon ripped a single up the middle to drive Hosmer in. It was probably his best swing in weeks.
-- The Dyson play. Oh, my, this might have been center fielder Jarrod Dyson's greatest play as a Royal. In the eighth inning after a leadoff double put the lead run in scoring position, Dyson picked off a fly ball to left-center field and then fired a bullet to Moustakas at third, who applied the tag on the advancing runner for a double play. Breath-taking and, at the time, a game saver.
3 DOWN
-- The macho factor. You can't give Ventura enough credit for the way he stood up and pitched. But still, I hate the pitch selection the Royals used in the sixth inning. It was clear that the Angels had an extremely difficult time catching up to Ventura's fastball, which averaged between 98 and 102 mph. But hey, any major-league hitter can eventually catch up to any speed if you keep feeding him the same pitch over and over. Ventura got two quick outs in the sixth, but then abandoned his curveball and changeup. After a two-out hit, Ventura got to 0-2 against Mike Trout on fastballs. Any kind of curve or changeup at that point would have spun Trout into the ground. But Perez and the bench kept calling for more fastballs. Eventually, Trout walked. Ventura got ahead of Pujols as well. But Ventura kept pounding fastballs until Pujols finally caught up with one and lined a run-scoring single to right to tie it at 1-1.
-- Omar's slump. At some point, the Royals really are going to need Omar Infante to slip out of his slump. Infante went 0 for 5 and continued his slump over the last five weeks. Infante also made a careless error in the bottom of the 11th with two out when he fielded a grounder and threw wildly to Hosmer at first. Fortunately, Holland bailed him out by fanning Trout to end the game.
-- Nope, nope, nope. There were some other things to complain about, but not when you're the heavy underdog and you're up 2-0 in the series against the Angels.
You can follow Jeffrey Flanagan on Twitter at @jflanagankc or email him at jeffreyflanagan6@gmail.com.
