FanPost

The Story of the 2015 Kansas City Royals: Part 1 - 2014 Regular Season

John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

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Continuing on with the (mostly) complete multimedia story of your 2015 World Champion Kansas City Royals, here's the index for all parts:

Offseason and First Half

The Royals had a fairly boring offseason after the craziness of 2013. Ervin Santana's agent badly overpriced him but he eventually signed with the desperate Braves in March to replace the injured Brandon Beachy, Mike Minor, and Kris Medlen (hmm). A pair of four year deals (still hurts to type that) were handed out to Jason Vargas to fill the expected void at SP and Omar Infante to fix the gaping hole at 2B. The other major Jeff Francoeur sized hole for the Royals in 2013 was in RF and Nori Aoki was brought over in a trade with the Brewers. PECOTA had the Royals at 78 wins while ZIPS had them at 80.

Opening Day began inauspiciously for the Royals as James Shields and Justin Verlander both gave up 3 in a no decision. In the 9th, the Tigers would walk off with a win against pre-HDH Wade Davis and Greg Holland. The next day, the Royals would valiantly tie the game in the 9th against Joe Nathan but would lose a second walk off in the 10th, swept by the Tigers to start the season. They would own the Royals all season long to the tune of 13-6. Similar to 2013, the Royals had a decent April, ending the month at 14-12. However another May swoon of 12-17 left them 6.5 back of Detroit at June started.

But, cliche alert, as the weather heated up, so did the Royals. Honestly, I didn't even remember this happened until looking it up but the Royals went on a 10 game winning streak and stormed into first as wins 8, 9, and 10 were against the aforementioned Tigers. In the 10th win, Jeremy Guthrie struck out 9(!) in 6.2 and an Omar Infante home run (!) provided the final cushion.

http://m.mlb.com/video/v33838601

Unfortunately, right after that win streak, the Royals would drop 6 of 7 and be back to 4.5 out. They played .500 ball until the All-Star break and came in 48-46, 6.5 behind Detroit who finished off their first half taking 3 of 4 from the Royals at Kauffman. Below is MLB's first half highlight video.

http://m.mlb.com/video/v34581891

Post All-Star Break Swoon

For the midsummer classic, injury replacement Salvador Perez was the first Royals starter since Jermaine Dye in 2000. There was a repeat of 2013 with 3 Royals in the All Star game with Greg Holland and Alex Gordon, who missed due to injury. Prior to 2013, you'd have to go back to 1988 for the last time the Royals had 3 All-Stars. Thanks to Adam Wainright intentionally grooving pitches to Derek Jeter the American League's 5-3 win, the AL team would have home field in the World Series. I wonder if the home field or All-Star game mentions will come into play later.

The first game after the All-Star break was the Scott Downs-Johnny Gomes game.

http://m.mlb.com/video/v34611349

The Royals lost 4 straight to drop to 48-50. Jon Lester broke Eric Hosmer's hand with a pitch and he would be out all of August. The Royals would stand pat at the trade deadline- neither buying nor selling, making only minor deals for Jason Frasor, Liam Hendricks, Josh Willingham, and others not even worth mentioning in a sentence about Jason Frasor, Liam Hendricks, and Josh Willingham. Oakland would trade for Jon Lester. Detroit would trade for David Price.

Joe Posnanski questioned Ned Yost as manager:

The Gomes Affair was just one game in a very long season. But it is precisely the sort of loss the Royals cannot afford. Would it be fair to Ned Yost to switch managers now, with the Royals finally playing pretty good baseball after 20-plus years of incompetence? You could make a good case that it would not be fair.

While Old Moist Josh Duggan blasted Moore:

There's little to root for other than the Royals maybe being bad enough to get Dayton Moore fired. This isn't a playoff team. It hasn't been at any point this season... It's been clear to nearly every one of the Royals Review faithful that Moore was never going to be able to build a REAL winner in Kansas City. Too bad none of the people making decisions for the Royals can figure this out. Irrelevance in year nine. That's clearly what this has all been building towards.

A Winning August

But somehow, the Royals started winning. From July 22nd thru August 23rd, the Royals went 24-6. On the morning of Monday August 4th, the Royals were 5 games back. On the evening of Monday August 11th, they had taken 1st place, riding an 8 game winning streak.

http://m.mlb.com/video/v35289541/

What to say about SungWoo Lee? I know some never really liked the story, some questioned the significance of it, and some profiteered from it. But if you can separate those things out, it's a really fun story. I'm just going to let Rany say it (check out the entire blog post for the "whole" story).

How do I begin this story? How do I explain the inexplicable? How can I convince you that the greatest story for Royals fans in 29 years is unfolding before our eyes, and its protagonist lives a hemisphere away, speaks imperfect (but diligent) English, and had never set foot at Kauffman Stadium until this past Thursday?

But of course, that’s only half of the story. Because the other half of the story is that ever since he arrived the Royals can’t stop winning.

After the 30 game stretch, they dropped two in the row and were losing a third to the Twins. With panic in the streets, this happened. As the mixed team Fox Sports One team of Bert Blyleven announced during the game: "That's how divisions are won" and Steve Physioc responded with "These are the moments championships are made of". (Also, I'm not saying I called it, but I kinda did. and here. and here.)

http://m.mlb.com/video/v36825787

The month ends with a thud as the Royals drop 4 straight at home, 3 in extra innings. But they enter September still tied with the Tigers in 1st place. And the loser of the division still had a half game lead for the 2nd Wild Card spot.

The Playoff Race

With the Royals in the thick of the playoff race, each win and loss would be magnified. The first week of September, the Royals gave themselves some breathing room with a sweep of last place Texas and taking 2 of 3 from the Yankees in New York. The wins in the first and third games in New York featured James Shields and Yordano Ventura combining with the bullpens for shutouts while the loss in the middle game was the Danny Duffy-Liam Hendricks game where Duffy re-injured himself one pitch into the game. After games on Sunday August 7th, the Royals had a 2 game lead on Detroit and 1.5 game lead over Seattle for the 2nd Wild Card.

It was off to Detroit for a huge three game set. In the first, Guthrie doesn't make it through 3 in a 9-5 loss. In the second, the Royals were down 4-2 in the 9th with 2 on when this happened.

http://m.mlb.com/video/v36103845

After that TOOTBLAN, Salvy struck out to end the game and the Tigers were tied for 1st place. James Shields + HD shut down the Tigers 3-0 to salvage the final game of the series. With this win, the Royals odds of making the playoffs surged in the high 70s. They had their 1 game lead back over Detroit and 1.5 over Seattle for the 2nd Wild Card. Oakland, the first Wild Card, had been in a freefall since trading Yoenis Cespedes for Jon Lester and they were now only 0.5 games ahead of the Royals.

Back home, the Royals dropped 2 of the first 3 to the Red Sox. If you don't remember the finale of that series, this should jog your memory.

With the Royals up 4-3 in the 6th and a tiring Jason Vargas on the mound, Yost went to Aaron Crow rather than go more than 3IP with HDH or to the better Jason Frasor. Crow walks Cespedes, strikes out Craig, and then gives up a grand slam to Daniel Nava. Game over, Royals now 1.5 behind Detroit for the Central and 1.0 up on Seattle for the 2nd Wild Card. People were calling for Ned's job, wanting him fired in the middle of a pennant race just like he was in Milwaukee. The playoff odds were still in the 60s, but, Rany summed up the Royals tenuous position:

Meanwhile, there are just 14 games left in the season. The AL Central is slipping away, and if the Mariners get hot, the wild card might slip away too. It’s great if Ned Yost learned from his mistake yesterday. But if he learns from any more mistakes this season, it might be 2015 before he gets a chance to apply what he’s learned.

While it seems like September's most memorable moments so far have been lowlights,the very next day game should have brought a smile to the face of even the gloomiest of fans: "A day after we saw Ned Yost at his worst, we saw him at his best." It's the That's What Speed Deux game. Down 3-0 to the White Sox, the Royals rally for 1 in the 7th and 1 in the 8th. In the 9th, Moose doubles. On the first pitch, pinch runner Jarrod Dyson steals third but the pitch goes to the backstop and he never stops, blazing home. Aoki then doubles and Terrence Gore pinch runs for him. On an 0-2 count, Cain hits a chopper up the middle and it's fumbled by the middle infielders. Gore screams all the way home from 2nd on the infield hit and into a celebrating throng leaving the dugout.

http://m.mlb.com/video/v36303169

The Royals would take 2 of 3 from the White Sox and have a day off before the final home series of the season: a three game battle for the Central with the Tigers. They were 1 GB of Detroit for the Central and tied with Oakland for the 1st Wild Card, 1 game up on Seattle for the 2nd. All three games were sold out. All three would be on national tv. I personally remember being so disappointed that I would be on a flight during game one and then ecstatic that JetBlue had the game actually on only to turn it off in disgust in the 5th. The first inning of the first game really set the tone and I don't have the heart to post the video. With a runner on, Cabrera hits a line drive right that bounces right out of Gordon's glove. The Royals lose 10-1.

Saturday, Shields and Scherzer duel to a 1-1 tie through 6. In the bottom of the 6th, the Tigers call for a replay on Salvy leaving early from third, which is not something that can be reviewed but they called him out anyway. The Tigers then get 2 in the 7th. In the 9th, down 3-2 with runners at 2nd and 3rd, Yost goes to Ibanez rather than Butler who grounds out to 1st to end the game. The Royals salvage game 3 but are now are 2 games back with one week to go. They have taken over the top spot in the Wild Card and are 2 up on Seattle.

If some of the standings have seemed a little squirrely up to this point, it's because they were. Back on August 31st, a game between the Royals and Indians had been suspended in the middle of the 10th. The Indians had scored 2 off of Greg Holland right before the rain started. I've been going back and forth between the MLB standings and the B-R standings and the latter counted the game as happening on August 31st while the former waited until the conclusion of the game to put it into the standings. It was equally confusing at the time as many of the game threads had things like "pending the conclusion of the suspended game". There was basically this likely Sword of Damocles loss hanging over the Royals but they couldn't bank it until September 22nd. The Indians were actually still mathematically in the playoff race and a sweep would have put them ahead of the Royals for the 2nd Wild Card.

Everyone on the 40 man who had not already played was available for both teams so some wackiness ensued. The Royals actually scored 1 and had the tying run at 2nd but Omar Infante grounded out to end the game and seal the loss. Fortunately, the Royals took the nightcap (is it a nightcap if the first is only a suspended game and not a doubleheader?) as Duffy was strong in his return from injury and Ventura silenced them the following night. The Indians won a seesaw final game but they were out of it for all intents and purposes. The Tigers won 2 of 3 from the White so they still had their lead. Oakland dropped 2 of 3 to AL West champion Anaheim and Seattle was losers of 5 in a row.

The Playoffs, At Last

With 4 to go, the Royals were down 2 to Detroit for the Central, tied with Oakland for the 1st Wild Card, and 3 up on Seattle for the second Wild Card. In the first game of the series, the Royals were down 3-1 but rallied for 1 in the 5th, 1 in the 6th, 2 in the 8th, and 1 in the 9th for a 6-3 win. Then on Friday night, September 26th, 2014, for the first time in 10,561 days the Royals made the playoffs. Guthrie pitched 7 shutout innings and the Royals won 3-1 with seemingly half of the Chicago crowd in Royals blue.

http://m.mlb.com/video/v36627851

They would lose the Saturday game. Sunday, they needed a win and a Tigers loss to tie for the division and force a tiebreaker. However, as was so often the case in 2014, Detroit did not cooperate, winning 3-0. Halfway through the game, the Royals rested their regulars and, naturally, Carlos Peguero, Johnny Giavotella, and Christian Colon rallied the Royals to a season ending victory. The Royals would finish at 89-73, Kansas City's best mark since 1989.

This FanPost was written by a member of the Royals Review community. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors and writers of this site.