FanPost

The Story of the 2015 Kansas City Royals: Part 7 - 2015 ALDS

Peter G. Aiken-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:


ALDS: Houston Astros

For the "official" previews, check out Max's for Royals Review and Ryan Dunsmore's for The Crawfish Boxes. Shaun also gave us more things to worry about with the dominant force in the American League.

Many national writers thought it was cute to claim some variation of "The Astros are this years Royals". The 2014 Royals and 2015 Astros led the league in stolen bases. Check! Both teams play great defense... except when they don't as the 2015 Astros had a negative UZR. Then there's bound to be something about young, exciting team - never mind that KC's team age last year was about league average and Houston's batting age was the league's youngest but pitching age was 4th oldest in all of baseball. Play exciting baseball? The 2014 Royals were the first team in baseball history to make the playoffs, finishing last in MLB in both walks and home runs. Similarly, the Astros were... 2nd in the MLB in HRs and 5th in the AL in walks. The 2014 Royals were 30th in the MLB in strikeouts while the Astros were 2nd. In short, the Astros were a TTO juggernaut while the Royals were the exact opposite.

Homegrown? Last year's Royals were a slowly built team, developed in fits and starts, (narrative warning) that played a once in a lifetime game, and seemingly gelled all at once (end narrative). The Astros completely tanked for for 3 years with 106, 107, and 111 losses- trading anything of value for future talent. They had the #1 picks in 2012, 2013, and 2014 and a lot of their young talent developed even faster than expected. The 2015 Astros claimed the Cy Young award winner in Dallas Keuchel and Rookie of the Year in Carlos Correa. The Royals had neither last year or at any point in this rebuilding process unless you count Zack Greinke's 2009 prior to being traded and Angel Berroa in 2003. No one has tried to tie Angel Berroa to this team except in sentences like "Man, I really like Alcides Escobar; remember all those awful shortstops we had forever like Neifi Perez, Angel Berroa, Tona Pena Jr, and Yuniesky Betancourt".

Really, the major things the 2014 Royals and 2015 Astros had in common is that they both were capable of a deep run... like most other teams who make the playoffs. And both had been off the national radar for a while. One could almost say this was a lazy way for journalists to introduce 2 teams they haven't paid attention to in recent memory.

Think back to the 2014 ALDS: extra inning win, extra inning win, and clincher: all three games were exciting. They were also on in the evening when more fans could watch while this year's games 2/3/4 were day games. Compared to 2014, the first three games of the 2015 ALDS are almost forgettable. In a (small) way, this series felt like it didn't start until Game 4. And that was almost a huge problem.

ALDS Game 1

(RR Game thread) (RR Recap)

(Ed note: As noted last postseason: I like the Pulse of the Playoffs videos better as they use the actual game calls but they also short a lot of the games so I'll also link to the MLB.com highlight videos if they are more complete.)

Pulse (start at 2:53 for Royals): http://m.mlb.com/video/v520686283

Highlights: http://m.mlb.com/video/v520686683

To say it was a bit of a letdown after the first playoff game last year is understatement. However, to say this game was without interesting story lines reminds us how easy it is to forget some games. Expectations were high as Yordano Ventura's last playoff start was the 7 innings of shutout baseball in Game 6 of the 2014 World Series. In the 1st, he loaded the bases with no outs but does some damage control to "escape" with only 2 runs. The Astros score again in the 2nd to go up 3-0. Kendrys Morales gets one back with a solo home run but then then the rain came. Ned Yost lifted Ventura after the hour long rain delay while Astros manager AJ Hinch kept with Collin McHugh. Chris Young came on in long relief and kept the Astros scoreless for a pair. In the 4th, Morales hit his 2nd home run of the game to draw the Royals within 3-2. But they never got closer. George Springer hit a home run in the 5th and Colby Rasums hit one off of Ryan Madson in the 8th. The rain delay did not seem to affect McHugh as he scattered 4 runs and 2 walks across 6 innings. Young's fine pitching gave the Royals hope: the one run in 4 innings while striking out 7. Herrera and Hochevar threw scoreless innings. Four pitchers out of Houston's bullpen combined for 3 scoreless innings. For all that went wrong on the day for the Royals, Eric Hosmer had a chance to tie the game in the 8th but popped up weakly behind 3rd, ending the final real Royals threat. In short, the Astros hit well and pitched well. The Royals did not, save for Morales and Young. The Astros won game 1, the Royals salvaged Ventura for game 4 and had a tarp almost consume someone. It was that kind of day.

ALDS Game 2

(RR Game thread) (RR Recap)

(Ed note: Could not find a Pulse of the Postseason for 10/09)

Highlights: http://m.mlb.com/video/v521088583

The 2014 Royals were remembered by many as a comeback team but, really, they were not. They were most definitely an exciting team with 4 extra inning wins and 5 1-run wins. However, after the Wild Card game, the largest deficit the Royals overcame to win a playoff game was 1-0. Spoiler alert: the 2015 playoff Kansas City Royals were a comeback team.

A pair of trade deadline acquisitions faced off as former Athletic Scott Kazmir pitched for Houston while former Red Johnny Cueto pitched for Kansas City. Both had struggled in September. While Kazmir was acquired to help the Astros make the playoffs, Cueto's purpose was singular: to help the Royals win the World Series. Unfortunately, the game did not start out well for him. In the first, George Springer worked a 7 pitch walk and scored two batters later on a Colby Rasmus double. Then, in the 2nd, the Astros loaded the bases on a bloop single, walk, and infield single. Springer dinked another single into short left and Houston had a 3-0 lead with only one hard hit ball. The Royals win expectancy for the game was down to 18.1% already.

Salvador Perez continued the Royals string of all runs via solo home runs with a long ball in the bottom of the 2nd, cutting the lead to 3-1. However, Colby Rasmus kept alive a streak of his own with a homer in 3 straight games, pushing the Houston lead back to 4-1 and Royals WE back down to 18.5%. The Royals again responded in their half of the inning as Alex Rios, in his first career playoff series, doubled. Escobar was originally called out on an infield ground ball but the call was overturned for runners at 1st and 3rd with nobody out. Ben Zobrist hit a ground ball sharply to third that scored the run but it was turned into a 5-4-3 double play and emptied the bases. During the 6th, Cueto's last inning, the Royals WE was at its lowest point at 17.7% as they still trailed 4-2. In the regular season, the Royals were 14-50 when trailing after 5 and the win percentage dropped below 20% after 6.

With one out in the 6th, Lorenzo Cain doubled down the right field line. On an 0-2 count, Eric Hosmer threw out an "excuse me" swing, blooping a single over the shortstop and cutting the margin in half. Morales singled and Mike Moustakas worked a walk to load the bases with Perez coming up to the plate. Of the 141 players who qualified for the batting title, he had the 2nd lowest BB% in the majors. The number 13 on the back of his jersey matched the number of walks he took all season. Josh Fields (not the former Royal) walked Perez on 4 pitches, the last of which sailed past him all the way to the backstop and Hosmer trotted home to tie the game. Gordon and Rios struck out to end the threat.

For the final three innings, Cueto gave way to the new bullpen HMD trio: Kelvin Herrera, Ryan Madson, and Wade Davis. Herrera worked a scoreless inning. After the 7th inning stretch, Alcides Escobar led off with a line drive that fell between Jake Marisnick and George Springer. Marisnick kicked it and Escobar ended up at 3rd with a leadoff triple. Zobrist singled through a drawn in infield and the comeback was complete. Madson pitched a perfect 8th with 2 strikeouts. Davis came in for the 9th. Preston Tucker, pinch hitting for Marisnick, drew a one-out walk. Carlos Gomez came in to pinch run but was picked off. A 2-out grounder by Altuve to Moustakas ended the game and tied the series.

ALDS Game 3

(RR Game thread) (RR Recap)

Pulse (first half of video for Royals): http://m.mlb.com/video/v521983783/

Highlights: http://m.mlb.com/video/v521859083/

After winning the 2015 Wild Card game against the Yankees, Game 3 was the first appearance of 2015 AL Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel in the series. During the regular season, he was 15-0 with a 1.46 ERA at home, notable as the series headed to Minute Maid Park in Houston. The crowd (and Thunder Stix) were loud as this was the first Astros home playoff game since 2005 (Ed note: I was at Kauffman for ALDS Game 3 last year and in Houston for Game 3 this year and the K was louder- the ground was shaking; still, Houston's crowd was loud, especially with the roof closed). Edison Volquez made his first postseason start for the Royals and looked really sharp early. The pitchers traded zeroes through the first three innings. On the 10th pitch of the leadoff AB in the 4th, Cain launched a long home run to left. Volquez faltered in the 5th, giving up a walk, double, single, and the lead as #9 hitter Jason Castro drove in Luis Valbeuna and Chris Carter. The next inning, Volquez almost worked around a Springer leadoff double but gave up another run on a 2-out Gomez RBI bloop single. The Royals were not without their chances, stranding runners in scoring position in each of the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th innings off of Keuchel. He walked off to a standing ovation, allowing just the 1 run, scattering 5 hits and 3 walks in 7 innings with 7 Ks. Leading off the 8th, Carter added insurance with a solo home run off of Danny Duffy, his 3rd hit of the game. Alex Gordon hit the third solo home run to lead off an inning in the 9th to pull the Royals within 4-2. Escobar singled with 1-out to bring the tying run to the plate. But Houston closer Luke Gregerson got Zobrist and Cain to end the game and give the Astros a 2-1 series lead.

ALDS Game 4

(RR Game thread) (RR Recap)

Pulse (first half of video for Royals): http://m.mlb.com/video/v522541883/

Highlights: http://m.mlb.com/video/v522286983

Facing elimination, Ned Yost and the Royals turn to Yordano Ventura to keep their season alive.

-Josh Duggan

Facing elimination, Royals Review turns to Old Man Duggan to keep its season alive

-Gopherballs

Ventura started for the Royals on short rest after the rain (and performance) shortened outing in game 1 while rookie Lance McCullers started on 8 days rest for the Astros. In the top of the 2nd, Perez gave the Royals a 2-0 lead on an opposite field home run. But the Astros pull even on solo home runs by Gomez in the 2nd and Correa in the 3rd. Other than the home runs, Ventura was throwing fire with 7 Ks through 3. In the 5th, Springer works a 2-out walk and Correa lines a double. It takes on odd bounce off the stands that juts out into right field. Rios can't get a good throw and Correa scores standing up: Astros lead 3-2.

The top of the 7th brought controversy as Terrance Gore came in to pinch run for Perez. He had been hit by a pitch with 1 out and was wobbly from a possible concussion earlier in the game. Gore stole 2nd on the 1st pitch but doesn't go again during the entire Gordon strike out. During Rios's AB, Gore takes off for 3rd and looks to have easily made it. However, replays showed him pop up after the steal, possibly pushed by 3B Valbeuna. After review, Gore is ruled out.

If momentum existed in baseball, it suddenly shifted against the Royals. In the bottom of the 7th, Herrera walked Altuve to begin, and subsequently end, his second inning of work. Madson came in and struck out Springer, bringing up the 2015 Rookie of the Year. Matt Vasgersian's call: "There goes the runner. THERE GOES CORREA!" And seemingly with it went the postseason hopes of the 2015 Royals.

The years and years of The Process(TM) waiting for a World Series title.
The hope of redemption after the anguish of last year's game 7 loss.
All of the 2015 regular season success and home field advantage.
The farm-system-gutting deadline deals for playoff rentals.
The miserable postseason-prepping September.
All gone. The season over.
Over. Over?

After the Royals failed to tie the game in the top of the 7th, the Astros had blown the game open in the bottom of the inning. It was Correa's 3rd extra base hit on the day: 2 home runs and a double to go along with a hit by pitch in the 1st. Springer even called the home run. The next batter, Colby Rasmus, took one deep the other direction with a home run down the right field line that barely stayed fair for an Astros franchise first: back-to-back postseason home runs. After a couple more hits, the Astros win expectancy reached 98.4% but receded ever so slightly to 96.8% after Madson worked out of even more trouble to end the inning. (Ed note: I live and work in Houston and, after the Correa blast, a couple of Astros fans came over to my cube. They playfully came by after Rasmus. They stopped the next half inning.)

The Royals were 6 outs from elimination and things looked bleak. John Smoltz: "You have two innings left in the life of your season". Most had given up hope while those who hadn't, clung to the sliver of hope that it had happened before: in the hundred plus years of baseball history, one team had rallied from 4 behind in the 8th inning of a playoff game. Looking back, the parallels to the 2014 Wild Card are uncanny: the Royals take an early lead; a dramatic home run by the opposition for the large lead; more insurance runs being part afterthought, part coronation for the opposing team; the reliever barely escapes giving up more; and the Royals going into the 8th, needing 4 to tie.

The 8th started with Rios, who was batting when Gore had been caught stealing last inning, seemingly a season ago. He was the firestarter, lining the first pitch of the 8th to left for a leadoff single. On a 2-2 pitch, Escobar singled up the middle. Three pitches later, Zobrist lined a single that dropped in front of Gomez and the bases were loaded with nobody out. The Royals win expectancy creeped up to 17%. Cain singled to cut the lead to 6-3 with the bases still loaded: "And the Royals, as they've done all year long, keep the line moving" (Vasgersian). Win expectancy was now at 29%. Will Harris gave way to the lefty Tony Sipp so he could face Hosmer, Morales, and Moustakas.

Hosmer missed on a first pitch fastball and almost swung at two 0-2 sliders. But on the 5th pitch of the AB, he joined the singles train with a rope over Altuve. Another run scored. The WE surged to 44% as the bases were still loaded with no outs. Then, the defining AB of the game. Ryan Lefebvre: "Ground ball. Up the middle, Correa. HE MISPLAYS IT! THE BALL GOES INTO CENTER FIELD. TWO RUNS SCORE AND THIS GAME IS (dramatic pause) TIED!" Morales hit a ball sharply up the middle, Sipp deflected it, putting enough spin on the ball that Correa missed it, as it goes by him into center field. Sipp's reaction says it all:

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Like the Wild Card game, the Royals tied the game with a flurry of runs with no extra base hits. Moustakas strikes out and Gregerson comes in as the Astros have a chance to stop the bleeding. Drew Butera, who had come in for Perez, hit .196 on the season. He battled the Houston closer 10 pitches before drawing a walk to reload the bases for Gordon. Alex grounded one deep to 2nd and Altuve's only play is to 1st. The Royals had a lead!

Houston escapes further damage so Ned Yost brings in Davis to nurse the 7-6 lead for a 6 out save. The Astros go down on 7 pitches in the bottom of the 8th. In the top of the 9th, with Zobrist on, Hosmer crushes a Josh Fields offering into the Royals bullpen, padding the lead to 9-6. Davis gave up Correa's 4th hit of the game, a leadoff single in the 9th, but finished off the next three Astros and a series that was all but over was suddenly tied.

This is what the Win Expectancy chart looked like:

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Source: FanGraphs

This what the Astros looked like:

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While keeping things clean, I can't post what Texas's boneheaded governor really looked like:

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This is what baseball history looked like:

This is what the usable parts of OMD's original game recap looked like:

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This is what OMD's new game recap looked like:

Headline: Royals rise from the ashes, come back for 9-6 victory

With a loss and the end of the season feeling a certainty, the Royals miraculously channeled the energy of their Wild Card game in 2014. The Royals' bats were listless, and a four-run deficit seemed an impossible mountain to climb. Rather than buckle at the prospect of climbing Mt. Everest in a hellish blizzard, the Royals scored seven unanswered runs in the last two innings and go back to Kauffman Stadium to face off against Houston for a one-and-done must-win Game Five for the right to go to the American League Championship Series.

This is what 8th inning Rany looked like:

This is what post-game reflective Rany looked like:

Looking back, does the series change entirely on Correa's misplay? No. If he gets the grounder, he still doesn't have a play at the plate and Zobrist scores to make it 6-5 on the double play. That leaves Cain at 3rd with 2 outs for Moustakas. Maybe he singles instead of striking out and the Royals tie the game. Maybe Hosmer still homers in the 9th and instead of being insurance, it gives the Royals the lead. There's no way to know what happened in that alternate universe. But in this one, the Royals had done the impossible for the second time in two years. Kansas City was ready to welcome back a team with a new postseason life. Johnny Cueto would get his chance at redemption.

ALDS Game 5

(RR Game thread) (RR Recap)

Pulse (start at 3:00 for Royals): http://m.mlb.com/video/v523227183

Highlights: http://m.mlb.com/video/v523221783

With the series hanging in the balance, the Royals looked to rental ace Johnny Cueto while the Astros countered with Game 1 starter Collin McHugh. McHugh was coming off of a game 1 where Royals not named "Kendrys Morales" managed only 2 hits and 1 walk across 6 innings. Meanwhile, Cueto, a disappointing 4.76 ERA / 4.06 FIP / 4.13 xFIP since coming to town, was hoping to bounce back from game 2 where he gave up 4 runs in the first 3 innings before settling down to retire 12 of the last 14 Astros he faced. Even with the high stakes baseball, real life took center stage before the game as there was a moment of silence for two fallen Kansas City firefighters.

After a scoreless first, Cueto got the first 2 outs in top of the 2nd. Then Evan Gattis grounded one down the 3rd base line that Moustakas ranged far to get but his rushed throw pulled Hosmer off the bag. On the next pitch, a Valbuena home run gave the Astros a 2-0 lead and Royals fans a sinking feeling. As with every other game in the series, Houston had taken a lead. The Royals went weakly in the 2nd and managed nothing in the 3rd. The back-to-back pitches in the 2nd aside, Cueto was still dealing with 5 strikeouts through 4 and no other runners allowed.

Bottom 4 with one on, Hosmer looped a little single into center field. Gomez fell down fielding it and Cain scored all the way from 1st to cut the lead in half. In the top of the 5th, Cueto ran his streak to 10 Astros in a row retired. His 12th pitch of the inning sent the crowd into a frenzy as Carter swung through it. In the bottom half of the inning, Perez worked a full count before being hit by a pitch. Alex Gordon worked another full count before crushing a pitch to right. The ball one hopped over the wall for a ground rule double, momentarily preventing Perez from scoring. McHugh's night was finished and 3 Mike Fiers's pitches later so was the Astros lead. Rios grounded a double right up the 3rd base line, plating both runs. An Escobar sacrifice bunt and Zobrist sacrifice fly put the Royals up 4-2.

Cueto continued to dominate with perfect 6th, 7th, and 8th innings on 5(!), 14, and 5(!!) pitches; he finished his night with 91 total. In the bottom of the 8th, the Astros, perhaps trying to summon the ghost of Madison Bumgarner, brought in ace Dallas Keuchel from the bullpen on short rest. A couple of batters later, Kendrys Morales launched a low curve 440' to center and the Royals were off to the ALCS. Fittingly, Wade Davis threw a perfect 9th to close out the 7-2 win.

The juice was worth the squeeze... THIS IS THE JOHNNY CUETO FOR WHOM THE ROYALS TRADED.

-Kevin Ruprecht

In 8 innings pitched, Cueto gave up only the two hits and two runs in the 2nd. He walked no batters and struck out 8. He retired 19 straight, the most by an AL pitcher in a postseason game since Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series. If Moustakas makes the play, Cueto may have come out in the 9th with a chance for his own perfecto. His 78 game score tied for the 2nd best start in Royals playoff history. The best two being Bret Saberhagen's 1985 World Series games 7 (79) and 3 (78).

This is the type of game that Finnegan, Lamb, and Reed were traded for. If the Astros had traded, say, McCullers, Velasquez, and Appel to the Reds, Cueto likely could have been theirs. But few Astros fans would make that trade as they see themselves as a potential perennial contender, on the doorstep of success for many years, whereas the Royals are likely in the prime of their shortening window (Ed note: I asked a number of Astros fans the day after this game: "Would you trade those three for Cueto and a win last night"; they all said "no"). The Royals moved on to a rematch of the 1985 ALCS against the juggernaut Blue Jays.

Other Playoff Series In the senior circuit, the 100-win St. Louis Cardinals met their longtime nemesis, the 97-win Chicago Cubs. The Cardinals had a lead in every game but the Cubs won the series 3-1, clinching a postseason series at Wrigley Field for the first time in history. The young Cubs team blasted 10 home runs in their 3 wins. The New York Mets won a back and forth 5 game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers that was marred by a game 2 incident where Chase Utley broke Ruben Tejada's leg. Jacob deGrom won games 1 and 5 of the series at Chavez Ravine, throwing 13 IP, giving up only 11 hits, 2 runs, and striking out 20 Dodgers. The Texas Rangers won the first two games in the other ALDS series in Toronto against the Blue Jays. Trade deadline acquisition David Price was bested by Yovani Gallardo in a 5-3 Game 1. Game 2 was the 2nd longest, by innings, in ALDS history and the Rangers won 6-4 in 14. Back in Texas, Marco Estrada shut down the Rangers in Game 3 while the Blue Jays jumped out to a 7-0 lead in Game 4 before RA Dickey began scufflling. David Price had to come out of the bullpen to nail down the win and knot the series at 2.

The 7th inning of the ALDS Game 5 was one of the craziest in MLB history. The Blue Jays had just tied the game at 2 on an Edwin Encarnacion homer in the bottom of the 6th. With Rougned Odor on 3rd, 2 outs, and a 1-2 count. Aaron Sanchez threw ball 2 to Shin-Soo Choo. Russel Martin's relay back to the pitcher hit Shin-Soo Choo's bat and it bounced towards third. Seeing the live ball, Odor raced home and gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead. After a long review, the play was upheld as Choo did nothing to interfere with the ball in play- Martin just accidentally threw it at his bat. Fans rained down beer bottles, cans, and garbage onto the field causing a delay. In the bottom of the 7th, Elvis Andrus was involved in errors on three(!) straight plays to load the bases for the Blue Jays. Ben Revere hit a grounder to first and pinch runner Dalton Pompey took out catcher Chris Gimenez but no interference was ruled on that play. Josh Donaldson popped a ball towards Odor who misplayed the pop but managed a fielder's choice at 2nd. However, the tying run scored. Then Jose Bautista released two decades of Toronto frustration, crushing a Sam Dyson pitch 442' and bat flipping the Jays to the ALCS for a date with the Royals.

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.