Never a doubt in my mind. And by "never a doubt" I mean the exact opposite.
If the Royals truly turn this into a magical season, this will be one of the handful of games that we'll remember.
Sure, the Royals only got one inning of Cleveland's bullpen thanks to their hackfest, but one inning was all they needed.
With one out in the 9th the Royals were down 5-2, and their chance of winning the game stood at roughly 2%. Then Jacobs homered: 5%. Then Teahen homered: 12%. Then, perhaps the most amazing event of all, Miguel Olivo walked: 22%. Mitch PRed for Olivo, and then DDJ, tripled, tying the game. It had to feel good for David, who's had some rough patches this season and who has, weirdly I think, turned into a polarizing figure amongst Royals fans. (To say nothing of the fact that GMDM has been looking for his replacement in CF from day one.) A few minutes later, Bloomy lifted a fly ball far enough to score David, stealing the game. That Willie Bloomquist, you can win baseball games with a guy like that on your team. Greatest sacrifice fly in the history of the game!
The Royals almost certainly got a helping hand from Eric Wedge, who went to Wood with Lee at just 101 pitches headed into the 9th (the Royals were in rare form tonight). I'm sure we'll hear through the official vehicles that it was the right call, that Lee had nothing left, that Wood needed work or whatever, but for Cleveland, this one has to really smart.
It seems like it happened days ago, but the comeback was possible thanks to two big innings from Ho-Ram and a scoreless 9th by Farnsworth. Kudos to two of the more hated Royals for their contributions tonight. Banny wasn't great, but he wasn't completely awful: 6 IP, 9H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, 5 ERs. The bullpen saved the Royals tonight, and killed the Indians.
The interesting thing about this year's Royals team is that they haven't had many games like this. Hell, Soria has been out for weeks and its barely mattered because the Royals have hardly played in any close games. This was a 2003 game, and a 2003 win right here, and I mean that as a compliment. In spirit, this was like the 2003 Ken Harvey game, though in reality it was actually much much more.
Teams only win one or two games a season like this. Who knows, it might turn into a very interesting summer.