Out_of_the_Blue

“When it’s your turn, when it’s your year, you’re going to win, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

I’m not sure how many times I said that on the air during the second half of this 2014 season, but it’s true. When it’s your year—whether that means winning the league championship or winning the World Series, it’s meant to be, almost as if it’s preordained. Much like the Royals of 1980 and 1985, the 2014 Royals proved that to be true.

The clues pointing toward this being the year the Royals would make a postseason run started to become evident during their eight-game winning streak in early August that included, coincidentally, a three-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants at Kauffman Stadium. That streak, which was the second longest of the season, came two weeks after we got swept in Boston and then lost the first game of a series at Chicago. The Royals, at that time, were eight games back in the division. At the end of that eight-game winning streak, we were one-and-a-half games back. That’s when you could begin to see the clues. You could see it in winning games in wacky ways or the opponent handing you a game that you had no right to win. That was happening night after night. What would seem to be an occasional accident was becoming more of a pattern.

You’ll read later in this book a great example of that. It was a mid-September game at Kauffman Stadium against the White Sox. After losing three out of four to Boston at home and five of their previous seven, the Royals were two games back in the division and needed a win. The boys were trailing 3–0 in the seventh and then 3–2 in the ninth. In the bottom of the ninth, Terrance Gore and Jarrod Dyson both scored from second base without the ball leaving the infield. That’s not something you see every day. But that’s just one of the many clues proving that this was the Royals’ year.

The Royals goal when the season started was to make the playoffs. When they made the playoffs, it eliminated a lot of the pressure. When they won the wild-card game against Oakland, that eliminated whatever pressure was left. And now they were loose and relaxed and running free in the underdog role. What followed, first with the Angels and then with the Orioles, was ridiculously easy. All the pressure was transferred to the opposing teams, and they were wound tight. Normally you have to fight your way through the postseason, but the Royals, unfettered by pressure, breezed through the American League playoffs.

After the 2014 Kansas City Royals came within one win of the team’s second World Series championship, fans attending the October 30 rally at Kauffman Stadium showed their optimisim for the team’s chances in 2015. (AP Images)

Then came the Giants, the National League wild-card team. Both teams had been underdogs through their league playoffs, and now you had two very similar teams facing one another—a compelling matchup that, unfortunately, went the Giants’ way thanks largely to an incredibly talented pitcher, Madison Bumgarner.

You’re going to have stressful games, but a couple things happened for the Royals in the 2014 postseason. With the exception of Bumgarner for the Giants and possibly Jon Lester with Oakland, the starters the Royals faced were very average. Out of 15 postseason games, Bumgarner and Lester were the only starting pitchers who really gave the Royals fits. The other thing, though, that made it relatively stress-free was our bullpen. Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland were incredible all season. Manager Ned Yost said it perfectly when he made the statement that he could manage for 50 more years and not have an easier time managing than he did with those three guys at the back of the bullpen.

Going into the season, there was no way to see they were going to be that good. During spring training you lose Luke Hochevar, who was seen as the set-up guy, and Davis is thrown into that spot. As a result, Davis gave us as perfect a season as is humanly possible on the major league level. A major injury—and Hochevar was the only one on the team to suffer one—turned into probably the best relief season any pitcher has ever had in the majors. Holland also was close to perfect. So Ned could sit back and relax late in games. I’m not sure any manager has been able to experience such a stress-free last three innings. It was so much fun to watch every night.

Offensively, everything fell into place with hardly any adversity from spring training through Game 7 of the World Series. The closest the Royals came to adversity was that sweep in Boston and loss in Chicago that put them eight games back with about six weeks left in the regular season. They could’ve folded their tents and been done for the year.

Of course, through the postseason, we saw guys like Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, and Lorenzo Cain, among others, really step up offensively and defensively.

There’s no denying this incredible season for the Royals. Out of all the great teams we had here through the 1970s and ’80s, this one went through the American League playoffs on a streak that can’t be beaten, winning eight straight. And maybe it was appropriate that, after winning a do-or-die wild-card game, the Royals and the Giants faced each other in a winner-take-all Game 7. That’s where the run ended for the Royals, but what a magical season the club gave us.

— Denny Matthews, the voice of the Royals since the team’s inception