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Kansas City Royals Set Record With 8th Straight Win To Start Playoffs

By Phil Watson

Oct 5, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals players celebrate after defeating the Los Angeles Angels in game three of the 2014 ALDS baseball playoff game at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals won 8-3 advancing to the ALCS against the Baltimore Orioles. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 5, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals players celebrate after defeating the Los Angeles Angels in game three of the 2014 ALDS baseball playoff game at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals won 8-3 advancing to the ALCS against the Baltimore Orioles. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Kansas City Royals aren’t done with their run through the 2014 MLB postseason, but they’re already in their own exclusive club with eight straight wins to open the playoffs.

The Kansas City Royals are headed to the World Series for the first time since 1985 and they will open that series as the first team in MLB history to open the postseason with eight straight wins.

The Royals completed a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium with a 2-1 victory to improve to 8-0 in the 2014 playoffs.

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Kansas City shared the mark with the 1976

Cincinnati Reds

and the 2007

Colorado Rockies

with seven straight wins to open the postseason after beating the Orioles in Game 3 Tuesday night, 2-1.

The Royals clinched their first playoff berth in 29 years on the next-to-last day of the regular season, then won the season finale over the Chicago White Sox before embarking on their historic run through the American League playoffs.

Kansas City came back from deficits of 2-0, 7-3 and 8-7 to knock out the Oakland Athletics in the AL Wild Card Game on Sept. 30, winning it with two runs in the bottom of the 12th on RBI singles by Christian Colon and Salvador Perez.

The extra-inning magic wasn’t over for the Royals, not by a long shot.

Kansas City won the first two games of the AL Division Series against the Los Angeles Angels on the road in 11 innings each. Mike Moustakas gave the Royals a 2-1 win in Game 1 of the series on Oct. 2 with a leadoff homer in the top of the 11th.

In Game 2, Eric Hosmer put Kansas City on top 3-1 with a two-run homer in the 11th inning and added an insurance run on an infield single by Perez.

Hosmer and Moustakis each homered in an 8-3 win over the Angels at Kauffman Stadium to complete the sweep.

Against the Orioles in the American League Championship Series, Alex Gordon and Moustakes each homered in the 10th inning of the Royals’ 8-6 win in Game 1 at Camden Yards.

In Game 2 in Baltimore, it was some boring old ninth-inning heroics that did the trick as Alcides Escobar broke a 4-4 tie with an RBI double and later scored an insurance run on a single by Lorenzo Cain.

Billy Butler put Kansas City ahead for good in Game 3 with a sixth-inning sacrifice fly.

The 1976 Reds remain the only team to go undefeated throughout the playoffs in the divisional era (since 1969), sweeping the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series 3-0 before rolling over the New York Yankees in four straight to win their second straight World Series title.

The 2007 Rockies swept the Phillies in the NLDS and the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS before they were swept themselves by the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

Of course, as any good Royals fan will tell you, Kansas City has actually won 11 straight games in the postseason–after trailing 3-1 to St. Louis in the 1985 World Series, the Royals won the final three games to win the franchise’s first and–at least for right now–only championship.

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