Royals Sweep Orioles, Head To World Series
By Ed Carroll
“Wild” Card Win – September 30, 2014
The Royals hosted the Oakland Athletics, a team who was considered a shoo-in favorite to cause some damage in the postseason thanks to two huge in-season trades and one of the best records in MLB for most of the season. But Oakland’s lead in the standings evaporated, and the A’s barely made it in as the second Wild Card.
Oakland sent ace Jon Lester, one of the two major midseason acquisitions, to the hill in what many felt was simply a formality to get the Athletics into the ALDS. The Royals countered with their top starter, Shields, but this game was going to be anything but a pitching duel.
Oakland got on the board first, with two runs in the first, and the Royals countered with a small-ball run in the bottom of the inning. The score would remain the same until the bottom of the third, when the Royals were able to pick up two more runs, but Oakland scored five runs in the sixth inning and Lester was cruising, and with the score 7-6 Oakland, it appeared the Royals’s October dreams would come to an early end.
But the Royals were able to tag Lester for three runs in the eighth inning and chased the A’s lefty. Oakland got out of the inning, but the Royals weren’t done, and Kansas City was able to scratch across a run in the bottom of the ninth off all-star closer Sean Doolittle to tie the game.
Oakland took another lead in the top of the 12th, scoring two runs to make it 8-7, Athletics. But KC’s speed burned Oakland in the bottom of the inning, when Eric Hosmer tripled, then scored on an infield single by Christian Colon, who would steal second and then score the winning run on catcher Salvador Perez’s single, giving the Royals a wild, Wild Card game win over Oakland, 9-8.