Orioles - 010 000 000 - 1 3 0 Royals - 000 101 00x - 2 7 0The Orioles now have to ask themselves the magical question:
How Many Teams Have Come From 0-3 To Win A Best-Of-7 Series?Kansas City won its seventh straight postseason game, as Jeremy Guthrie (5-3-1-2-2, 94) and a quartet of Royals relievers held Baltimore to a mere three hits. Only one of the Orioles' last 22 batters reached base - a harmless two-out walk in the fourth inning.
Baltimore grabbed its first lead in the series on back-to-back doubles by Steve Pearce and J.J. Hardy in the second inning. Those were the only two Orioles runners to get past first base. Baltimore's other hit was Nick Markakis's single to begin the third.
The Royals tied the game in the bottom of the third. With one out, Lorenzo Cain blooped a single to short left-center and Eric Hosmer followed with a bloop hit to short center. Wei-Yin Chen (5.1-7-2-1-4, 80) walked Billy Butler, loading the bases. When Alex Gordon grounded out to second base, Cain scored.
In the sixth, Nori Aoki singled and Jarrod Dyson came in as a pinch-runner. Dyson stayed at first while Cain struck out, but he raced to third when Hosmer drilled a hard single into right. That ended Chen's night and Kevin Gausman came in from the bullpen. Butler flied out to left, deep enough to score Dyson with the go-ahead run. Gausman ended up pitching the seventh and eighth innings as well, retiring all eight KC batters he faced.
This was Guthrie's first game since September 26 and his night was cut short in part by a 32-pitch fourth inning, which included 14 pitches to Hardy. But the Royals' pen was more than up to the task of finishing things up, turning in four perfect innings.
Jason Frasor (6th): Adam Jones PF5 (Mike Moustaskas tumbled into the "dugout suite" after catching the foul pop-up.) Nelson Cruz F9. Pearce F8. 11 pitches.
Kelvin Herrera (7th): Hardy 4-3. Ryan Flaherty K. Nick Hundley K. 14 pitches.
Wade Davis (8th): Jonathan Schoop K2-3. Markakis F7. Alejandro De Aza 3-1. 13 pitches.
Greg Holland (9th): Jones P4. Cruz PF9. Pearce 4-3. 6 pitches.
The Royals cam clinch the AL pennant with a win tomorrow afternoon.
It has been 55 straight innings since the Royals closed a inning and trailed, dating back to the 8th inning of last Tuesday's Wild Card game against the A's. ...
When asked after the game by Andy McCullough if he thought the series would be returning to Baltimore, Jarrod Dyson replied, "No, sir, I don't. And I don't think they do either."
The Royals are playing out of their minds. They're as confident as any baseball team the world has ever seen. They've put Baltimore in a massive hole, and they're not shy about admitting it. At this point, all that's left to do is finish the job.
2 comments:
How Many Teams Have Come From 0-3 To Win A Best-Of-7 Series?
This many.
From Elias: Jeremy Guthrie allowed one run in five innings and the Royals bullpen took over from there with four perfect innings in a 2-1 win over the Orioles. That ties the major-league record for most total innings pitched by a relief corps in a postseason game without allowing a batter to reach base. Cardinals relievers, in a victory over the Brewers in the 2011 NLCS, retired all 12 batters they faced, as did Red Sox relief pitchers in a win against the Athletics in the 2003 ALDS.
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