Kansas City Royals Manager Ned Yost grabbed the keys and took the wheel in the sixth inning Friday night. He swerved over the double yellow, glanced off the guard rail and just about hit a pedestrian. He might have clipped a couple mailboxes. Two wheels came off the ground around a bend in the road. And do you know what? At the end of Game 3 of the World Series, there the car sat, fender dented and headlight busted, safe and sound in the driveway.
Yost's moves typically draw questions. Friday night, the one that persisted is this: Was that dunce cap actually a wizard's hat? In the Royals' harrowing, 3-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants, Yost coaxed all 12 outs he needed from his bullpen in head-scratching, mind-bending, game-winning fashion. He let a reliever hit with a man on base in the seventh inning. He let a right-handed pitcher face a left-handed batter while a left-handed pitcher warmed up. He asked for a rookie who plied his trade this spring at Texas Christian University to record the night's biggest outs. The decisions led ultimately to the Royals taking a 2-1 lead in the 110th World Series.
The burden of decision shifted afterward to Bruce Bochy, the manager in the other dugout. In Game 4, down a game, would he start mountainous left-hander Madison Bumgarner in Saturday's Game 4, or stick with scheduled starter Ryan Vogelsong? The Giants, vying for their third championship in five years, have become the desperate team, trailing in the World Series for the first time in their recent run. The Royals, trying for their first in 29, are two wins away.
The path to this point took hairpin turns and wild detours. Tim Hudson and Jeremy Guthrie engaged in an improbable pitcher's duel for five innings. The Giants ambushed Hudson, who made the first World Series start of a 16-year-career, for a run in the first inning. The score stayed stuck at 1-0 into the sixth, when the Royals, fueled by Alex Gordon's double and Eric Hosmer's RBI single to cap an 11-pitch battle against Javier Lopez, grabbed a 3-0 lead.
Three more outs, and the Royals could uncage their three-headed relief monster. Three more outs, and it would be one inning apiece for Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland. Three more outs, and it would have been so easy for Yost.
Guthrie recorded no more outs. Brandon Crawford greeted him in the sixth with a single, just the third hit he allowed all night. Bochy called on Michael Morse to pinch-hit. He fell behind, 0-2, and launched a hanging change-up into the upper deck in left field - just foul. Five pitches later, though, Morse smashed a double down the left field line. He waved his arms and clapped his hands as he trotted into second, and Crawford sprinted home with the Giants' first run.
Yost had wanted to ease Herrera's workload after he threw 32 pitches two nights before in Game 2. He had no choice now - with the Giants threatening, he needed his nastiest pitcher on the mound. That meant the one who throws 101 mph. After allowing a walk, Herrera quieted the Giants' rally with three straight outs, including Buster Posey's RBI groundout.
Yost had brought in Herrera with an apparent plan in mind: He would pitch at least until he faced Hunter Pence, due up first in the bottom of the seventh. There was a hitch. Herrera was due up fourth in the top half.
When Jarrod Dyson singled with two outs, Yost stuck to his plan. Such is his faith in his bullpen - the means to record outs is more important to him than the capacity to add runs to a lead. He let Herrera, a reliever with zero career plate appearances, bat for himself. Would Yost have pinch-hit in the middle of the at-bat if speed-burner Dyson had reached second base? Sergio Romo dispatched Herrera on three pitches, before Dyson had the chance.
The payoff would come if Herrera dusted Pence. Instead, Yost got anguish. Pence walked Pence on a low 3-2 fastball, foiling the one reason he had let him bat.
Rookie left-hander Brandon Finnegan - a 2014 draft pick who pitched in the College World Series this season - had been warming, ready with three consecutive left-handed batters looming. But when Brandon Belt walked to the plate, Yost stayed put. Naturally, Herrera struck out Belt with a 3-2, 97-mph four-seamer.
Now Yost pulled the trigger on Finnegan. Bochy pulled back Travis Ishikawa for a right-handed hitter. With Morse already exhausted, the best Bochy could do was Juan Perez, an utter non-factor with a bat. Finnegan induced a soft lineout to left field. Two outs. Crawford ran the count full before Finnegan, who may be too young to feel the pressure of the moment, struck him out with a 95-mph sinker.
The Royals had survived a two-inning rollercoaster with Yost at the controls. They had reached the eighth inning with a lead and with Davis and Holland in reserve. In other words, they had won. Davis blew away the Royals in order. Holland matched him in the ninth, starting with Posey, the former MVP who has yet to leave his impact in the Series or record an extra-base hit in the playoffs.
Game 3 began with an act of gamesmanship from the Giants. Their grounds crew soaked the infield dirt, transforming it into a muddy, slow track. The tan warning track contrasted with the dark brown infield, slop intended to slow Royals base runners and sinkerballing Hudson's barrage of groundballs.
The Giants spit in the face of their own ploy. In the second inning, Pence tried to steal second base. Salvador Perez, the Royals' obelisk of a catcher, unleashed a bullet throw to nail him. Belt's two-out single to follow meant little. It became a footnote once right fielder Lorenzo Cain ended the inning with a diving catch.
Well before his bullpen adventures, Yost made a strategic lineup decision that paid instant dividends. The strange, large dimensions of AT&T Park combined with Guthrie's penchant for flyballs convinced Yost to bench adventurous right fielder and typical No. 2 hitter Norichika Aoki. He shifted Cain, an all-world center fielder to right field and played Dyson, who struggles at the plate, in center field. Twice in the first two innings, Cain stole hits with running, sliding catches.
Yost, in these playoffs, can do no wrong. The Royals, in this Series, have taken control. It may not look like it, but they had a grip on the wheel the entire time.
Posted by Unknown on Saturday, October 25, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
0 comments "2014 World Series: Royals win Game 3, even after Ned Yost makes it an adventure"
Post a Comment