The Kansas City Royals are back in the World Series.
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While few prognosticators even picked them to win the American League Central, the Royals advanced to their second straight World Series for the first time in franchise history with a pulsating 4-3 win over the Blue Jays in Game 6 of the AL Championship Series on Friday night at Kauffman Stadium. A year ago, the Royals lost to the Giants in Game 7.
Kansas City will play the New York Mets in the World Series.
The Kansas City Royals are returning to the World Series after wrapping up the American League Championship Series with a gripping 4-3 victory against the Toronto Blue Jays in game six.
While Cain made a mad dash around the Kauffman Stadium bases, Toronto outfielder Jose Bautista pirouetted after reaching the ball and fired toward second to keep Hosmer at first, not thinking Cain would try to race home on the play.
“From the first day of spring training, we expected to be here”, Royals manager Ned Yost said.
Price took the mound for Game 6 trying to keep Toronto’s season alive and also kill off his winless drought as a postseason starter. “I can’t wait to be fighting on the big stage with these guys in a couple of days”. “They laid it out there every day”.
“Wade Davis is so tough, and we had two guys coming up that are hard to strike out, and he got both of them”, Gibbons said.
“I want to congratulate the Kansas City Royals for a wonderful year”, Gibbons said.
All through the post-season, Blue Jays left-hander David Price remained confident that he would deliver on the big stage. They were, in fact, good enough to win it all.
Re-signing the ace left-hander will be the top priority of Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos this off-season.
Eric Hosmer, who hit the eighth-inning single that drove in a hustling Lorenzo Cain with the winning run from first base, represents one of Kansas City’s cornerstones.
While the Blue Jays topped the majors with 232 home runs during the regular season, the Royals used the long ball to grab an early 2-0 lead. The home run hitter who irked Kansas City fans all series followed his solo shot in the first inning with a tying, two-run homer to left that silenced the crowd – other than the smattering of boos directed at Madson on the mound. But Davis struck out Dioner Navarro and Ben Revere, then induced a pennant-sealing groundout from MVP contender Josh Donaldson.
In the end, the Royals went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position. The 24-year-old right-hander gave up just one run on four hits and two walks over 5.1 innings pitched.
Jose Bautista was a one-man wrecking crew for Toronto in a playoff thriller driving in three runs with a pair of homers included a two-run shot in the eighth inning that tied it at 3-3 when the Jays were down to their last five outs.
Then the weather hit, a 45-minute rain delay that sent fans scurrying for the concourses and threatened to put a damper on what had been a festive night for KC. “I don’t know what happened I just kept going”.
Trailing 4-3, Russell Martin singled to lead off the ninth inning against Wade Davis and pinch runner Dalton Pompey stole second and third base while Kevin Pillar walked, putting runners at the corners with no one out.
Toronto won the first four must-win games by a combined score of 26-9.
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Price gave up five earned runs over seven innings in his lone start in the division series against Texas. “Our club does not mind being tied late, because they know that our bullpen is strong, and they know that our bullpen will hold the fort until we can score a run”. “Last year we were really a good team, and this year, again, a really great team”. The Royals were just that little bit better.
