The savior for Ned Yost, the right arm who waved the Kansas City Royals into their second World Series in a row, stood a few feet shy of third base as Eric Hosmer’s single soared into right field. Mike Jirschele, a minor-league lifer turned big-league coach, squinted as the baseball settled into the corner.
He earned infamy among certain fans for his refusal to send Alex Gordon in Game 7 of the World Series last year. Now he transformed his arm into a windwill, ordering Lorenzo Cain homeward, bringing in the pennant-capturing run in the eighth inning of a 4-3 Royals victory over the Blue Jays in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.