In a do-or-die AL Wild Card matchup billed as a duel between two of baseball's most dominant pitchers, the Kansas City Royals came out victorious thanks to an absolutely thrilling comeback.
On a night in Kansas City that gave us much more offense than expected, Oakland's habit of stranding runners in scoring position came back to bite them in the worst way. Moss had just two homers in the last two months of the regular season, but it didn't matter here - his first shot off James Shields put the A's up 2-0 in the top of the 1st, and his second was a three-run blast that put them back on top after the Royals had managed to rack up three runs on Jon Lester...the most Lester had allowed in a game since the A's acquired him from Boston on July 31.
After Lester's second shot in the top of the 6th, the Royals let Oakland pile up two more runs in the inning, with Yordano Ventura and Kelvin Herrera unable to stop the bleeding. Derek Norris - on for Geovany Soto, who left with a thumb injury - plated Josh Reddick, and Coco Crisp brought Norris home with a single soon after. For Jon Lester and Oakland's bullpen, it looked like the four-run lead was more than enough to ride to a comfortable victory.
In the bottom of the 8th, though, the Royals started plating runs, giving the A's a real scare, and the home fans a glimmer of hope. First, Lorenzo Cain's single brought in Alcides Escobar, then a Billy Butler single brought in Cain. The fans only got wilder when Lester was relieved by Luke Gregerson, only for a wild pitch to bring Eric Hosmer home and put the tying run on third base. Gregerson kept his cool, though, striking out two the last two batters and sending the game to the ninth with the A's hanging on 7-6.
The A's, up against Kansas City ace Greg Holland, did something they were guilty of frequently during during their brutal post-All Star Game funk - they loaded the bases before the end of the inning, but failed to score.
A's closer Sean Doolittle knew what the Royals would try to do in the bottom of the 9th, but failed to stop it. Josh Willingham pinch-hit for Mike Moustakas, and the A's old nemesis did just enough for speedster Jarrod Dyson to get on base. From there, a sacrifice fly got him to second, and a steal - his 37th of the year - got him to third. All Nori Aoki had to do was get the right kind of contact, and he made no mistake, sending Dyson home and the game to extra innings.
The 10th inning passed without a run after the Royals put an unlikely hero on the mound - 21-year-old rookie Brandon Finnegan. Finnegan, less than four months removed from the College World Series (and with seven innings of major league experience under his belt) came out firing, leaving the A's scoreless through the 10th and 11th.
Oakland's Dan Otero, in for Doolittle, was able to get out of a jam in the bottom of the 11th, sending Finnegan back to the mound for the 12th. The A's were finally able to get men on base against the Royals rookie, though, and Jason Frasor was the unlucky man to let the A's get back in front. More bunting (the small-ball theme was there all night, but gave way to an onslaught of bunts once the game went to extras) brought up Alberto Callaspo with Josh Reddick on third, and of course it was Callaspo (.080 in his last 50 at-bats) who brought in the run that put Oakland up 8-7 heading into the bottom of the inning.
Otero came back out, but an Eric Hosmer triple almost immediately brought the crowd roaring back in. Christian Colon quickly proceeded to tie things up with a chopper that the A's couldn't track down in time, and that brought up Salvador Perez, who hit a single on Jason Hammel (Oakland's third pitcher of the inning) to complete the comeback and send the A's home just minutes into October.
For the Royals, appearing in their first playoff game since 1985, it was a thrilling comeback that will give the team a massive lift heading into their series with the Los Angeles Angels. While the high-powered Angels will be heavily favored, Kansas City now knows there's something special about this team, and they certainly won't be feeling too bad about their chances.
For the A's, this meltdown was a crushing end to a season that won't be easily forgotten. Oakland was the best team in baseball until the All-Star break, but everything came crashing down during a second-half run that saw their bats go cold and their confidence disappear. With Jon Lester likely leaving in free agency and an uncertain offseason ahead, this team may want to completely reshuffle the deck going into 2015.
The ALDS begins October 2 on TBS. We'll be back tomorrow when the San Francisco Giants take on the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League Wild Card game.
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