KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Eric Hosmer laced a single down the right-field line, Lorenzo Cain came flying around second as if late for a job interview. A trip to the World Series was hanging in the balance. It was the moment Mike Jirschele had been waiting for.
Maybe not as long as everyone in this once-again baseball-crazed city thought, not back to Game 7 of the World Series last October when Jirschele, the Kansas City Royals’ third-base coach, threw up a stop sign for Alex Gordon, who stayed anchored at third base as Madison Bumgarner got the final out and the San Francisco Giants became World Series champions.