Complete Inning By Inning Breakdown of Royals Wildcard Win

My wife was mourning NO HUD? That cracks me up.

Top of First:Shields had some trouble finding the strike zone against Crisp who hit the sixth pitch to left for a single. Fuld got under a pitch and flied to Gordon. The third pitch in his sequence looked like a missed call by the ump. Against Donaldson it seemed that the A’s know which pitch is the change. But then the third in a sequence he swung at and missed. But then Moss got all of an 87mph changeup… It would seem that the change up is moving a bit too quickly? Then Shields closes the door. But still 2-0.

Bottom of First:

The exact same location that Fuld got for a ball was called a strike on Escobar to open the bottom of the first. Quickly, Escobar was 0 -2. Then on pitch six we saw an E-6 by Jed Lowrie. Then Aoki showed sac bunt, down 2 in the first? That seemed stupid. Then on pitch 2 Aoki wasn’t bunting. Aoki grounded into a fielder’s choice. Cain sky balled a fly to right field. With Hosmer batting Aoki stole second. Then Hosmer did what all hitters should do when they don’t see any strikes… he walked. Two on, two out for Billy Butler. Billy complained about a 2-0 pitch that was called a strike that was CLEARLY inside… the next pitch was in the same place and was called a ball for 3-1. Then 3-1, Butler hit a single scoring Aoki and moving Hosmer to third base. Fuld did a great job keeping Hosmer from scoring. Alex fell behind 0-2, then Butler WANDERED OFF FIRST and ended the inning.

2-1 A’s Lowrie – seven pitches then groundball to Hosmer.

Vogt – six pitch walk

Sogard – struck out… on Shields’s 45th pitch of the game…Pitch count isn’t a huge concern but 45 in two innings is a lot.Bottom of the second: Soto – Shields gets a strikeout on what was clearly a pitch that was low.Sogard – struck out… on Shields’s 45th pitch of the game…Pitch count isn’t a huge concern but 45 in two innings is a lot.Bottom of the second: Gordon (at bat again after previous inning ended while he was at the plate and Butler got caught napping) – skied one to Sam Fuld Perez – skied to Lowrie Infante – swung at a horrible pitch for the second pitch; Royals are starting to swing too much… and went down to strikeout for a horrible strikeout.Lester’s second inning: 9 pitches. That’s not good for the Royals. A’s 2-1 Looks like Soto will come out. Crisp – 1-2 groundball to Hosmer. Found out Soto injured his thumb on the tag at home on Hosmer in the first.Fuld – 2-2 soft liner to RF

Donaldson – first pitch rip ground ball to LF. Moss – HARD line drive on first pitch results in Hosmer catching the ball and doubling Fuld off second. Folks, I’m thinking that Shields doesn’t really have his A game tonight.Bottom of Third: I’m hoping the Moustakas has a really nice plate appearance, the Royals really need it. The batters in the second against Lester looked awful.Moustakas – Rips a single to opposite field right after the TBS gang showed the shift! Escobar – first pitch bunt. Seems like a waste of a plate appearance. Moose to second.

Aoki – controversy about timeouts… If Lester doesn’t like timeouts he could try delivering the pitch? Ground ball to Lowrie, Moustakas to third base. Cain – first pitch double to score Moose!! 2-2 Hosmer – horrible swing on first pitch, flare to LF – scores Cain 3-2.

Butler – ground ball to second ending inning.Thoughts: Moustakas starting looks like a great call right now. Royals 3-2 Wonder if third inning has anything to do with switching to Norris from Soto? Reddick – ground ball to Infante after falling behind 3-0. Six more pitches. Lowrie – Long fly but only 385 to a 400 foot section of park Cain catches it. Vogt – strikeout…. sometimes A’s don’t swing at strikes, too!First one-two-three inning for Shields. 67 pitches for four innings, but WHO CARES? If he can get through six that’s all we ask, right? Bottom half Gordon – strikeout on an offspeed ball in dirt. Gordon doesn’t look like he’s seeing the pitches at all well from Lester’s hand.

Perez – strikes out on a way low and outside pitch. If Perez is ever going to be a truly good hitter, he’s going to have to lay off that pitch.

Infante – first pitch ground ball to Lowrie.Same three batters who did nothing in the second and looked awful doing it did the same in the fourth. Royals 3-2 Norris – (batting in Soto’s place) – beautiful strikeout – looking. Sogard – ground ball to Infante… Crisp – Shields is now getting some strikes he wasn’t earlier…..and Crisp is very unhappy about it. Then the third base ump gave him it back – saying he checked when he did not. And called strike three on what Crisp thought was ball four.This was another 1-2-3 inning from Shields and he now looks good.Moustakas – They’re shifting again… Fly ball to Fuld.

Escobar – chopper to Lowrie. Aoki – weak liner to third base. Lester has retired his last seven batters and looks masterful now. Royals 3, Athletics 2 Follow @RoyalsBlue_com Shields 80 pitches. Fuld – blooper on a broken bat to right field. Donaldson – walks on six pitches. And that will probably do it for James Shields. Yordano Ventura is coming in… Moss batting against Yordano Ventura – HR dead center field and the change to Ventura immediately looks awful. 5-3 Athletics Reddick – why didn’t Yost go to Finnegan? All those lefties in the lineup? Single to Right Field. Lowrie – wild pitch. Fly to Aoki. Reddick advances to third.Now Herrera is in for Ventura. Vogt – popped up, 2 down. Norris – ground ball up the middle – 6-3 scoring Josh Reddick Sogard – and infield single first and second. Crisp – single to center field scoring Norris, moving Sogard to second 7-3. Fuld – strikeout. Five run seventh. Ned outsmarted himself, AGAIN. Bottom half: Cain – groundball to Lowrie. Hosmer – groundball to Sogard Butler – strikeout and looked AWFUL doing it. This game is over. Athletics 7, Royals 3 Donaldson (still versus Herrera) – strikeout Moss – strikeout. Reddick – ground ball – infield single. Lowrie – liner knocked down by Moose… out.Guess we couldn’t have gone to Herrera in the sixth? Oh wait, we have. Bottom half Gordon – swinging at everything now…. looking awful doing it. THEN manages to strike out looking. I think we can dispense with the idea that he deserves any MVP votes. Perez – ground ball to Donaldson. Infante – shows bunt on the first two pitches… hmmm. Then he bunts and Lester throws a bad throw to Vogt and Infante gets on. Moustakas – fly ball to Fuld. Infante broke a string of 12 straight mowed down by Lester. But this game still looks over. Athletics 7, Royals 3 In this increasingly bleak game I am now looking for positives without saying, “Hey at least we got here.” But sadly, that’s all I have right now. Now pitching: Wade Davis Vogt – Fly to Cain Norris – groundball to Escobar. Sogard – strikeout on a nasty pitch. Davis being Davis. There’s a positive in there. We can keep him by doing a team option. I say you take that. bottom half – Escobar – single up the middle! Aoki – my wife just said Aoki might hit a homerun… there’s much mirth here! Escobar steals. Ground ball to Sogard – Escobar to third base. Cain – single scoring Escobar – 7-4 ground ball up the middle Hosmer – Ball hit Vogt – that’s a FAIR BALL! No? Stolen base Cain! 109 pitches by Lester….walk TYING RUN is BILLY BUTLER Butler – Lester is going to leave the game. Now pitching Gregerson. Butler – single to right – 7-5 Hosmer to third! Terrance Gore to pinch run for Billy Butler Gordon – Gore steals second base… a single ties the game if Gordon can hit….Gore is the tying run and he is in scoring position. WILD PITCH HOSMER SCORES GORE TO THIRD!!!! 7-6. WALK Perez – lead run is on first base….strikeout… Gordon steals second.. An awful strikeout.. Infante – another strikeout on a pitch way out of the zone. Chances are better but still not good. 7-6. Athletics 7, Royals 6 Royals will have Moustakas, Escobar and Aoki in the bottom half. If anyone can get on, Lorenzo Cain. It seems that there is a chance, just not a good one. Doolittle is terribly good. Holland on to pitch for Royals Crisp – strikeout on the splider – swinging at a pitch down and in. Fuld – walk Donaldson – flied out to Gordon Moss – passed ball – Fuld to second – intentionally walked after 3-0 Reddick – walk… and the A’s are doing exactly what I would always do against Holland: never swing. Lowrie – line out Aoki… Bottom of the 9th Sean Doolittle pitching Moustakas has a .500 average against Doolittle. Of course, that’s 2 plate appearances. Willingham PH for Moustakas – single to RF. PR – Dyson Escobar – sac bunt – Dyson to second base… Aoki – Dyson steals THIRD BASE. That was close, but he was safe…SAC FLY DYSON SCOREs 7-7Six stolen bases. Cain – lineout to Lowrie. 7-7 Unbelievable. No way did I see that. My wife is gloating that I gave up and she is saying that Amy is always right… well, this time, she is! So, Blown Save: Sean Doolittle It was 2-0, then 2-1, then 3-2, then 7-3 now 7-7. Nix at 3rd, Finnegan pitching, Dyson in CF, Cain in RF Vogt – popped to Dyson. Norris – ground ball to Infante Finnegan who pitched in the college world series THIS JUNE is pitching in the same year’s playoffs? WOW. Punto PH for Sogard – STRIKEOUT. Will Finnegan be the winning pitcher? Bottom of tenth will be Hosmer, Gore, Gordon. Nate Freiman at first, Nick Punto at second. Hosmer – infield single after Lowrie has to spin and doesn’t get him when Hosmer dives. Colon is PH for Gore – sac bunt Hosmer in scoring position! Gordon – LHB hit .118 vs Doolittle this year, but Hosmer got a hit earlier… ground ball to shortstop… 2out Hosmer on third. Perez – ground ball to second base. The sac bunt doesn’t work because we just don’t have hitters. It’s not a bad play there. But we move to the 11th. Royals 7, Athletics 7 I feel like our best opportunities have now passed us by. The bottom of the 11th is Infante, Nix, Escobar. This is not promising. We’ve also really burned our bullpen and I fear Ned will call on Jeremy Guthrie. Finnegan still pitching Crisp – strikeout swinging Fuld – bunted to Finnegan – Finnegan fields well. Donaldson – single in front of Gordon… Moss – strikeout LOOKING. Finnegan looks amazing. He’s only thrown 22 pitches. He could pitch a 12th if needed. Crisp looks hurt. And is being removed. Johnny Gomes is coming in. Gomes will play LF, Fuld will play CF. Dan Otero pitching. Infante – line drive to rf, single… Dyson – sac bunt – Infante to second base. Escobar – ground ball to Lowrie, Dyson to third base. Nix – struck out LOOKING. Horrific ending there. And on to the 12th. 7-7 Royals 7, Athletics 7 Both teams are getting deep into their benches now. The A’s probably have an advantage in that they aren’t quite so far in yet. But it’s got to be about a 50-50 game still with a slight edge to the Royals. Finnegan still in Reddick – walk on five pitches. That seems bad. But I’d let Finnegan continue. Lowrie – sac bunt to Nix – Reddick to second base. And Ned removes Finnegan? Freiman is a right hand hitter and Ned wants Jason Frasor. Freiman – Callaspo PH – wild pitch – Lowrie to third. Single to LF – 8-7 as Lowrie scores. Pitch from Frasor was out of the strike zone. Callaspo went up and got it. Norris – Strikeout. Punto – pop out in foul ground – Infante catches it. Athletics 8, Royals 7 Bottom of 12th Callaspo remains in to play first base. Cain against Otero – ground ball to first base. Hosmer – hit one to left-center and hit the wall and bounced back into play – triple. Colon – infield chopper scoring HOSMER – 8-8. New pitcher to face Gordon: Abad. Gordon – foul out on the first pitch… caught by Donaldson. New pitcher: Drew Pomeranz Perez – catcher dropped the ball on the pitchout and Colon takes second on a steal. Single AND WIN!! Down line at 3b Reply Reply to all Forward

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