If you are a Royals fan who attended last night's crazy-ass wild card game in Kansas City, you should go ahead and give yourself a pat on the back. Because according to A's outfielder Sam Fuld, you played a direct role in the Royals winning that game.


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Eric Hosmer's 12th-inning triple kicked off the game-winning rally, raising the Royals' win expectancy from 10.1 percent to 39.9 percent and putting the tying run on third base. But it might have never happened had Jonny Gomes and Sam Fuld been able to hear each other in the outfield. Both guys ranged deep into left-center and appeared to be in position to make a leaping catch at the wall, but neither was ever called off by the other, and instead of a game-saving catch, the A's got a clusterfuck:


After the game, Fuld told reporters that he tried to call for the ball, but that the noise inside the stadium was so loud that Gomes couldn't hear him:

"Unfortunately I don't think there was any communication," Fuld said about Gomes. "It was just too loud. I yelled, but it was just so loud that we could be right next to each other and not hear each other."

There's certainly no guarantee that either Gomes or Fuld would have been able to make the catch had the other begged off—the ball hit pretty high of the wall and both of them were still on the run—but Hosmer likely has to stop at second if there's no collision and the ball is played properly off the wall. Christian Colon's ensuing infield hit would not have been enough to get Hosmer home from second.

So, good job, Royals fans. You got loud and you helped your team win a dramatic, extra-innings game. That's about as good as it gets for fans in attendance at a big game. However, if you try to leverage this into giving yourselves some kind of insufferable "10th man" title, you will undo all the goodwill you have created. Don't do that.