KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kauffman Stadium sits hard by Interstate 70, the highway that serves as the vena cava for flyover country. Ten years ago, when the Kansas City Royals were in the midst of another 100-loss season, a bullet fired from I-70 entered the bus taking the Cleveland Indians away from a midweek sweep of the Royals. It struck a rookie pitcher named Kyle Denney in the leg. He was not seriously injured. As a part of rookie hazing, he was wearing a USC cheerleader getup, and trainers believed the long, white boots saved him from more than a grazing. Police never found the shooter.

In nearly two decades prior, and the decade since, cars and trucks have driven past the stadium without giving it an ounce of thought, similar to the regard with which all of baseball treated the Royals. They were easy to ignore. Even if Kauffman Stadium was one of baseball's great jewels, the on-field product encouraged a quick glance, followed by a firm push on the gas pedal.

At 8:49 p.m. CT on Sunday, as traffic buzzed by at its usual languid weekend pace, a big rig of unknown origin or destination, headed eastbound, reached the point of I-70 where the stadium opens up to the road. Its driver laid on the horn. Fans inside the stadium clapped and cheered, because with one toot, the driver captured everything a giddy crowd of 40,657 was feeling: whether it's via a long honk or a live video broadcast nationwide to a gobsmacked audience wondering who exactly these Kansas City Royals are and how exactly they are thumping the Los Angeles Angels again, this is a team worth recognizing.

View photos Royals catcher Salvador Perez celebrates with fans after beating the Angels to reach the ALCS. (USA Today) More

And so this night went, wondrous for a Royals franchise that exulted for the third time in 10 days after 29 years of wretched baseball, miserable for an Angels team that finished the regular season with the best record in baseball, 98 victories and aspirations to win the World Series. Nights such as these, of course, are what make playoff baseball so wonderful: not just the Royals wrecking the Angels' season with an 8-3 victory that finished an American League Division Series sweep but doing so in such ignominious fashion, with every injury finding a corresponding insult.

There was the evening of Angels starter C.J. Wilson, their $77.5 million free agent, which ended before the first inning, with three runs in, two outs on the scoreboard and one lonely walk from the pitcher's mound to the dugout. Even worse was the series of Josh Hamilton, another of their pricey free agents, ending with a slash line of .000/.000/.000. He's due $89 million over the next three seasons. And with Mike Trout and Albert Pujols contributing little beyond solo home runs Sunday, the half-billion-dollar core of the Angels' lineup came up empty time after time.

Between the Angels and the Detroit Tigers, Sunday marked the reckoning for two high-payroll, star-studded AL teams ousted by upstarts who will take four-day breaks before kicking off Game 1 of the AL Championship Series at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

"We're not a big-market team," Royals outfielder Jarrod Dyson said. "Detroit: big-market team. Anaheim: big-market team. We just go out there and play our game. It's all about who steps up in the playoffs. It ain't about salary and all that. That don't play a factor over here in our clubhouse."

Story continues