That’s What Speed Do

The Anti Joe Estrada

There were no Joe Carter walk  off Taters, no Kirk Gibson one legged heroics, no Aaron Boone or Bucky Dent anomaly Big Fly clouts…

Nope, at the end of the day  it was a speedy  center fielder scoring  from 1st base after a lead off walk, a heady third base coach  slowing the fastest part of the game down to  a manageable crawl, and a brilliant relief appearance after a long rain delay  that  was the deciding factor..

Put it in he books, the KC Royals finally pulled the plug on Team Canada who  sold their soul to  the Devil in an effort to  bring the MLB Championship Trophy to a foreign country… Better luck next time boys, EH!

“It worked because Hoz made a big turn coming around first base. It worked because Lorenzo Cain never slowed down,” Yost said. “He didn’t just take for granted that he was going to third base. And Jirschele knew that in those situations Bautista comes up and fires to second base, and he was waving him all along. It was a huge send by Jirsch.”

So Grateful Ned Yost is crediting his 3rd base coach Mike Jirschele with knowing what Joey Bats would do in that bang bang 1st to home situation, that  punched KC’s 2nd consecutive ticket to  the World Series

The  Hosmer knock looked like a double  off the bat, Bautista ranging to his right, snagged the ball made a 360  and never looked at his cut off man ( Goins) instead he rifled the ball  to Tulowitzki who  was covering 2nd base..

Alex Gordon mentioned it wasn’t the Royals first  rodeo  watching Lorenzo Cain sprint from first  to the finish line, and  Jared Dyson the owner of that  quote That’s What Speed Do mentioned that’s what  we do  when  we catch  the defense slipping up a lil bit, take the extra base, Run…

Thanks to  MLB’s best  all  around baseball squad, Team Canada has finally been laid to rest after losing a white knuckler 4-3 to  the reigning  AL Champs the KC Royals…

Chicks Dig The Winner

In the end the “We Hit The Long Ball, that’s what  we are” just  wasn’t enough to propel  Canada’s Team Mercenary to  a World Series..  The Royals hit the long ball  too  last night, their 1st 2 runs came on solo blasts from hired gun Ben Zobrist, and Royals core 1st baseman Mike Moustakis

Up 2-1 the Royals kicked into  stage two of their completely balanced roster when Moustakas led off the 7th inning with a single.. Two outs later Moustakas was standing on 2nd base when John Wayne Gibbons yanked his biggest Mercenary David Price and replaced him with  a neophyte set up  man Aaron Sanchez

Sanchez was up  1-2 on Alex Rios who has been outstanding for the Royals, but instead of expanding the strike zone, Sanchez laid a 96 MPH fast ball  that leaked over the plate and Rios smacked it to left field giving the Royals a much needed 2 run  cushion with 6 outs to go

I’m not sure why Gibbons would yank Price in that  spot with  99 pitches under his belt and one more out in the 7th inning to  secure… Yes in the past the 7th inning has been Price’s  bug-a-boo but he’s the guy  you traded the farm  system  for, the Big future $200M Horse the Red Sox fans think will be in Boston (that’s laughable)…

We understand the two Baby Jays are the Gate Keepers in the back of the pen, but we’re not talking 2014 Herrera, Davis, Holland here, or even early 2015 season Betances,  Miller, these are 22 (Sanchez)  and 20  (Osuna) yr old kids with  huge upside but apparently not huge enough

Joey Bats With Balls

We don’t like Joey Bats, why, because he plays with a swagger, he kills the Yanks, and he’s not on our team, that’s why…

Last night he refused to lose when in the batters box.. OK so he missed his cut off man in the fateful 8th inning, but really, was Goins or anybody  gonna throw out Lorenzo Cain from  short right field..? It’s a moot point, and the play was moving so  fast Bautista never even entertained throwing to  his cut off man on defense

On offense Joey Bats single handedly almost willed Team Canada to  a game 7, and Stroman vs Fat Johnny Cueto would have been a death march for the Royals on the road, but at least  a toss up in KC, luckily we don’t have to  find out…

In the 4th inning Bautista worked himself into  a 3-1 count and for some reason Ventura challenged him with a 96 MPH fast ball on the plate… Damn  thing (431 ft)  picked up frequent flyer miles en-route to  cutting the Royals lead in half 2-1.. It also made you aware if the Royals didn’t start to  tack on some runs, Team Canada had 4 or 5 players that  could go Big Fly at any point in time and Price had found his rhythm while  the extremely talented but enigmatic Ventura was 5 to  6 outs away  from a shower

This wasn’t the 2014 Royals, they  no longer had a 3 headed monster coming out of the pen with their closer Holland on the DL.. Madson is a decent 7th inning reliever coming off Tommy John but he’s not an  elite weapon so him pitching to Bautista in the  8th inning, with one out was that  slight opening Canada needed, and got

I guess Madson punching out Donaldson with Revere on first and the threat of rain made Yost stick  with his 7th inning guy in a very high leverage situation.. Davis was warming up but it was too late as Madson pitching with a 0-1 count laid a 96 MPH fastball just  below the letters, it was up,  but not up  enough, and Joey Bats blasted it 396 feet into  the seats to  tie the game 3-3

After walking Encarnacion Yost finally yanked Madson, brought in Davis who  had to  work  around the walk and his own  wild pitch to  close out the 8th, then had to  sit for  45 minutes while Mother Nature tried to help Team Canada reach a game 7

Throw Out Your Walking Cain And Run!

 Following a 45-minute rain delay, the Royals wasted no time  taking it to  the house…Twenty Yr old  Closer Roberto Osuna started the bottom of the 8th for Canada  and Lorenzo Cain battled the kid with an  8 pitch  walk to  set up  the winning run

Osuna pitching to Hosmer unleashed a 2-2 cement mixer slider that Hosmer poked down the right field line.. Cain made a legendary mad dash in 10.47 seconds to  score.. Bautista threw the ball  to 2nd base, luckily for the Royals, Joe Espada wasn’t coaching 3rd base and Mike Jirschele was,  so the end result was KC manufactured the game winning run..

“You dreamed of that, didn’t you Jirsch?” pitching coach Dave Eiland said, smiling broadly.

This is why you cringe when the Revenge of the Nerds duo of Cashman / Girardi  state We win with the HR, no boys you win with a well balanced team, you fake playoff runs with a one dimensional  offense

Wade To Go!

45 minutes after he threw his last pitch Wade Davis was back in the fray trying and close out the 9th inning. Martin blooped a lead off single, Pompey running for Martin stole 2nd base.. On a 2-2 count Davis broke off a knuckle curve that bounced, Perez in his haste to  gun down Pompey stealing 3rd couldn’t handle the ball  and Canada had a man on 3rd No Outs

Martin singled to center. 3 4
Pompey ran for Martin. 3 4
Pompey stole second. 3 4
Pompey stole third. 3 4
Pillar walked. 3 4
Navarro hit for Goins. 3 4
Navarro struck out swinging, Pillar stole second. 3 4
Revere struck out swinging. 3 4
Donaldson grounded out to third. 3 4

Davis showed his brilliance by punching out Navarro  and Revere, the cameras caught Revere beating a garbage can  to  death with his bat after the punch out…Davis is hands down top 1-  2 or 3 Weapon Out of the Pen in all of baseball and him throwing an 2-0 knuckle curve to Revere for a strike was a key to  the punch out.. He evened the count 2-2 with a blazing 97 MPH heater, then put Revere away  with an un-hittable knuckle curve

Donaldson was in a hitters count 2-1 when Davis broke off what pitch fX called a 4 seam fastball that had the outer part of the plate… The pitch was also  diving down just  enough that Donaldson really couldn’t get the barrel on it and he grounded to  Moustakas for the final  out

Davis has an  $8M option for 2016, he has hands down been the best  acquisition in the Myers / Shields featured trade with Tampa Bay 2 yr’s ago…

Mets / Royals for all  the marbles Tuesday night.. Met Mutts are over confident they’ll  win a ring, but they’ll be facing the best  all  around baseball team in the world next week, should be a fun finish  to  a great MLB season

the Whole 9