Greg Holland’s 2,000-mile trip to the mound

All was on schedule, or at least as much as a cross-country chartered flight could be on Thursday.

Royals closer Greg Holland had celebrated with his teammates after Tuesday’s stirring victory over the Oakland A’s in the Wild Card Game, then he hopped on a plane to Asheville, N.C., to be with his wife, Lacey, for the birth of their son.

Nash Gregory arrived around 9 p.m. Wednesday. Mother and son are doing fine, Greg thanks you for asking.

While he was in the hospital room, Holland made his travel arrangements to join his teammates in Anaheim for the American League Division Series. He would leave in the morning, fly 2,000 miles and arrive in the late afternoon.

And that part pretty much happened, with the plane landing at John Wayne Airport around 4 p.m.

But then it got complicated.

“We got here around 7 p.m.,” Holland said at Angel Stadium. “Drove through traffic.”

There was also the matter of where to enter the stadium. Typically, players know precisely the entry points. But that’s when the parking lot and stadium are empty.

Holland got to the outside of the stadium around the fifth inning and wasn’t exactly sure where he was or supposed to be.

“The guy who dropped me off did a great job getting me here, but he didn’t really know where to go,” Holland said. “I didn’t know where to go either.

“So I kind of made a few security guards nervous, running up to them with a pack over my shoulder with my ID in my hand, saying, ‘I’m a player, I’m a player. Don’t tackle me to the ground.’”

Holland was let in and jogged with a security guard down the ramp and into the clubhouse. Relief washed over the Royals dugout.

“I was locked into the game, but I was also locked into where the heck he was, too,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “Once you start getting into the fourth and fifth inning, your mind is thinking about pitching. … ‘Okay, am I going to have Holly or not?’”

Holland is a stickler for preparation routine, but Thursday required some acceleration.

“It’s kind of rush process to get loose,” Holland said. “But once you get out there and you’ve done it enough, you learn how to get going and do your normal routine.”

The Royals and Angels were locked in a tight, low-scoring battle, and Holland knew from updates he’d probably be pressed into duty. After Mike Moustakas powered the Royals into a 3-2 lead with a solo home run in the 11th inning, Holland’s time had arrived.

He set down the Angels in order to collect the first postseason save of his career.

And the Royals celebrated their second postseason birth in 29 years.

Remember Bret Saberhagen, a World Series hero in 1985? The night before he shut out the Cardinals in Game 7 to clinch the crown, then-21-year-old Saberhagen became a father for the first time. The birth of Drew William became part of the series media coverage.

Drew Saberhagen became a college baseball player, first at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., but after playing summer league baseball with players from Western Carolina University, he decided to transfer to the school in Cullowhee, N.C.

One of his teammates was Greg Holland.

Holland said Friday he didn’t know Drew Saberhagen, like Nash Gregory, arrived as a postseason baby.

“I never asked anyone how they entered the world,” Holland said. “It must be interesting.”

And a part of Royals history.

This story was originally published October 3, 2014 at 9:06 PM with the headline "Greg Holland’s 2,000-mile trip to the mound."