Warts and all, Royals have won with Ned Yost, not despite him

Last week, Ned Yost became the longest-tenured Royals manager, a somewhat dubious distinction considering they’ve had 19 since their inception in 1969.

To his legion of critics, that probably registered along the lines of a Woody Allen quip: 80 (or is it 90) percent of life is just showing up.

And the feat may have evoked more sighs and head-shakes than hurrahs and nods of appreciation.

Never mind that on his ledger, now and forever forward, will be the distinction of presiding over the franchise’s exhilarating return to the playoffs after a generation-plus of emptiness.

Anyone who wonders what the Royals’ resurgence has done for its fans and for the city need consider only the intoxicating energy and magic of their 9-8, 12-inning victory over Oakland on Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium in their first postseason game since 1985.

But even amid the euphoria, at least one element of cynicism persists as the Royals begin their American League Division Series against the Angels tonight in Anaheim.

If Yost helped engineer this just after passing that milestone for enduring, none of it seems to have made him more endearing to fans.

That was in full, naked view during the AL Wild Card Game, the first playoff game of Yost’s 11-year managerial career, including nearly the last five full seasons with the Royals.

At times, the criticism of Yost borders on hysterical.

It’s often unreasonable, perhaps in part because he seems ill-tempered if you don’t spend time with him … and don’t see a personality that some of us are partial to.

But he invited it on Tuesday, when he seemed to take the notion of “Wild Card Game” so literally that he felt obliged to play a few jokers.

He unleashed the first curiosity with two outs in the bottom of the first when he called for a gimmicky delayed double steal that was supposed to somehow set off chaos in the Athletics with Billy Butler on first and Eric Hosmer on third.

Instead, the A’s easily foiled the idea and threw out Hosmer near the plate.

Since it began with Butler just straying off the base, fans were more puzzled and silenced than enraged by the preposterous idea.

Plus, they didn’t know Yost had called for it.

But when Yost prematurely pulled James Shields in the sixth inning with two men on about as softly as they could have gotten there …

And when his replacement to take on left-handed hitting Brandon Moss was right-handed rookie fireballer Yordano Ventura, who had thrown 73 pitches on Sunday …

Instead of left-hander Danny Duffy (who has held lefties to a .137 batting average this season) or rookie lefty Brandon Finnegan (who has been utterly dominant in a relief role) …

And when the move instantly backfired with Moss’ three-run homer …

Well, Yost might as well have been chomping on an exploding cigar as Moss’ shot left the field.

When Yost retrieved Ventura, the boos were of such a fury that many no doubt wanted him fired on the spot.

His explanation afterward did little to justify the decision.

“Ventura came into a game earlier this year and actually won it for us by throwing an inning-and-two-thirds of relief,” Yost said. “He was lights‑out, and we got to that point where we just wanted to bring the gas. We wanted to bring the gas for the sixth.”

Instead, the move seemed to torch the Royals’ chances. They trailed 7-3 by the end of the inning.

What happened next, of course, became an improbable instant classic. The Royals cut it to 7-6 in the eighth, tied it in the ninth and then came back yet again with two in the 12th to win.

Some suggest that the Royals overcame not only the A’s but Yost to do so, just as some believe the Royals are in this position despite Yost.

Neither, though, is true.

Yost, to be sure, is an imperfect manager, which is a fine match for what general manager Dayton Moore calls “not a perfect baseball team.”

But he’s certainly no dope, even if it’s become sport to suggest that.

He lives and breathes and obviously knows the game, reaping much of his experience in perennial playoff runs working for Atlanta’s Bobby Cox, the fourth-winningest manager in the history of the game.

And Yost has had plenty of sway in all this.

He helped set an upbeat tone in the clubhouse, protecting his players for the most part but challenging them and chiding them in an important and overlooked way when this season was on the brink of crumbling.

On a day the Royals would fall to 24-28 with a listless 9-3 home loss to cap a hideous sweep by Houston, Yost reflected an internal message by publicly questioning the leadership on the team and its failure to consistently take professional at-bats and apply urgency to the season.

The next day, as the Royals embarked on a tough six-game road trip to Toronto and St. Louis, Dale Sveum replaced Pedro Grifol as hitting coach.

Some combination of all that was a reset button. The Royals won four games on that trip and simply looked like a different team.

They would sag and streak again, of course, but that was a key pivot point of the season that suggested Yost was controlling the levers.

Yost also may have been on the verge of losing the team after his ill-conceived pitching blunder in Boston after the All-Star Break, but he worked to redeem faith in him.

A manager’s impact on the team is below the tip of the iceberg, of course, and not visible.

But that’s a major chunk of the job, too.

It’s just not as evident and easy to nit-pick as strategy, and everyone has their choice of what they don’t like on that menu in baseball, a pastime that lends itself to second-guessing.

Yost makes some baffling decisions, yes.

And don’t we all?

In his case, most of the time it’s because he’s overthinking a situation, like what to do about generating runs with an unpredictable offensive game.

And maybe he underthinks a few, is too dogmatic on others and too whimsical with some.

It’s hard to say where choosing Jason Vargas to start tonight will rank. Vargas, of course, has been slumping in September.

Duffy seems a better choice.

But …

“We like the fact that (Vargas) is a veteran guy,” Yost said Wednesday. “He’s very composed, and it’s going to be a pretty electric atmosphere. We just thought he was the right guy to start game one.”

There is a logic to that, of course.

But in baseball there aren’t so much right and wrong decisions as there are results that vindicate or invalidate the choice.

The cumulative results say this, though: The Royals have prospered this season under Yost more than they have at any other time since 1985 … even if he is an imperfect manager of an imperfect team.

This story was originally published October 1, 2014 at 9:43 PM with the headline "Warts and all, Royals have won with Ned Yost, not despite him."