Historic homers, walk-off hits will be replayed for Royals’ Christmas Eve marathon

Fox Sports Kansas City will air its annual Christmas Eve marathon of Royals’ games from the past season beginning at 1 p.m. Sunday.

If you can find time to spend idly on the couch, you’ll be able to catch several historic moments during the replays.

Here is a look at the schedule of games:

1 p.m.: Sept. 20 at Toronto

After nearly a month spent battling a knee injury, Mike Moustakas crushed his 37th homer of the season into the visitors bullpen at Rogers Centre. It was his first home run in 15 games — and it made history, breaking the 32-year-old franchise record for most single-season homers set by Steve Balboni in 1985. The Royals won 15-5.

3 p.m.: April 19 vs. San Francisco

Jason Vargas was arguably one of the best starters in baseball during the first half of the season, racking up American League bests in wins (12) and ERA (2.62) and earning an All-Star nod. One of his early gems came against the Giants at Kauffman Stadium, where he outdueled Madison Bumgarner in a 2-0 win.

5 p.m.: Aug. 23 vs. Colorado

In late August, Greg Holland was back at Kauffman Stadium for the first time since he wore a Royals uniform. The Royals dedicated a pregame video montage to their former closer on the first night of the series.

But when Holland took the mound for the first time in the series the following day, former teammate Eric Hosmer didn’t take it easy on him. Hosmer unleashed his swing on Holland’s 86 mph slider, a hanging pitch that came in above Hosmer’s beltline, and drilled the baseball into the right field corner for a three-run, walk-off homer. It was the first walk-off homer of Hosmer’s career.

7 p.m.: June 23 vs. Toronto

A soldout crowd at Kauffman Stadium watched Whit Merrifield, the seventh batter in the ninth inning, stroke a two-run double into deep left field to seal a four-run, walk-off rally. The improbable 5-4 win got the Royals back to .500 for the first time since mid-April.

9 p.m.: June 6 vs. Houston

The Royals trailed 7-3 after seven innings against the eventual World Series champion Astros. But a four-run rally in the eighth and a two-run, walkoff homer from Moustakas snapped the Astros’ 11-game winning streak.

This story was originally published December 21, 2017 at 2:48 PM with the headline "Historic homers, walk-off hits will be replayed for Royals’ Christmas Eve marathon."