Relive the crowning of the 2015 Royals: Here’s a flashback to KC’s ALCS Game 4 rout

Five years ago this fall, the Kansas City Royals won their second World Series championship.

Fox Sports Kansas City is re-airing the Royals’ victories from that postseason this month. At 7 Wednesday night, May 13, it’s Game 4 of the AL Championship Series.

To help you relive the moments from that magical October, we’ve dug into our archives.

Below are original stories, front pages and photos that appeared in the Oct. 21, 2015 editions of The Kansas City Star, the day after the Royals beat the Blue Jays 14-2 and moved one win away from reaching their second straight World Series:

Blue crush: Royals flip the script on explosive Jays, 14-2

TORONTO — They shouted from the dugout to keep the line moving, because at some point that old baseball saw became their slogan. The easiest thing in the world is to adopt a saying and repeat it. The harder accomplishment is putting it into motion, turning it into reality, even pushing another unforgettable season to within one win of the World Series.

These Royals can be an overwhelming machine when the parts are in harmony, and for the last two years — finally — the parts have almost always been in harmony. Each of them has a story, some better known than others, all of them working together for the best baseball Kansas City has seen in a generation.

They beat the Blue Jays 14-2 in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series at the Rogers Centre on Tuesday, a whipping so complete that Blue Jays utilityman Cliff Pennington became the first position player to pitch a postseason game since at least 1914.

The Royals lead the series three games to one, with Game 5 this afternoon. They need to win just once in three tries to win another American League pennant.

“Ninth inning, two outs, me at third,” Alex Gordon said, the memory of last year rushing back. “Just so close, and coming up short. That’s the motivating factor.”

They attacked the Blue Jays from the beginning, swinging early and often and hard, chasing starter R.A. Dickey in the second inning. Ben Zobrist hit a knuckleball over the fence. Lorenzo Cain stole a base and later scored on a passed ball.

Four more runs came in the seventh, three in the eighth, two in the ninth. There was no referee to stop the fight, so the Royals just kept coming, and coming, then coming again, scoring runs long after they had squashed any remaining doubt from this game like a cigarette butt under a boot.

“Just a great overall team win,” starting pitcher Chris Young said. “That’s what this group is.”

Fittingly, they did the closing damage with no home runs — eight singles, three walks, three run-scoring sacrifice flies, a double and a hit batter. When the Royals are right, they are more buckshot than bombs, winning the fight like a pack of dogs rather than one lion.

They have taken to calling this “frenzy hitting,” another of those identifiers that might not make sense to outsiders but fits this group like an old slipper.

“It can come at any time,” reliever Luke Hochevar said. “You just know these guys are going to fight every at-bat. They’re going to battle every pitch.”

Even before they won a pennant or even a postseason game, the Royals had shown themselves to be insatiable, relentless and unpredictable.

The Blue Jays and Astros tied for the best home record in the American League. The Royals are now 2-2 in those parks this postseason, the wins coming on an epic comeback in Houston and now a savage blowout.

The Blue Jays were the heavy betting favorite to win the World Series when these playoffs began and came into the ALCS on a wild show of force and bat-flipping against the Rangers in the ALDS.

But the Royals just won a hinge game — now up 3-1 instead of tied 2-2 — by squishing the Blue Jays’ bats and outslugging the world’s baddest hitters. They scored 14 runs with 15 hits on Tuesday, numbers the Blue Jays matched only three times in 171 games, including this postseason.

The Royals are outscoring (33-16), outhitting (.331-.233) and outslugging (.496-.346) the Blue Jays in this series. Include the Division Series and the Royals hitters are still outperforming the Blue Jays. Starting with the eighth inning of Game 4 of the Division Series, they have scored 47 runs in 44 innings.

Back home, this has created an intoxicating and irresistible new passion. Kansas Citians have never watched or read this much about a baseball team, ever. They have never bought as many tickets, even back in the 1970s and 1980s, when the team always won and the games weren’t on television as much.

Winning is the most important thing, of course. It always is. But there is something more about this team that has grabbed people back home. Some of that is in the stories, about Lorenzo Cain finding baseball only after being cut from the basketball team, or Alex Gordon’s relentlessness, or Salvador Perez’s interminable smile and toughness.

But there was a particularly special moment on Tuesday, one that people who have been around the team for a while surely noticed but others may have missed. It happened in the fifth inning, when Hochevar jogged in from the bullpen into the biggest out of the game to that point.

Even by the standards of successful big leaguers, Hochevar’s professional resiliency has been profound. He came to the Royals as the only No. 1 overall pick in franchise history, technically made by the old leadership group, but in reality very much a part of what general manager Dayton Moore and his lieutenants were trying to build.

They saw in Hochevar a foundational piece, a future top-of-the-rotation starter for a franchise that had an agonizing time developing one in a sport that demanded at least a few. They spent seven years and gave Hochevar 128 big-league starts in chasing that vision. He was occasionally terrific, but the flashes were too short and rare, washed away with continued struggles.

Two years ago, the Royals made him a relief pitcher, and the results were both immediate and spectacular: He struck out 82 batters and walked just 17, posting a 1.92 ERA in 70 1/3 innings. The Royals had a brand new weapon.

The next year his elbow gave out, and at least a few club officials admitted being choked up talking about the empathy they felt for a man who had finally found his place in baseball.

But Hochevar is back now, and statistics and scout opinions agree he has become stronger as the season has progressed. He is now their top reliever outside of the back-end triumvirate of Wade Davis, Ryan Madson and Kelvin Herrera.

He earned the trust shown when manager Ned Yost summoned him to relieve Young, two outs and one on against Josh Donaldson, one of the game’s top sluggers. Hochevar threw a cutter at the letters, which Donaldson popped up, an easy out for Eric Hosmer that killed the Blue Jays’ threat. After Hochevar came back the next inning for three more outs, he had gone through the Blue Jays’ best four hitters in what has often been the Royals’ vague and dangerous space between their rotation and top three relievers.

It was a beautiful sight to those who have been on or around this team for a certain number of years. At one point, Hochevar was seen as the busted No. 1 pick, a sign of a sorry franchise’s failures. Now he is remade into a valuable piece, equal parts talent and determination, a beloved teammate in the middle of the Royals’ sprint toward another World Series.

Rios’ resurgence helps Royals return favor to Jays in Game 4

TORONTO — Sixteen years ago, the Toronto Blue Jays drafted Alex Rios 19th overall and assigned him to rookie ball at their affiliate in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

“The only thing I can recall,” he said, smiling, “is big mosquitoes that we used to get on night games.”

Small wonder he couldn’t recall more: That was where he began a 556 minor-league-game and 1,691-major-league-game odyssey to his first postseason in MLB, finally this year ending his sad distinction as the active player who’d gone longest without appearing in the playoffs.

“It’s been a long road,” Rios said after going 3-for-3 with a home run to help the Royals clobber the Blue Jays 14-2 on Tuesday to take a 3-1 lead in the American League Championship Series.

With some symmetry, though, to the way it has twisted.

With a resurgence against the organization with which he spent a decade, playing in a stadium, the Rogers Centre, where he was jeered the hardest of all Royals on Monday and taunted thusly when he came to the plate in the second inning Tuesday:

“You’re not as pretty as you used to be,” a fan bellowed, audibly in the press box if not home plate.

In general, the ever-cool Rios took no exception to what he called “that kind of ambiance” and dismissed as mere noise.

And apparently that specific crack had nothing to do with the home run Rios then hit.

“No, I didn’t hear that,” he said, smiling. “But that’s a good one.”

There is testimony in this to the mind-set that has both sustained Rios and at times exasperated Royals fans watching him.

Because Rios carries himself with, well, a certain regal elegance.

On a baseball field, that demeanor can appear more like nonchalance than reserve or restraint, particularly in comparison with the demonstrative likes of Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez or the hyper-hustle of Ben Zobrist.

The 6-foot-5 Rios’ lopes for a ball can look like saunters, his calm at the plate like apathy.

“I’ve never been a guy who shows too much emotion on the field,” he said. “I just do what I have to do, and that’s it.”

So he just smiled when asked if there was any extra satisfaction in the home run here and said he hadn’t thought about it beyond that it was “good to give the team a little room to play” — a 5-0 lead.

Playfully asked if that was all he had, he just smiled more.

Still, it’s evident what his late-season surge has meant to him and the Royals, who stuck with him through a long funk out of manager Ned Yost’s belief that Rios could get hot the more he distanced himself from the injury that hampered him long after he returned.

“He’s a professional; he’s been a professional for a long time,” Yost said. “He doesn’t panic in at-bats. There’s a lot of good things about his game that allow you to have patience with him.”

And now here Rios was, for the third time this postseason making a key impact on a game batting out of the No. 9 spot.

Earlier, he engaged the epic eighth-inning rally in Game 4 of the American League Division Series against Houston with the first of Kansas City’s five straight hits.

In Game 5 against Houston, he drove in the go-ahead runs, and his work on Tuesday was a reminder that the Royals have pop all the way through their order.

“There’s no dead spots in that lineup ... ,” Yost said. “These guys all have the ability to keep a rally going.”

With Rios keeping it fluid at the bottom of the order, now he’s a win away from his first World Series.

It’s been “remarkable,” he added. “It makes it so much sweeter after going through all this.”

Insert your own interpretation for “going through all this,” because any number of points could apply.

Rios evidently was speaking to the long overall slog to this moment, but he just as easily could have meant the microcosm of that in this season alone, when for so long it appeared he’d been a bust.

Incurring a case of the chicken pox at age 34 might sum up the oddities adequately in itself.

But he also missed 40 games after suffering a broken bone in his left hand, which still is swollen.

“It’s going to be like that,” Rios said, smiling and adding, “It’s a good reminder.”

Just like being booed, as he was at times at Kauffman Stadium this season.

And was and will be again here, with the organization that gave him his start to a long journey.

“I would say,” he said, “that’s a way of fans appreciating what you do.”

A somber victory: “He would just be so excited,” Chris Young says of his dad

TORONTO — The iPhone sat on the top rung of Chris Young’s locker on Tuesday evening, so he pulled it down and unlocked it. He found 68 text messages congratulating him on his first playoff start in nine years, part of Kansas City’s 14-2 trouncing of Toronto in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series. The lone voice missing was the one he heard in his head all afternoon.

Only three weeks removed from the death of his father, Charles, Young vacillates between the ache of his loss and the commitment to honor his dad. Charles Young loved to watch his son’s teams, and his son knows he would delight in a club now only one victory away from the World Series after Chris tossed 4 2/3 innings against the Blue Jays.

“He would just be so excited,” Young said. “So excited.”

The internal tumult still tugs at Young. The loss coincided with his return to the starting rotation. Charles Young died on Sept. 26, the day before his son made his first start for the Royals in two months. Still numb, Young threw five no-hit innings the next afternoon. He felt his father’s spirit beside him during that game and each subsequent outing into October.

An early March signee, not offered a big-league contract by any team besides Kansas City, Young fortified the rotation in the first half and returned to prominence within the pitching staff during the final days of September. As confidence in Johnny Cueto reached a low ebb, Young offered a study in competence in Game 4, limiting Toronto to two runs and three hits. He exited so Luke Hochevar could pick up the final out in the fifth and hold the Blue Jays at bay.

The tenor of the game changed in the final innings as the Kansas City hitters reduced the Toronto bullpen to ash. The Royals scored four runs in the seventh, three in the eighth and two in the ninth en route to their highest-scoring output in franchise postseason history. It was also the most lopsided playoff victory ever for the Royals.

The fusillade lessened the importance of Young’s outing — unless you ask members of the Royals’ roster.

“I think every time he goes out, everybody’s pretty confident that he’s going to give everything he has,” outfielder Alex Gordon said.

To Young, a 36-year-old right-hander, those qualities stem from his father, who had been battling cancer for years. Charles Young captained the football team at Texas Christian University as an offensive lineman in the 1960s. He flew patrol aircraft as a Naval Aviator and spent 26 years in the service. He provided constant counsel for his son throughout his baseball career.

Charles tried not to stray too deep into technical tips about pitching, Chris said. But he offered broader advice. The Royals removed Young from the rotation after Cueto arrived in late July. Young fumed at the decision, but his dad advised him to use it as fuel.

“He just reminded me, ‘Hey, worry about what you can control, and everything works out,’ “ Young said.

His father received the diagnosis about three years ago. Doctors have yet to discover a cure for multiple myeloma. Young’s two sisters, Erin and Lindsey, moved to Dallas to help with his care. Young stayed in San Diego, trying to navigate his own collapsing career, onset by an unceasing series of complications with his right shoulder.

An All-Star with San Diego in 2007, Young teetered on the brink of retirement in 2013. He suffered from thoracic outlet syndrome, a condition that pinched the nerves in his shoulder, robbed his fastball of life and agonized his arm. After he researched the ailment online, Young underwent surgery that led him to a revival in 2014 with Seattle and an opportunity in Kansas City this season.

Charles watched the Royals every night. When he talked with Chris, the conversation often felt one-sided, as Charles raved about their on-field exploits. He appreciated the outfield defense, the talent of Hosmer, the spirit of Salvador Perez.

“He was just so excited, because it was the best team I’ve ever played on,” said Young, a veteran of 11 big-league seasons. “And he just enjoyed it so much. He just thought it was so much fun watching day in and day out.”

On the night of Sept. 26, as the Royals played the Twins, Young walked into the Kauffman Stadium clubhouse midway through the game to grab a sweatshirt. He found his phone flooded with messages from his wife, his mother and his sisters. Call as soon as you can, they said. Had to take Dad to the hospital.

Young slipped into a clubhouse office and connected with his family. His father had suffered an infection and become stricken with pneumonia. His sister listed the symptoms, and Young understood the severity of the situation.

Young huddled with manager Ned Yost and general manager Dayton Moore after the game. He informed them his father’s situation was dire, but he still felt he could start the next afternoon. The Royals duo told Young they supported his decision, either way. Young told them he planned to pitch and then fly home.

His phone rang soon after he left the ballpark. It was his sister. “Dad’s in heaven,” she said.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Young said. “I just felt like they were going to be able to stabilize him at some point. I felt like there was going to be a chance for me to get home and say goodbye.”

Young thought through the night and decided he still wanted to pitch. He described the outing as “the most peaceful game I’ve ever had,” listening to his father in his ear all the way. After the fifth, despite not yet allowing a hit to the Twins, he informed Yost and pitching coach Dave Eiland he could go no further.

Once he reached the clubhouse, Young broke down into sobs. A stream of players and coaches found him. Young sat facing his locker, crying into his hands. Mike Moustakas, who lost his mother earlier that summer, approached him from behind and hugged him.

Young hopped a flight to Dallas that afternoon. His performance only fortified his standing within his clubhouse. His teammates expressed awe at his fortitude. He rejoined the team for one final regular-season start, flew back to Texas for his father’s memorial service and then prepared for October.

Called into emergency duty in Game 1 of the American League Division Series, Young struck out seven Astros. Tabbed as the fourth starter for this series, he avoided danger against an explosive lineup on Tuesday.

“To get us into the fifth inning right there with the lead, he just pitched a great game,” Yost said.

The world still feels unfamiliar without his father. One night last week, as the temperature dipped in Kansas City, Young noticed all the fans bundled up and thought about how his dad would call him later to talk about the weather. Then he remembered the reality.

Yet he can still hear the voice. He insists upon this, even as he grapples with the loss. He intended to take about two hours after the game answering text messages. He had spent the afternoon on the mound, communing with his father.

“He’s with me,” Young said. “He’s enjoying this as much as I am.”

Escobar, Zobrist excel at setting the table

TORONTO — When the score stands at 2-0 two batters into the game, a team’s table-setting skills are impeccable.

So it is with the Royals, who didn’t stop at two runs on Tuesday. They rolled to a 14-2 triumph in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series and moved within one victory of another league pennant.

Those two runs at the outset set the game’s tone and immediately wiped away the sour taste of the Royals’ loss in Game 3.

It also continued a remarkable ALCS for their one-two punch at the top, Alcides Escobar and Ben Zobrist.

They’ve raked throughout the playoffs, and Tuesday they added variety to their act.

Against knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, Escobar swung through the first pitch. As he stepped in the batter’s box for the second, he took a quick glance at third base and saw Josh Donaldson playing deep and perfectly placed a bunt.

Up stepped Zobrist, and out went the baseball — a home run launched into the stands that sucked the air out of the Rogers Centre.

“They’ve been table-setters. They’ve been run producers. It’s been fun to watch them go to work every day,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.

Tuesday, Escboar chipped in a pair of sacrifice flies, Zobrist another base hit. Four games into the ALCS, Escobar is hitting .600 (9 for 15) and Zobrist .389 (7 for 18). If the series had ended Tuesday, or if it ends today, Escobar likely would be chosen series MVP.

“You can’t ask for any more,” Zobrist said of his teammate. “Even when there are guys on base, he’s doing a good job driving the ball, hitting it hard and having good at-bats. He’s just been great.”

Both players have etched their names into baseball’s and the Royals’ playoff record books.

Escobar has hit safely to open all four games against the Blue Jays. That has never happened in a postseason series.

This from a player who finished the regular season with an on-base percentage so low — .293 — that Yost moved him out of the leadoff spot for about two weeks late in the season.

The Royals started losing games, and Escobar returned to the top. Yost can’t explain it, and the numbers clearly run contrary to sabermetrics. But the Royals seem to function better with Escobar at the top, and especially if he hacks at the first pitch.

“I want to go to home plate and be aggressive, trying to swing at strikes,” Escobar said. “And I’m doing really good right now. I continue to be the same guy. I don’t need to change anything.”

On Monday, Escobar collected four hits and Zobrist three doubles, with each scoring three runs. Zobrist’s output was a Royals’ postseason record, and Escobar’s four hits tied a club mark.

Zobrist’s home run Tuesday was his first in this postseason, and he took advantage of a Dickey knuckleball that floated instead of danced.

“The one that I hit just kind of stayed in the same spot,” Zobrist said. “It was up, and it stayed up and didn’t dive one way or another, and I was able to get the barrel on it.”

Through their two postseason series, the Royals are hitting .284 with 12 home runs — a record for a Royals’ playoff year. Every regular except Escobar and Mike Moustakas has at least one home run, and Lorenzo Cain extended his postseason hitting streak to 13 games, a stretch that dates to last season.

On Tuesday, the ninth place in the batting order — Alex Rios for three plate appearances and Paulo Orlando for two — went a combined 5-for-5.

But it starts at the top, where Escobar and Zobrist have led the charge to the brink of an American League championship.

“This whole team up and down the line — everybody feels dangerous right now,” Zobrist said.