Royals newcomers came up huge in playoff debut

The Royals had gone through their best pitching arms. They had burned their pinch-running specialist. To some extent, the AL Wild Card Game on Tuesday became a battle of spare parts, and here the Royals thrived.

A handful of players who weren’t part of the team before July, made major contributions in the Royals’ stirring 9-8 victory in 12 innings.

From the ninth inning on, a new Royal was part of every critical moment, starting with Josh Willingham’s pinch-hit single.

Willingham was hitting for Mike Moustakas, and not only did the Royals now have a right-handed hitter swinging against left-handed closer Sean Doolittle, they had in Willingham, a player who historically has raked Oakland pitching, with a career.319 average and 1.103 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.

Willingham fell behind in the count before serving a bloop single to right.

“All I wanted to was to get on base,” Willingham said. “I looked for a pitch to drive, but with two strikes, I had to make contact.”

Jarrod Dyson ran for Willingham, was sacrificed to second, stole third and came home on Nori Aoki’s fly to right. Tie game.

On to the 10th, and reliever Brandon Finnegan. The Royals had buzzed through Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland. Remaining in the bullpen were starters Jeremy Guthrie and Danny Duffy and relievers Jason Frasor and Finnegan, who three months earlier was pitching for TCU in the College World Series.

“Honestly this took me back to the College World Series,” Finnegan said. “Big stage, big crowd, it’s all I could think of. I’ve been in situations like this before.”

But the Royals seemed deflated getting a runner to second in the 10th and one to third in the 11th without scoring, but Finnegan kept the Kauffman Stadium juiced in those innings, striking out pinch hitter Nick Punto to end the 10th and Brandon Moss, who had jacked two home runs in the game, to finish the 11th.

Finnegan walked Josh Reddick to open the 12th and after the A’s sacrificed Reddick to second, Finnegan gave way to veteran Jason Frasor, who was picked up from the Rangers in a July trade.

Frasor surrendered a run-scoring single to Alberto Callaspo, but limited the damage.

The Royals would have to rally in the 12th, and after Eric Hosmer energized the stadium with a leadoff triple, up stepped Christian Colon.

A 2010 first-round draft choice, Colon made his major league debut on July 1. He’s a versatile infielder who has swung a solid bat, with a .333 average in 45 major-league at-bats.

Colon swung at the first playoff pitch he saw, and topped it. By the time the ball was fielded near the third-base line, Hosmer had slid across home with the tying run and Colon had a perfect postseason batting average.

“Put it in play, that’s all I was thinking,” Colon said. “When you do that, good things can happen.”

With one out, Colon collected the Royals’ seventh stolen base, which tied a major-league record in a postseason game.

When Salvador Perez pulled a single down the left-field line, the game-winning run in the franchise’s most important game in nearly three decades was scored by a player who had appeared in 21 major-league games.

Now, who gets left off the roster for the American League Division Series against the Angels? Because it was a one-game playoff, the Royals had fewer pitchers on the Wild Card Game roster. Jason Vargas, Liam Hendriks, Aaron Crow, Scott Downs, Casey Coleman, Tim Collins, Francisley Bueno were not eligible. But the Royals are likely to return some, starting with Vargas, to the roster.

That means some position players will become ineligible. The Royals kept seven infielders and seven outfielders for the Wild Card Game. Candidates to miss the ALDS are Jayson Nix, who finished the game at third after Willingham hit for Moustakas, and Raul Ibanez. Ibanez was the only left-handed pinch hitter available on Tuesday.

The Royals have until Thursday to make the roster calls, but no matter the direction they now have a great advantage: A roster full of players, including the newcomers, who have postseason experience.

This story was originally published October 1, 2014 at 7:59 PM with the headline "Royals newcomers came up huge in playoff debut."