How Hunter Dozier and Vance Wilson tipped momentum in the Kansas City Royals’ favor
Every now and then, one split-second decision or one play changes how an entire game unfolds, and swings momentum from one dugout to the other.
The Kansas City Royals offense rolled for 13 hits and eight runs Friday night, their highest-scoring game since May 1, and they had two innings with three runs or more in an 8-3 win over the Minnesota Twins at Target Field.
The Royals (24-25) lit the fuse on a sputtering offense with a heads-up baserunning play combined with an aggressive coaching decision in the fifth inning when they had just two hits and three men on base all day against Twins pitcher Randy Dobnak.
With two outs, Hunter Dozier drew a walk. With Dozier taking a lead off first, Michael A. Taylor hit a ground ball into right-center field that didn’t quite make it to the warning track before right fielder Kyle Garlick picked it up.
Third base coach Vance Wilson waved Dozier around third as the cut-off throw got to second baseman Jorge Polanco. It appeared destined to be at least a very close play at the plate.
The throw home came in on a hop up the third-base line and Twins catcher Mitch Garver didn’t catch it cleanly as Dozier scored without a tag.
“There’s four things you’re looking at,” Wilson said. “You’ve got the ball. You’ve got the outfielders. You’ve got the cut-off man. And you’ve got your runner. The one thing you don’t watch is your runner. You know what you’re going to get from your guys, and Dozier was obviously giving 100 percent. I know how he runs.”
Wilson, now in his second season as the club’s third base coach, noticed Polanco’s body was lined up to throw to second base instead of on a line to home.
That detail was enough for Wilson to roll the dice.
“That’s kind of like a spin throw, and typically you’ll see guys throw those up the line,” Wilson said. “We haven’t scored a lot of runs. You can sense that. It’s kind of one of those things where you figure the risk-reward in that situation — two outs, the way they were set up in my opinion and the way we’ve been going — it’s like let’s take a shot. It worked out.
“You’ve got to give Dozier the credit. If Dozier is not running hard, you can’t make that call. So Dozier gets credit for the whole thing.”
In the back of Wilson’s mind, he also factored in that the Royals offense had been held to a total of five runs in the previous three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Their one win came by a 2-1 score. Even in that game, they’d strung together multiple hits in only one inning.
Those recent struggles were part of Wilson’s calculation.
“Absolutely,” Wilson said. “You can’t get crazy with that. It has got to be the right set up. Like I said, the way they were lined up to cut the ball gave us a chance for — hopefully, a throw up the line. I know Polanco is a great player and has a great arm, but the way he was set up he was going to have to spin throw. Those typically go up the line.
“That situation there in that inning, it’s almost like, ‘All right man, if we can get this done it will kind of jump-start us.’”
The Royals scored two more runs in that inning, all three runs came with two outs as they took the lead for the first time.
After having had two hits in four scoreless innings against Dobnak, the Royals pushed three across on three hits in the fifth. Then they chased Dobnak from the game in the seventh with three consecutive hits that started a five-run inning.
“We talked about it (Thursday),” Royals All-Star infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield said. “When you’re playing good teams. You’ve got to have certain things bounce your way in tight games. Garver not being able to hang onto that ball really kind of put the game back in our favor. That was huge for us. A great job by Doz and a great send by Vance.”
That type of play on the bases — recognizing an opportunity, executing and turning it into a game-changing play — is part of the identity of the championship-caliber Royals teams of the recent past.
It’s also the brand of baseball Royals manager Mike Matheny has repeatedly said he wants to be synonymous with the current club.
“I thought it was a very good call,” Matheny said. “Two outs, you’re taking a chance right there. He took everything into consideration and made a good decision. Was it aggressive? Yeah.
“If he were out, we’d be having the same conversation. You know, be aggressive over there. When you smell something, you see something, a couple things line up, guys are pushing for that extra base, we’re going to take a shot with two outs. Great job by Vance.”
