Missed opportunities for Royals? No worries

The game was tied and the Royals had been late-game magicians throughout the postseason. But for a moment, this one felt different because of squandered opportunities.

That’s something the Royals had avoided in the playoffs. They hadn’t missed on their scoring chances. When it happened on Friday in the opening game of the American League Championship Series against the Orioles, especially in the seventh and ninth innings, the Royals’ run of fortune seemed over.

It wasn’t of course. Not these Royals. They found a way to overcome their own fate in an 8-6 victory in 10 innings.

Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas picked up the team with home runs in the 10th, and Wade Davis pitched two marvelous shutdown innings when the Orioles could have seized the advantage late.

The Royals had opened the door for them.

“It was tough,” first baseman Eric Hosmer said. “There was a huge momentum swing. It was all on their side.”

It was because, almost shockingly, the Royals couldn’t score in the ninth inning with some of their fleetest runners crowding the bags, their best hitters stepping up, the Orioles’ closer unable to throw a strike and nobody out. The Royals couldn’t have scripted a better start to the inning.

Orioles relief specialist Zach Britton loaded the bases on 11 straight balls, with much of the Royals’ relay team ready to score — Alcides Escobar on third, Jarrod Dyson at second and Lorenzo Cain at first.

All that was required from the middle of the order was to get one home.

It painfully didn’t happen.

Hosmer, who entered the game as the Royals’ hottest hitter in the postseason, had a 1-0 count on Britton’s 12th straight ball.

But Hosmer swung at the next pitch, which had drifted outside the zone. He ran the count to 3-2 and tapped a grounder to first.

First baseman Steve Pearce wisely avoided stepping on the bag to force Hosmer. If he had, the throw home wouldn’t have been in time to catch a sliding Escobar. But with the force in order, all catcher Nick Hundley had to do was step on the plate. He made a nice stab of Pearce’s throw and recorded the out.

In came Orioles sinkerball pitcher Darren O’Day to face Billy Butler, a prime double play candidate.

That’s precisely what happened, Butler rolled sharply to shortstop J.J. Hardy and the Orioles turned the easy double play.

“We had them on the ropes right there,” Dyson said.

Opportunities don’t come with a prettier bow.

“That was tough, but we had to remember it was still a tied ball game,” Butler said.

The lost chance in the seventh left the Royals frustrated and angry.

Nori Aoki drew a leadoff walk.

And that’s when things started falling apart for the Royals, who lost their momentum and their cool before the inning was over.

After Aoki reached, the time was right for the switch that was common throughout the season. Dyson was sent in to pinch run.

Aoki has speed. Dyson has more, and the Royals were set to use the jets.

But first, Dyson had to avoid getting picked off. The Orioles had figured out something. Two innings earlier, Gordon was caught leaning and was picked off first by Tom Hunter.

The Orioles caught Dyson in a lean. He barely got back.

They wouldn’t catch him this time. With Cain at the plate with a 1-2 count, Dyson took off. He didn’t get a great jump but still easily beat the throw from catcher Nick Hundley.

Dyson slid head first, and as his body crossed the bag, the tag by second baseman Jonathan Schoop never left Dyson’s body. But Dyson’s leg momentarily left the bag.

Second base umpire Joe West threw up the thumb. Out.

Was Dyson pushed off the bag?

It appeared Schoop applied a firm tag and that, along with Dyson’s momentum, carried him off the bag, which made it a legal out.

“It wasn’t a perfect slide by me,” Dyson said. “I’m going to take the (blame). I messed up. Next time, for sure, I’ll be there.”

The inning’s frustrations didn’t end there. Home plate umpire Tim Timmons rang up Cain, bringing an immediate protest from the Royals’ outfielder.

After Hosmer sliced a single off lefty reliever Andrew Miller, Butler stepped up. Butler had singled in his first two at-bats and delivered a sacrifice fly in his third. This time, on a slider that broke across the plate — and on the video replay outside of the strike zone — Butler was called out on strikes.

He also gave Timmons an earful.

A game that had taken several turns to that point, took another one, this time in favor of the Orioles.

But in the end it wouldn’t matter. Davis blew through the heart of the Orioles lineup and blows by Gordon and Moustakas turned the missed opportunities into an afterthought.

This story was originally published October 11, 2014 at 12:10 AM with the headline "Missed opportunities for Royals? No worries."