Two innings are fine with Royals closer Wade Davis

One inning or two. This time of year, it makes no difference to Royals closer Wade Davis.

The Royals worked their closer in the eighth and ninth innings to protect a 5-3 lead Saturday and give them a 3-1 edge in the World Series. The Royals can close it out in Game 5 on Sunday.

After the Royals scored three in the top of the eighth, there was no doubt Manager Ned Yost would extend Davis.

“It’s the World Series,” Davis said. “You have a lot more adrenaline to wind up and got out there and give everything you’ve got. A couple more outs really doesn’t change anything.”

Rest was the key. Davis hadn’t pitched in the series since Game 1 last Tuesday.

“He was the most rested guy we had down there today,” Yost said. “We knew if we had the lead in the eighth inning, unless it was a three-, four-, five-run lead, we were going to go to Wade in that inning.”

Davis has been even more machine-like in the postseason than the regular season, when he took over the closer’s role for Greg Holland in August and would up with 17 saves, surrendering a miniscule seven earned runs in 67  1/3 innings for a 0.94 ERA.

In the playoffs, Davis has now appeared in seven games, throwing 9  2/3 innings without surrendering a run.

Saturday, Davis breezed through the eighth, but had to work out of trouble in the ninth after Daniel Murphy and Yoenis Cesepedes singled with one out.

Lucas Duda then hit a soft liner to third baseman Mike Moustakas. Instead of freezing to see if the ball would be hit through the infield, Cesepdes took a couple of steps toward second, and Moustakas threw him to first and completed a double play.

“I got a little jam line drive, and got lucky on that,” Davis said.

Moustakas doesn’t use the term luck to describe Davis.

“One of the best closers in baseball,” Moustakas said. “And he goes out there, he’s throwing 98, 99 and 94- and 95 cutters. And he has a breaking ball that’s devastating. It’s fun to watch as far as sitting back at third base.

“It’s nice to know he can come in and close it down for two innings. That’s not an easy thing to do.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2015 at 12:13 AM with the headline "Two innings are fine with Royals closer Wade Davis."