Alex Gordon pulls into third in the bottom of the ninth.(Photo: Matt Slocum, AP)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Down to the final out of the season, trailing 3-2 and desperate to make even the slightest dent in Madison Bumgarner, the Kansas City Royals got a glimmer of hope when Alex Gordon's ninth-inning single fell in front of a charging Gregor Blanco.
Then, they got a jolt of adrenaline.
When Gordon's ball scooted past Blanco and rolled all the way to Kauffman Stadium's wall in left center field, a crowd of 40,535 erupted. In the dugout, hearts raced and suddenly, this taut Game 7 of the World Series hung in the balance.
Could Gordon, an average runner, cover 360 feet in the time it took the San Francisco Giants to recover the ball and get it back to the infield?
Was this their only chance to counter Bumgarner's dominance, as the Giants ace had just set down 14 consecutive batters?
And was the championship of baseball really going to come down to the decision of a third base coach in his very first season coaching at the major league level?
Indeed, it would. And as the Royals scooted to the edge of their dugout, their eyes betrayed what their hearts believed.
"I was thinking, send him," said Game 7 starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie. "Hits were at a premium against Bumgarner. Make somebody else make a good throw instead of Bumgarner."
As Gordon – an excellent athlete but at 6-1, 220 pounds, hardly a speed demon – picked up steam on the basepaths, center fielder Lorenzo Cain couldn't contain himself.
"I was over there waving Gordo around myself," Cain said. "I was hoping he could just…keep going, get an inside-the-park home run."
And processing the final decision of thousands in this breakthrough Royals season was Mike Jirschele, a consummate baseball lifer with more than 1,000 minor league managerial victories on his resume.
None of those wins involved a World Series-turning decision.
Yet as Juan Perez chased after Blanco's error and Gordon put his head down and ran, here was Jirschele with several factors to weigh, not the least being with Bumgarner on the mound, even a faint shot at scoring is better than no shot against a pitcher re-defining postseason excellence.
With the Royals, their fans, and millions of amateur third base coaches with the same two-word exhortation on their lips – "Send him!" – he was the one charged with making a sober, pragmatic decision.
And so, as Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford gathered Perez's throw cleanly in shallow left field, and Gordon steamed toward third, Jirschele opted for prudence over aggression.
"If we have a chance to score him and feel it will take a perfect throw to get him, I'll send him," Jirschele said. "I just felt there was no chance."
He put up the stop sign.
Throughout the sold-out crowd –surely in bars around the world, too – groans were audible. We'll never know what might have happened had Gordon gone home.
What we do know is Salvador Perez made the final out of the season on a foul pop-up after Jirschele held Gordon at third.
Yet the Royals aren't caught up in what might have been.
"He made a good call holding me up," Gordon said. "With a good hitter like Salvy up, we liked our chances. I'm not as fast as (teammate Jarrod) Dyson – that's what I've been saying the whole time – and if I was I probably would've scored."
For the Giants, it was a matter of maintaining focus. Blanco bobbled the ball once when he tried picking it up – "If he bobbled it again, I would have sent him," says Jirschele – but made a strong throw to Crawford.
"Don't let 'em score," Crawford said he was thinking. "Get out there and make a good relay if you have to. Don't let him get home. In that situation, you're leaving everything on the line so if you have a chance to score, you're probably going to take it. "
For Jirschele, it was all about the catch. Once he saw Crawford gather the ball cleanly, there was only one option.
"To me, he turns and makes a throw within 10 feet of home plate, he's out by 15, 20 feet," Jirschele said. "Even though there's two outs, if he's gonna be out by a mile, I'm not going to give them that last out. We still have a chance."
Even the Royals who thought they saw something that wasn't there had to admit as much.
"That's also a tough way to lose a game," Guthrie said, "getting thrown out at home plate on a triple."
Said Cain of the Giants: "They got to it, and got it in really fast."
So Gordon stayed put, Perez popped out, and the Royals watched a Giants celebration unfold.
At least they didn't make the party start one out too soon.
GALLERY: ROYALS FANS AT GAME 7
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1wNBIvo
0 comments:
Post a Comment