Finally, a trademark small-ball rally from the Royals in the ninth inning that produced two runs and a 6-4 victory, a fourth consecutive postseasorealization for the Orioles that their next home game could be in April.Alcides Escobar slashed a double over first base with one out in the ninth, scoring pinch-runner Terrance Gore to break the tie and it all goes west from there.
The narrative for this series has been about the contrast in styles.
Yet, neither team has thrived on what it does best.
The Orioles have shut down the Kansas City running game. The Royals have pretty much kept Baltimore in the ballpark -- Adam Jones' two-run shot in the third inning Saturday is the only Orioles homer in the series.
Kansas City has one stolen base and that's been irrelevant to either result. Baltimore has cut down Jarrod Dyson as a pinch-runner in the seventh inning of both games so far –once by each catcher, Nick Hundley and Caleb Joseph.
Gore scored the winning run as a pinch-runner but he merely was sacrificed to second by Mike Moustakas and scored easily on Escobar's hit.
n road victory, a perfect 6-0 overall and the somber
The harsh reality for Baltimore is that what really needs to change is starting pitching.
Only one Orioles starter this postseason has recorded as much as an out in the sixth inning, and that was Bud Norris, who won Baltimore's Division Series clincher against Detroit but was hit hard and often Saturday.
Baltimore's starters have averaged 4 2/3 innings in their five games.
"It changes the tempo of the game," says Orioles manager Buck Showalter, whose team has wiped out Kansas City leads in both games but has never led.
The Orioles' shortest outing of the postseason was from Wei-Yin Chen, who starts Game 3 in Kansas City on Monday. Chen was knocked out by Detroit with two outs in the fourth inning of Division Series Game 2 but Baltimore won that day thanks to another Tigers bullpen meltdown.
You can't count on that against Kansas City, which again deployed Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland to rule the final three innings.
But if there ever was a day to make a dent on that Royal relief corps, this was it.
Kansas City starting pitcher Yordano Ventura left two outs into the sixth because of shoulder tightness. He said after the game that he left as a precaution, didn't feel any lasting effects and didn't expect he's even need an MRI. The four runs, five hits and three walks he allowed hardly made for an overwhelming performance but he was giving Royals manager Ned Yost what was needed most.
Yost obviously was hoping to go as deep as he could with Ventura, considering Davis pitched two innings Friday and Herrera nearly two. Minimizing their work certainly would help going into Sunday's off-day.
Rookie Brandon Finnegan finished the sixth and Yost boldly went back to his battle-tested formula for a second consecutive day in a tie game.
When Herrera missed first base on what should have been the first out of the seventh and walked the next batter, he looked plenty vulnerable. He struck out Jones and then the Kansas City defense made more significant contributions.
Nelson Cruz singled, but the reputation of hard-charging left fielder Alex Gordon kept Nick Markakis from even attempting to score from second and give the Orioles their first lead of the series.
After Herrera got Steve Pearce on a short fly to left, J.J. Hardy sent a fly toward the right field line. But there was Lorenzo Cain, who already had made his mark with a diving catch in center field the previous inning.
"There's such a difference in him from last year," Davis says of the 24-year-old Herrera not panicking in a tight spot mostly of his own doing. "His approach is much less jittery now. I'm not worried about him with that stuff. Now, he's getting movement on pitches that are already 100 mph. I've never seen anything like it."
Davis hadn't seen anything like his own effort in quite awhile. He pitched more than an inning just four times this season and not since May 29. And each time he did, he had the next day off – at least three days each time he had pitched two full innings.
But this is October and the way Davis is going, you can count Jonathan Schoop's two-out bouncing single through the middle as a rally. That's all Baltimore managed in the eighth.
"I do all sorts of exercises all day to try to be ready," Davis says. "And with crowds like this, you really push through."
And this was a road game.
The Kauffman Stadium crowds probably won't be any more or less raucous, but the impact of offense changes with the next two or three games in Kansas City. If it's only two, much of this becomes moot in a hurry and we need to be more concerned about the Royals' match-up with the remaining National League teams.
But the Royals hitters like to remind you Kauffman Stadium is a factor in major league low home run total.
"We play in a big ballpark," says Kansas City left fielder Gordon. "Our ballpark kind of fits our team as far as pitching and defense and our speed in the outfield. We like our ballpark. It's not a home run-happy ballpark, but it definitely finds gaps and we hit a lot more doubles (fourth-most in the AL, seventh in the majors) than maybe some other people do. It is what it is, and we like it."
Just like this ALCS so far.
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