Have you heard about this? For the first time in 29 years, there are two Missouri teams in the MLB playoffs. Two!
You know this comeback story from tonight, so I’ll do a quick recap: Cards down 6-2 to the Dodgers in the top of the 7th. I don’t know about you, but I had resigned myself to the fact the game was over. I was getting my kids ready for bed, when I begin to hear whooping and hollering from my husband in the living room. Thanks to 5 singles, a double by Matt Carpenter, a walk to Randal Grichuk, and a home run by Holliday, the Cards were up 10-6. A few other things happened that aren’t even worth mentioning and the Cards rack up their first come-from-behind victory, with a score of 10-9, of the post season. Up on the Dodgers 1-0 in the best-of-five series.
On the other side of the state, those Royals are doing crazy things in comeback land. I’m sure you’ve read all about their intense victory over the A’s in the Wild Card playoff on Tuesday. It was something. As a Kansas City native, I can tell you, this town has been buzzing with baseball talk (not the usual Chiefs football talk I’m used to, when I’m excited about the post season baseball going on).
On Thursday night, the Royals also traveled to California to take on the power packed Angels. With a line up that includes a former MVP in Josh Hamilton, the most talked about and anticipated AL MVP in Mike Trout, and the former Cardinals David Freese and Albert Pujols, I’m going to be honest, I was afraid the boys in blue were going to get swept away out of the postseason. Well, they continue to prove me wrong.
The Royals really must enjoy having late night games. They don’t like to finish things off in 9 innings the way other teams do. I won’t bore you with details, but the Royals have this line up that they are comfortable with bringing in their lightning fast runners for on the bases. Thursday night was no different, but they didn’t need it. (Example: Tuesday against the A’s, the Royals tied a baseball record by stealing 7 bases in the game, 4 in the 8th inning, and 5 of those base steals resulted in scored runs.) Thursday, they just needed 11 innings to play and an 11th inning home run by Mike “Moose” Moustakas. Royals up 1-0 in the series.
Friday night was more of the same. The Royals held onto a 1-0 lead until the bottom of the 6th when a Pujols single tied it up. No more scoring…until you get to the top of the 11th…again. This time, Eric Hosmer hit a 2 run home run to put the Royals up 3-1. They scored one more run in the same inning, giving them another win over those Angels. The Royals now lead the series 2-0 coming back to a very loud, very hungry Kansas City crowd on Sunday.
Who woulda thunk it?
I’m so very happy for my Royals’ fan friends, but these guys are making me tired.
Anyone up for another I-70 World Series?
As always…Go Cards!
Photo: bigstory.org
