Kansas City: Kansas City advanced to the American League Division Series with a 9-8 12th inning win over Oakland as the Royals punctuated their first post-season game in almost three decades with an epic comeback.
Christian Colon and Salvador Perez had run-scoring hits in the 12th for Kansas City, who rallied twice late in the four hour, 45 minute winner-take-all Major League Baseball wild-card contest.
Alberto Callaspo had given the A’s an 8-7 lead with an RBI single in the 12th, setting the stage for Colon and Perez’s heroics on Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium. Kansas City also erased a four-run deficit to force the extra innings.
“This was the craziest game I ever played,” said Eric Hosmer who got the final rally going with a triple off the outfield wall. “This team showed a lot of character. No one believed in us before this game and no one believed in us before the season.”
Kansas City advanced to take on the Los Angeles Angels in the Division Series, which begins on Thursday in southern California.
The Royals small ball performance proved to be the difference in a game that was billed as a pitching duel between starters Jon Lester of Oakland and James Shields of Kansas City.
“We are a very aggressive team on the base pads,” said Royals pitcher Brandon Finnegan. “It was hard to get through and we faced a good pitcher, but we got to him.”
Perez singled home the winning run with two outs in the 12th for the Royals, who last appeared in the playoffs 29 years ago. With Jason Hammel pitching, Perez provided the walk off hit with a sharp one-hopper past a diving infielder Josh Donaldson at third base.
“I am so excited right now,” Perez said. “He threw me a slider.”
That wasn’t the only timely two out hit Tuesday for the Royals who also stole seven bases.
Brandon Moss blasted two homers and finished with five RBIs for the A’s, whose monumental breakdown mirrored the second half of their season. Oakland had reached the post-season despite a wretched .433 winning percentage after the all-star break.
The A’s were leading 7-3 after seven innings and appeared to be cruising to victory behind Lester when the Royals bats came to life in a three-run eighth.
After Lester was pulled with two on and one out, Billy Butler drove in another run with a single, and a Luke Gregerson wild pitch allowed Hosmer to score, cutting the A’s lead to 7-6.
Gregerson escaped the jam with a pair of strikeouts, but the A’s returned the favour by leaving the bases loaded in the ninth and watching their closer, Sean Doolittle, blow the lead in the bottom half.
Josh Willingham led off with a pinch-hit single, and speedy Jarrod Dyson took over on the base paths. A bunt moved Dyson into scoring position, and he then took third to set up Norichika Aoki’s game-tying sacrifice fly.
“I was just trying to battle. We were battling for our season,” said Hosmer.
