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Showing posts with label world series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label world series. Show all posts
Los Angeles Dodgers: 2025 World Series Champions
TORONTO -- The landing spot was a familiar one for this building in this setting. But the prevailing sound as Will Smith rounded the bases was that of silence.
Smith’s go-ahead solo shot off Shane Bieber in the top of the 11th stunned the Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre crowd Saturday night, as the Dodgers broke hearts and broached dynasty status with a comeback 5-4 victory in a Game 7 of the World Series that lived up to its lofty billing and merited its own month on the MLB calendar.
The Dodgers are repeat champs, thanks to both Smith, who smacked the first extra-inning home run in a winner-take-all in World Series history, and Miguel Rojas, who tied the tilt with a solo shot in the top of the ninth, hitting heroic homers to virtually the same spot where Joe Carter had once ended a Toronto title triumph. And thanks to the durable Yoshinobu Yamamoto -- named World Series MVP -- coming on in relief on zero days’ rest and stranding the tying run at third in a scoreless bottom of the 11th.
Alejandro Kirk hit into the game-ending double play, which the Dodgers turned before meeting near the mound for a well-earned celebration at the conclusion of an epic World Series.
"Man, this is a special group of guys," Smith said. "We just never gave up, kept fighting, pitching our [butts] off, hitting, taking great at-bats, finally punched through there. Man, that was a fight for seven games -- that’s a really good Toronto Blue Jays team. Oh, man. I’m just excited. There’s nothing better than this.”
The Blue Jays had come so close to capping their first crown since Carter and Co. won it all in 1992-93, but instead it was the Dodgers becoming the first MLB club to mount a successful title defense since the 1998-2000 Yankees.
Rojas’ game-tying blast off Toronto closer Jeff Hoffman in the top of the ninth ultimately made this just the sixth Game 7 in history – and the first since the Cubs-Cleveland classic in 2016 – to go to extra innings. It was a fitting end to a World Series in which these two evenly matched teams had exhausted each other for 18 innings in Game 3.
The finale was baseball at its best, two evenly matched teams going the distance in the Series and in Game 7 itself to determine a champion.
Heavily favored coming in, the loaded Dodgers wound up having to pull out all the stops – and all the starters – to take down a tough Toronto team that had been just two outs from glory.
Bo Bichette’s three-run blast off Shohei Ohtani in the third had Rogers Centre rocking, and Ernie Clement slid in at home with a valuable sixth-inning insurance run on an Andrés Giménez double, just two innings after tensions flared and benches and bullpens cleared when Giménez was plunked by a pitch.
The Dodgers, though, came up with the late- and extra-inning answers.
This Game 7 had pitted two compromised future Cooperstowners against each other: Ohtani going on short rest after, you know, also DH’ing a night earlier, and Max Scherzer, at 41, becoming the oldest Game 7 starter in history.
So no one was expecting the second coming of 1991 Jack Morris to take place (though Morris, along with Paul Molitor, did throw out a ceremonial first pitch).
Still, it was fascinating to watch these luminaries try to gut through Game 7 as long as their managers would let them.
Scherzer immediately surrendered an Ohtani leadoff single in the first and recorded some loud outs in the first two innings, but it was Ohtani who blinked first by surrendering the Bichette blast that knocked him out of the ballgame.
An inning prior to his homer heroics, Bichette had led off the second with a walk and advanced to second on an Addison Barger single. But two outs later, when Clement ripped his 28th hit of the postseason, Bichette, still compromised by the bum left knee that had him off the Blue Jays’ ALDS and ALCS rosters, was only able to advance to third. It cost Toronto a run, as Ohtani struck out Giménez with the bases loaded.
In the third, though, Bichette would not need to run. Ohtani gave up a leadoff single to George Springer, who moved to second on Nathan Lukes’ sacrifice bunt. With first-base open, Ohtani – in a change in roles, after he himself had been intentionally walked five times in this Series – gave Vladimir Guerrero Jr. a fast pass to first.
So up came Bichette, the pending free-agent who paired with Guerrero as a cornerstone callup in 2019. Whereas Guerrero is locked in for life, Bichette’s future with the Jays is unknown. Except that now he’ll be remembered here forever for what he did to Ohtani’s first-pitch slider.
Bichette obliterated the ball, 442 feet to left-center, then watched it fly as he slowly inched toward first and emphatically dropped his bat. It was the third-longest home run of Bichette’s career and the second-longest Ohtani, whose night on the mound was now over, has allowed in his career.
As for the sound in Rogers Centre as Bichette trotted home with the 3-0 lead, well, that can’t be calculated. But even with the roof above, you could probably hear it across the border in Buffalo.
It would take much more than that to win this one, though.
Scherzer pitched himself into a bases-loaded jam in the fourth, but manager John Schneider trusted the veteran to get out of it, and all Scherzer allowed was the Teoscar Hernández sacrifice fly to center that made it 3-1. The inning showcased the Blue Jays’ MLB-best defense, with Daulton Varsho making a terrific diving catch in center on the Hernández liner to prevent extra bases, and Guerrero making a great pick in foul territory near first of a Tommy Edman liner to escape the inning.
Things got testy in the bottom of the fourth, when Dodgers reliever Justin Wrobleski threw up and in on three consecutive pitches to Giménez. When the last one plunked Giménez, he and Wrobleski jawed at each other, and both benches cleared. Warnings were issued to both teams.
Though the Dodgers would keep pressing by manufacturing another run off Chris Bassitt on a sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth, Giménez, perhaps channeling his emotion from earlier, gave the Jays some needed separation in the bottom of the inning.
After Clement, who would go on to set a new single postseason hits record (31), led off with a single off Tyler Glasnow and stole second, Giménez smacked a line-drive double to right, and Clement lost his helmet as he hustled home and slid in safely to make it 4-2.
The Jays turned to their rookie wonder Trey Yesavage to protect that lead in the seventh, and, after walking Ohtani, he got help from his defense when Guerrero fielded a Freddie Freeman grounder and gamely initiated a 3-6-3 double play to end the inning.
Plays like that were monumental in a nip-and-tuck nail-biter befitting its Game 7 stature. Yesavage bent a bit when Max Muncy pounded his splitter out to right for a solo shot in the eighth to make it 4-3, but he quickly shook that off to retire Hernández for the second out of the inning before turning it over to Hoffman for the four-out save opportunity.
Hoffman retired Edman on a groundout to end the eighth, and he got Kiké Hernández swinging for the first out of the ninth.
But after working the count full, Rojas added yet another layer of drama to this epic Series with his solo swat to left. As the ball landed in roughly the same spot as Carter’s famous blast from ‘93, the Dodger dugout erupted and the home crowd groaned.
It was a brand new ballgame going into the bottom of the ninth.
"Yeah, I wasn’t trying to hit a home run," Rojas said. " I think this is my first home run against a right-handed pitcher during the whole year, and it came to the biggest part of my life and my career, in front of these fans and the city of L.A. and my teammates. Kinda like, battling and I can’t really describe right now the emotions that I feel, not just starting the game but giving the opportunity to bring Yamamoto for another spectacular performance. That guy is everything you can ask for. I have to put my teammates in front of me because I wouldn’t have been able to do whatever I did today without the confidence of Doc, my teammates and everybody that believed in me."
Though ninth-inning leadoff man Guerrero’s bid to cap his epic postseason with a walk-off winner died just in front of the warning track in center, Bichette came through again with a one-out single off Games 1 and 5 starter Blake Snell to set the table. Barger then drew a walk, and the Dodgers turned to yet another one of their starters – Yamamoto, who had shined in Games 2 and 6 – on precisely zero days’ rest.
Yamamoto immediately plunked catcher Alejandro Kirk with a pitch to load the bases. Varsho ripped a ground ball to second base, but Rojas added to his great game with a great play, firing home in time to nab pinch-runner Isiah Kiner-Falefa. A replay review upheld the out.
And when Clement came up with two outs and gave the ball a ride to left-center, Andy Pages was able to run it down and make the catch despite colliding with teammate Kiké Hernández to end the inning and send it off to extras.
It was tight in the top of the 10th. The Dodgers loaded the bases with one out against Seranthony Domínguez. But Pages grounded to short, and Giménez fielded it and made a perfect strike home to nab Mookie Betts with the second out. Then, when Kiké Hernández bounced one to the right-hand side, Guerrero fielded it and flipped to Domínguez covering at first just in time for Domínguez to get his left foot on the bag for the third out.
The room exhaled, momentarily.
But after Yamamoto kept the Jays quiet in the bottom of the 10th, Toronto turned to starter Bieber in the 11th. Bieber got the first two outs, but he hung a slider over the middle to Smith, who swung hard and forever etched his name into October lore.
Los Angeles Dodgers, all of them, are World Series champs
Los Angeles Dodgers, all of them, are World Series champs
Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Staff Writer
Oct 31, 2024, 02:32 AM ET
NEW YORK -- The 2024 World Series is over: Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers are champions in five games, the first title for him and, for the team, the eighth in franchise history.
There were heroes and goats, as there are in every Fall Classic, but no storybook showdown of Ohtani versus Aaron Judge. There were dramatic grand slams, stunning comebacks and horrible defensive miscues. The New York Yankees' title drought reached 15 years, and their captain, Judge, faced struggles that sometimes reached nightmarish levels.
In the end, what we got was a pure baseball matchup decided by baseball factors, and mostly by the fact the Dodgers had more good players than their opponent. They earned it -- as a group.
"They were the better team in this series," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, while praising his own heartbroken club.
This championship, and the way Los Angeles achieved it, is less about the names on the marquee and more because of the ensemble. It belongs to them all, as much to the supporting cast of Teoscar Hernandez, Gavin Lux and Max Muncy as to Ohtani and fellow stars Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts. To anonymous relievers as much as more heralded starters such as Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jack Flaherty. None of this is by accident. The Dodgers won this way because they were built to win this way.
Every season, the Dodgers rank near the top of the majors in categories such as rookie WAR and in total appearances on the transaction wire. Think about that: With all of the resources poured into the L.A. payroll -- the Dodgers spent more than $1 billion this past offseason -- the Andrew Friedman-led front office never stops tweaking the roster mix, addressing needs both immediate and imagined. The Dodgers excel at turning other teams' excesses into gold, with journeymen such as Ryan Brasier, Brent Honeywell and Anthony Banda becoming crucial contributors to the bullpen. Every bit as much attention is paid to the bottom 10 slots on the 40-man roster as it is to the top three.
"It's about getting the right players, the right people," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "Talent is a lot, but it's not everything. You still have to be cohesive. I just think we do a great job of getting the right players in our clubhouse."
The Dodgers have as much star power as any team we've seen in recent years, but they could never be accused of taking a stars-and-scrubs approach, or constructing a top-heavy roster. Depth or stars? We'll have both, thank you.
"We have a culture here at the big league level," Roberts said. "But the scouting and player development is second to none."
After a second title in five years, the Dodgers, from top to bottom, are what Roberts says -- second to none.
Los Angeles Dodgers: 2024 World Series Champions
NEW YORK -- To win it all, the Dodgers had to give it all. Had to stare down an ugly early deficit. Had to empty their bullpen. Had to rally against Gerrit Cole and then against the Yankees’ best relievers. Had to get a World Series-clinching save from starter Walker Buehler, of all people.
With an unflappable team effort, the Dodgers claimed their second World Series title in the last five years and their first in a full season since 1988 by beating the Yankees in Game 5 on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.
And in this 7-6 victory, they earned their champagne celebration the hard way, becoming the first team in a World Series-clinching win to come back from five or more runs.
Texas Rangers: 2023 World Series Champions
PHOENIX -- The Texas Rangers are World Series champions for the first time in franchise history after surviving Arizona ace Zac Gallen’s no-hit bid, getting a gutsy effort from starter Nathan Eovaldi and bringing their ample bats to the late innings in a thrilling 5-0 victory in Game 5 on Wednesday night at Chase Field.
In ending MLB’s longest title drought among title-less teams, the Rangers, who joined the American League as the expansion Washington Senators in 1961 before moving to Arlington and rebranding in '72, showed their mettle in what was, for eight innings, an ultra-tight tilt.
One night after erupting for 11 runs -- including 10 in the second and third innings -- Texas was held scoreless until Mitch Garver’s seventh-inning single brought newly minted two-time World Series MVP Corey Seager home to break a scoreless tie. The Rangers then took advantage of an untimely Alek Thomas fielding error in a four-run ninth highlighted by Marcus Semien’s two-run homer.
Eovaldi, on the other hand, had to sweat his way to success. He had baserunners abound, allowing four hits and five walks in six innings. But the D-backs went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position against him to strand all nine of those runners. They had two aboard with none out in the third, when No. 3 hitter Gabriel Moreno questionably put down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners, and nothing came of it.
In short, the Snakes let Eovaldi off the hook and, in the process, left themselves vulnerable to anything short of perfection by their ace.
"I kind of joked around that I didn’t know how many rabbits I had left in my hat," Eovaldi said. "I didn’t really help myself out in some of those situations. Other times, they put together quality at-bats and were able to find the whole. A lot of the credit goes to Jonah back there behind the plate. He called a great game. We were on the same page for the most part. We were able to come out on top. That was the main thing."
Gallen finally bent in the seventh, and it began in an ironic way. Seager broke up the no-no, but he didn’t do it in the style that suited him all series. Rather, it was a softly hit grounder to the opposite side -- a ball that would have been harmless if third baseman Evan Longoria hadn’t been shifted toward shortstop. The ball reached the outfield grass, and the Rangers had life.
Reflecting a theme of this series, the Rangers seized the moment in a way the D-backs did not. Evan Carter ripped a double to put two runners in scoring position. And after a consultation on the mound with pitching coach Brent Strom, Gallen gave up a ground-ball single up the middle to Garver to bring Seager home with the game’s first run.
"Gallen was unbelievable tonight, but we came through," Semien said. "Once Corey got the first hit, everybody kind of woke up."
Though Gallen recovered to strike out Josh Jung and October relief hero Kevin Ginkel came on to record the last two outs and escape a bases-loaded jam of his own making in the eighth, the D-backs were made to pay for their early inability to cash in at the plate. The Rangers came out swinging in the ninth against Arizona closer Paul Sewald with consecutive singles from Jung and Nathaniel Lowe. Heim ripped a single to center that Thomas misplayed. The ball scooted toward the wall, as Jung and Lowe hustled home and Heim streaked to third. Two outs later, Semien went deep for the second time in as many nights to make it 5-0, igniting a Texas-sized soiree, 52 years in the making.
"This is the biggest moment, the World Series," Semien said. "Put up four runs in the ninth inning to be up 5-0 after being no-hit, it just felt so good. [I] just looked over to the bench and screamed. It’s just an unbelievable feeling."
Houston Astros: 2022 World Series Champions
HOUSTON -- The sound had been brewing and building in the throats of orange-clad Astros fans for years. Five years ago, they had watched their beloved ballclub win a World Series from afar. Then they had seen that title turn from outright triumph to contentious talking point, and they had watched two other teams claim and celebrate Series crowns of their own right here in Minute Maid Park.
But when Yordan Alvarez connected on Jose Alvarado’s sinker in the bottom of the sixth inning Saturday night, the sound was finally unleashed. It was a mighty roar of celebration, unencumbered by the weight of what has been and in anticipation of what those fans now knew was coming -- a 4-1 Game 6 victory over the Phillies, and a World Series clincher under their own roof.
Prior to the Astros, the last team to clinch the World Series in its home ballpark was the 2013 Red Sox. Since then, each of the last seven World Series played at teams' own parks (excluding neutral-site 2020) have been clinched on the road.
Also of note, the Astros were out-homered by the Phillies in the Series, 8-5. The last team to be outhomered in a World Series and win it was the 2015 Royals (6 HRs to 2).
Atlanta Braves: 2021 World Series Champions
HOUSTON -- They’ll play it in perpetuity, whenever Atlantans assemble to remember the good times. They’ll play it in the reel with David Justice’s game-winner and Sid Bream’s slide. They’ll play it with the peace of knowing that, unlike so many moments of hope in their city’s tortured sports history, it did not come undone in the aftermath.
What they’ll see is Jorge Soler, dropping his bat, turning to his teammates and smacking his chest as the ball he’d just belted sailed over the railroad tracks that line Minute Maid Park’s outermost edge. They’ll watch that indelible image from World Series Game 6 and know it was the night that the Braves’ 7-0 victory over the Astros completed one of the most spectacular late-season surges in baseball history.
The Braves -- the 88-win team that, via Joc Pederson’s playoff prowess, inspired men, women and children to don pearl necklaces -- will now be fitted with diamond rings. They are World Series champs for the fourth time in franchise history and just the second since moving to Atlanta in 1966.
They are World Series champs not just because Soler literally knocked one out of the ballpark with his mammoth three-run shot off Astros right-hander Luis Garcia in the third inning, but because general manager Alex Anthopoulos knocked it out of the park by acquiring Soler and several other impact players leading up to the July 30 Trade Deadline.
They are World Series champs not just because Max Fried was fantastic in the finale -- going six scoreless innings in which he allowed just four hits with no free passes and six strikeouts -- but because of the patchwork pitching plan manager Brian Snitker and Co. successfully put together after Game 1 starter Charlie Morton fractured his right fibula.
They are World Series champs not just because the “homegrown” Freddie Freeman and the truly homegrown Georgia boy Dansby Swanson added important insurance runs -- Freeman with an RBI double in the fifth and one final home run before free agency in the seventh, Swanson with a seismic two-run shot in the fifth off the facade behind the Crawford Boxes -- but because a complete and resilient roster overcame the injury loss of the Braves’ best player in Ronald Acuña Jr. and the suspension of their biggest offseason signing in Marcell Ozuna.
Their crowning night -- Game 6 -- will be defined by the “Before” and “After” of Soler’s Shot Retweeted ‘Round the World. It was a home run outlandish in both length (the Statcast projection of 446 feet doesn’t do it justice) and significance. It instantly conjured up memories of future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols’ most famous blast in this building during the 2005 NLCS.
Before that blast, the Astros still had the aura of an October-tested giant that had risen from the floor time and again and was still capable of winning its second World Series title in five years. Before that blast, the Braves still carried the historical weight of all those Atlanta teams that had their hearts ripped out, especially after the way Game 5 had gotten away from them.
After that blast, everything felt different. The Astros were still involved and engaged, but Soler, who had delivered after Eddie Rosario’s two-out walk had put two aboard, forced Houston into its bullpen agonizingly early. And unlike in Game 5, the Braves weren’t piecing it together in the ‘pen from the first out, but instead they were riding Fried’s electric stuff and their best, rested relief arms -- Tyler Matzek and Will Smith -- in the late innings only.
This clinching win came remarkably easy for a team for which “easy” rarely applied.
The Braves’ 1995 title team had a haul of Hall of Famers -- manager Bobby Cox, rookie third baseman Chipper Jones and the great rotation of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz -- to guide it to the Promised Land.
This 2021 team had to go about things a bit differently.
Atlanta frantically added underrated outfield options after Acuña Jr. crumpled to the warning track with a torn right ACL, then relied heavily on the bullpen when the World Series rotation was upended by the Morton mishap. And when Game 5 got away from the Braves on what they had hoped would be a party night in the Battery, they didn’t let that setback reshape this Series. They came back to Houston -- in the face of all those waving orange towels and a crowd as loud as Texas is big -- and dominated Game 6.
With this win and this awesome October, an organization -- and a city -- rife with playoff pain, including a record streak of 16 postseason appearances without a championship, got one over on the baseball gods.
Atlanta completed a mathematically improbable journey to Tuesday’s champagne bath. The NL East champs didn’t have a winning record until Aug. 6, and they had the lowest win total (88) of any team to reach MLB’s postseason this year, including the Wild Card clubs. The Braves are just the eighth sub-90-win team to win a World Series in a non-shortened season.
Los Angeles Dodgers: 2020 World Series Champions
Rays manager Kevin Cash raised his right arm, signaling for the bullpen. Tampa Bay starter Blake Snell bit his lip and shook his head. And the Dodgers smelled blood.
The Dodgers are World Series champions for the first time since 1988 because they seized their moment when Snell’s dominant Game 6 outing was controversially cut short Tuesday night at Globe Life Field. With a sudden offensive awakening against Rays reliever Nick Anderson in the sixth inning, the Dodgers won, 3-1, to claim their long-awaited crown and complete their domination of the shortest, strangest season in Major League Baseball history.
This was the ending the Dodgers expected when they pushed in their chips and placed Mookie Betts in an already loaded lineup. The ending that had evaded them in their World Series appearances in 2017 and ’18. When the coronavirus pandemic dramatically reshaped the length and look of the MLB season, the Dodgers mercilessly ran through their shuffled schedule with a .717 winning percentage (43-17).
When a new-look postseason format asked more of the division winners, the Dodgers ran roughshod over the Brewers in the National League Wild Card Series and the division-rival Padres in the NL Division Series and overcame a 3-1 deficit against the Braves in the NL Championship Series.
And when the Rays threatened to push this neutral-site World Series to a Game 7 behind an early Randy Arozarena homer (the rookie’s record 10th of a powerful postseason) and Snell’s fantastic first two turns through the order, the Dodgers pounded down the door the minute it was cracked ajar.
That moment arrived in the sixth inning. With one out, Snell allowed a line-drive single to Austin Barnes -- just the third ball he had let out of the infield in 5 1/3 innings of wowing work in which all of his pitches were on point. Snell had thrown just 73 pitches and recorded nine strikeouts.
But Cash showed fierce devotion to his pitching plan and went to his ‘pen as the lineup turned over for a third turn. Immediately, the move to Nick Anderson, who had allowed runs in six straight postseason appearances, backfired. Betts grounded a double down the left-field line to put runners at second and third. Then Anderson uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Barnes to score the tying run and advanced Betts to third. And when Corey Seager scooted a groundball to first, Betts took off on contact and slid in safely at the plate, ahead of Ji-Man Choi’s throw, to give the Dodgers the go-ahead.
Though the Dodgers’ own pitching plan had some early difficulty in the form of Arozarena’s first-inning homer of Tony Gonsolin, who was pulled after only five outs, the trail of relievers trotted out by manager Dave Roberts held the Rays scoreless for the remainder. Alex Wood’s two perfect innings allowed Roberts to align his most trusted options late. Betts’ monster solo shot in the eighth was an emphatic exclamation mark on his first season in Dodger blue, and Julio Urías’ 2 1/3 perfect innings finished off the seventh World Series title in franchise history.
Washington Nationals: 2019 World Series Champions
HOUSTON -- Down Howie Kendrick reached and off it went. Carrying far, slicing right, pinging the yellow-coated steel screen of the foul pole in right field. The Washington Nationals were trailing until they weren’t. They were, true to form, down but not done.
The late-May misfits and National League Wild Card Game winners roundly expected to be a quick October exit had, with one swing of the bat from the 36-year-old Kendrick, taken the lead they would not relinquish in a 6-2 victory in Game 7 of the World Series against the Astros on Wednesday night at Minute Maid Park. They claimed their franchise’s first crown and completed a clean sweep for the road clubs in a first-of-its-kind Fall Classic.
“I feel like everybody was rooting for [Houston] and we were kind of the underdog in this Series,” Kendrick said. “But it goes to show that you can’t ever count anybody out.”
Stephen Strasburg, who was the winning pitcher in Game 2 and Game 6 while posting a 2.51 ERA, was named the Willie Mays World Series Most Valuable Player presented by Chevrolet.
From 19 wins on May 23 to ’19 champs on Oct. 30. That’s the story of a Nationals team that played five elimination games, trailed in all of them and won all of them.
They survived and thrived with “Los Viejos” (“The Old Ones”) like Kendrick and an unmistakable affinity for the unexpected ... and for "Baby Shark." They came back to break the heart of the Brewers in the late innings of the NL Wild Card Game. They dispatched the mighty 106-win Dodgers in the NL Division Series behind Kendrick’s Game 5-changing grand slam. They silenced the sizzling Cardinals in an NL Championship Series sweep. And after squandering a 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven Fall Classic and returning to Minute Maid Park on the brink of elimination, they summoned the stamina for one last exclamation-earning effort.
“I believe in these guys,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “They believe in each other. And the biggest thing for us is, never quit. We know that. We were 19-31. We didn’t quit then. We weren’t gonna quit now.”
History was made here on many fronts.
Washington, D.C., has its first World Series championship since the 1924 Senators. Kendrick joined the Pirates’ Hal Smith ('60) as the only players to hit a go-ahead homer in the seventh inning or later while their team was trailing in a World Series winner-take-all game. Kendrick is also the fourth-oldest player to go deep in a Game 7. The Nats became the first team to win the Series with four road victories.
“All the road teams winning,” said Astros starter Zack Greinke, “doesn’t seem normal.”
So why would the anticipated Game 7 pitchers' duel be normal?
Max Scherzer, making his cortisone-aided comeback from the debilitating neck injury that had made him a no-go for Sunday night's Game 5, didn’t have his typical movement or mastery. He induced just 11 swinging strikes among his 103 pitches in five innings. A viewer only able to tune in every 20 minutes or so would be forgiven for thinking that the Astros had somehow been given permission to begin every inning with two aboard.
And yet, through four innings, the eight baserunners against Scherzer had resulted in just a single run -- Yuli Gurriel's laser beam to the Crawford Boxes for a homer that put the Astros up, 1-0, in the second.
“We put a lot of heat on him,” Astros manager AJ Hinch said of Scherzer. “We made him work. He had almost 20 pitches an inning. We had guys on base. We hit the ball hard. We didn't chase that much. There was a lot of good that we -- almost similar to how we were in Game 1 against him where we just made him earn every out that he got.”
Despite the traffic, despite the tightropes Scherzer kept stringing up for himself, Martinez abstained from having anybody warming in his bullpen. It was Max effort all the way.
“We stay in to fight,” Scherzer said. “That was our motto. We stay in and fight. That’s what I did.”
Greinke, meanwhile, put on a pitching clinic with his awesome arsenal of offspeed stuff. The Nats’ swings included so many “excuse me’s” you would think they were walking through a crowd. The weak contact was such that Greinke, an athletic and gifted defender, had four assists in the first four innings alone.
Slight separation, which doubles as seismic separation on a stage like this, arrived in the fifth, when the Astros finally got a rip with runners in scoring position. It came with -- again -- two aboard and two outs, as Carlos Correa smacked a one-hopper down the third-base line. Anthony Rendon, one of MLB’s most outstanding occupants of the hot corner, dived for the ball, but it kicked off the edge of his outstretched glove and into foul territory, allowing Gurriel to score from second on the single.
By then, Martinez had Patrick Corbin warming, and he went on to replace Scherzer, whose effort was worthy of applause no matter the end result, in what turned out to be a scoreless sixth.
Greinke, on the other hand, lasted into the seventh. But it proved a step too far. His third trip through the lineup hit a stumble when Rendon, the Houston native coming off a five-RBI effort in Game 6 on Tuesday night, smacked a solo shot to left to get the Nats on the board, 2-1. Then Greinke issued a walk to Juan Soto, and his night was done.
Though Gerrit Cole had warmed earlier, Hinch, in that moment, went to his most trusted relief weapon, Will Harris.
“Kendrick and [Asdrúbal] Cabrera was where I had really focused on Will Harris at that point,” Hinch said. “Will has been tremendous for us. I knew I had [Roberto] Osuna, I knew I had Gerrit if need be. Will coming in to spin the breaking ball [is what I wanted].”
Harris got ahead of Kendrick with a first-pitch strike. But his second offering was a 90.6 mph cutter down and away, and Kendrick got bat to ball for the new signature swat of his club’s epic October run and an instantly iconic MLB moment.
“This guy [Harris] punched out Howie at home, screamed and stared in our dugout, and Howie never forgot that,” Nats catcher Kurt Suzuki said. “I said, ‘Boys, Howie remembers this, just watch.’ And then he ends up going oppo right there. You couldn’t have scripted it any better.”
As Corbin kept delivering big outs in relief, the Nats kept adding insurance. They got a run in the eighth when Adam Eaton walked, swiped second and scored on Soto’s single off Osuna. They got two in the ninth when they loaded the bases and Eaton truly broke the game open with a ground-ball single up the middle that was booted by center fielder Jake Marisnick.
And Daniel Hudson's 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth, punctuated by a swinging strikeout of Michael Brantley, completed the capital thrill.
In five short months, the Nationals upended the baseball universe. At the start of the season, they had lost their franchise face, Bryce Harper, to free agency, and they were well south of .500 at a point when evaluations intensify.
But they bonded and bettered and broke through, hellbent on ending their past postseason pitfalls. The result was as original and inspiring an October run as the game could conjure. And an ecstatic ending deep in the heart of Texas.
“We stuck together,” Rendon said. “We had nothing else to lose. We were facing elimination games when people never thought we should’ve been there in the first place, and we just kept on fighting, and we finished on top.”
Anthony Castrovince has been a reporter for MLB.com since 2004. Read his columns and follow him on Twitter at @Castrovince.
Boston Red Sox: 2018 World Series Champions
LOS ANGELES -- The baseball season ends just as the discussion about this Boston Red Sox club's place in the sport's long and layered history begins. It's not enough to simply state that the Red Sox put the finishing touches on their ninth title -- and fourth since 2004 -- with a clear and convincing 5-1 victory over the Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series on Sunday night at Dodger Stadium.
No, a team this talented, a march this methodical deserves a deeper appreciation. The Red Sox began 2018 by blowing an eighth-inning Opening Day lead and sending their fans into a Twitter tizzy. Then the club with a rookie skipper named Alex Cora won 119 times in all -- a mark bested only by the 1998 Yankees (125) and the 2001 Mariners (120). The Red Sox needed just one game north of the minimum each to take down the 100-win Yankees in the American League Division Series, the defending World Series champion Astros in the AL Championship Series and the two-time National League champion Dodgers in the Fall Classic.
"We're not cocky," said shortstop Xander Bogaerts, "but we know who we are. We have one of the best teams [in history], especially in Red Sox history."
Their solitary setback in this best-of-seven World Series was the 18-inning extravaganza that was Friday's Game 3. To repeat: It took the equivalent of two baseball games to beat these Red Sox. And even in the wake of that lone loss, there was a standing ovation in Boston's clubhouse for Nathan Eovaldi's outrageous relief effort -- another signal of the closeness, camaraderie and confidence that carried this club.
"Everyone just cares for each other," impact offseason acquisition J.D. Martinez said. "It's a family. It really is, man. People get more excited when someone else steps up than when they step up. It's so rare to see that. And it just wasn't in the playoffs. It was all season long."
Glory arrived on a Southern California night in front of a crowd littered with some untold-but-notable number of red shirts breaking up the blue in the stands.
It arrived behind the short-rested-but-no-less-effective arm of David Price, who had already shaken off his October blues and was now back to cementing his Boston legend with seven-plus magnificent innings in which he was touched up only by a first-inning homer from a familiar Series source in David Freese. It arrived with a trio of damaging dingers against Clayton Kershaw -- the two-run blast belted by World Series MVP Steve Pearce in the first, the solo homer that snapped Mookie Betts' cold spell in the sixth and the center-field swat delivered by Martinez in the seventh. Pearce's second shot, off Pedro Baez in the eighth, was a resounding capper to a breakout postseason for the veteran journeyman.
This was a bit of a tensionless tilt -- one polished off by a perfect ninth from staff ace Chris Sale.
"They have a lot of depth up and down the lineup," Kershaw said of the Red Sox. "You saw their starters out of the bullpen, starting [on] short rest, whatever they did, and their bullpen guys were throwing the ball great. They're a great team."
These two franchises had not met on the Series stage in 102 years, but you know what they say about the past informing the present. The 1916 Red Sox, colorfully characterized by one New York Times account from the time as "the carmine-hosed Boston warriors," took Games 1 and 2 at home, were defeated in the first road tilt, erased a deficit to win Game 4 and then finished off the Series in Game 5.
If the long-ago result is replicated in the modern day, then the description fits, too. But even in Red Sox lore, which of course includes a 2004 team that killed a curse and captured imaginations well outside the borders of Red Sox Nation, this 2018 squad has a special, perhaps singular, place to claim. Sunday's Series finale -- a game that, to once again borrow a vibrant line from the Times circa 1916, "resembled a tug of war between an elephant and a goldfish" -- only confirmed it, and now the process of putting this season in perspective will be left to the historians.
"It's almost overwhelming," said Dave Dombrowski, team president of baseball operations, "because you just never think that you'll be associated with a club that can do that. [To go] 119-57? Those numbers are mind-boggling. It's winning more than two-thirds of your games over the year, so, no, I don't think you can really grasp it, and I think it's a tribute to all these guys. You don't get to that point unless you're talented and you grind, you really work through things, you bounce back, you're resilient and you're tough. And that's this group."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Freese frame: As if the sight of Freese homering in a World Series game hadn't already evoked memories of Game 6 in 2011, in the third inning he tripled on a fly ball that was misplayed by the right fielder. In '11, it was Nelson Cruz. On this night, it was Martinez, who simply lost the ball in the L.A. haze. With Freese on third and one out, Price was in a bit of a bind, but he got Justin Turner to ground out on the first pitch. And when Enrique Hernandez sent another fly ball to right, Martinez made the catch in foul territory to end the threat. When he got back in the dugout, Price made it a point to give Martinez the ol' Bash Brothers forearm bump -- a nice show of appreciation between two teammates.
Smooth Sale-ing: A key element of Boston's October run was Cora's aggressiveness in employing his starters as setup men. But in Game 5, he altered the assignment for Sale. After Joe Kelly turned in another resplendent relief outing in the eighth, Cora gave Sale (whose starting schedule had been pushed from Game 5 to the potential, and ultimately unnecessary, Game 6) the opportunity -- the privilege, really -- of closing it out in the ninth, which he did by striking out Manny Machado.
"It was so surreal," Sale said. "I throw a pitch, next thing I know I got [catcher Christian Vazquez] in my arms and just the first thought of being a World Series champ ran through my mind. It was unbelievable. I appreciate the fact that they handed me the ball."
SOUND SMART
Cora became just the fifth manager to win the World Series as a rookie skipper, joining Bucky Harris (1924 Senators), Eddie Dyer ('46 Cardinals), Ralph Houk ('61 Yankees) and Bob Brenly (2001 D-backs).
"First of all, [the Red Sox] gave me a chance," Cora said. "They saw me as a capable manager, and they gave me a chance. It's funny, because when they announced it, we were flying to L.A. last year between the [AL] Championship Series and the World Series [when Cora was the bench coach for the Astros], and ironically enough, we win it here. So it goes full circle."
This game marked just the second time in World Series history that both teams homered in the first inning. The other was Game 5 in 1948, between the Boston Braves and the Indians (Bob Elliott and Dale Mitchell).
Pearce became, per the Elias Sports Bureau, the first position player to be named World Series MVP with 50 or fewer regular-season games for the winning team in his career (at the time of the Fall Classic) and just the second midseason acquisition to win the honor, joining Donn Clendenon of the 1969 Mets.
Freese has now hit both a leadoff homer and a walk-off homer (Game 6, 2011) in the World Series. The only other player with both is Derek Jeter. Freese now has twice as many career games with both a homer and a triple in the World Series (two) as he does in the regular season (one).
The Red Sox's four World Series titles in the past 15 seasons equals their total number of World Series titles in the 100 seasons that preceded 2004.
HE SAID IT
"It's an instant shot. Every hair on your body is standing up and you don't feel a thing." -- Sale, on what it's like to win a World Series
Anthony Castrovince has been a reporter for MLB.com since 2004. Read his columns, listen to his podcast and follow him on Twitter at @Castrovince.
Houston Astros: 2017 World Series Champions
LOS ANGELES -- The Astros, just four years removed from the low point in their unprecedented rebuilding project, capped their remarkable turnaround with a franchise-defining victory, beating the Dodgers, 5-1, in Game 7 of the World Series on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium to win their first championship.
Houston, which pulled out heart-stopping wins in Games 2 and 5, took some drama out of Game 7 when it built an early 5-0 lead, capped by George Springer's two-run homer off an ineffective Yu Darvish in the second. The Astros kept the Dodgers at bay with a steady stream of relievers to finish piecing together the biggest 27 outs in franchise history, including Charlie Morton inducing a grounder to second baseman Jose Altuve for the game's final out.
"I got the last out for the Houston Astros becoming World champions," said Altuve. "It was a ground ball to me. I threw to first, and I think this is the happiest moment in my life in baseball."
Houston joined the 1985 Royals as the only teams to win two seven-game series in the same postseason.
The franchise that began play in the National League in 1962 -- and endured numerous playoff heartbreaks -- won its first World Series just four years removed from losing a franchise-record 111 games during an ambitious rebuilding project that netted several key contributors on this year's 101-win team.
"We had some rough years, but we stuck to our plan," said Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow. "I want to thank ownership for supporting us the whole way and giving us the freedom to go out and get this group of players. We did it. We knew we had a plan that could get us here, and we got it. World championship."
After missing the postseason last year, the Astros stormed to their first American League West division title before knocking off the Red Sox in the AL Division Series and Yankees in the AL Championship Series, in which they rallied from a 3-2 series deficit. Beating the Dodgers, who won an MLB-best 104 games, in a hard-fought Fall Classic brought the city of Houston its first major sports title in 22 years.
"This is one of the best World Series of all time, and it's because of these players," said Astros manager A.J. Hinch. "These players ... never stopped, they never quit and they're always going to be called champions."
Three pitches into the game and Darvish was in trouble, as Series MVP Springer doubled into the left-field corner. A fourth pitch and Darvish trailed, as first baseman Cody Bellinger fielded Alex Bregman's bouncer in the hole and threw it behind a covering Darvish and into the Astros' dugout, putting Bregman at second. Bregman stole third on a slider in the dirt to Jose Altuve and then scored on Altuve's groundout.
Astros starting pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. helped himself with the bat in the second inning. Brian McCann worked back from 0-2 to walk leading off, was doubled to third by Marwin Gonzalez and, with one out, McCullers bounced slowly enough to second base to allow McCann to score. Springer followed by crushing a 3-2 pitch, becoming the first player to homer in four consecutive games of the same World Series, to make it 5-0.
"This is a dream come true," said Springer. "It's an honor [to win Series MVP]. But you know what? It's about the Houston Astros tonight and our city and our fans. We're coming home a champion, Houston."
Darvish didn't survive the second inning for the second time in this World Series. The Astros tagged him for five runs (four earned) and three hits in 1 2/3 innings.
The Dodgers, appearing in the World Series for the first time since beating Oakland in 1988, used starters Clayton Kershaw (four scoreless innings) and Alex Wood (two scoreless innings) in relief and closer Kenley Jansen in the seventh inning trailing by four runs. The Dodgers' offense went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position.
Clayton Kershaw throws four shutout innings in relief, striking out four and allowing only two hits
Escape artists: McCullers only lasted 2 1/3 innings, but he worked his way out of jams in the first and second innings. McCullers pitched around a leadoff double and a couple of hit-by-pitches to strand the bases loaded in the first, then escaped a two-on, one-out jam in the second with a double-play liner by Chris Taylor. McCullers allowed three hits, but hit a World Series-record four batters.
"I don't think you can put it into words what it means to the people of Houston," said McCullers. "We wear [the Houston Strong] patch and we wore it proudly. The people in Houston are never far from our minds. We know they're at Minute Maid watching, they're going crazy for us. … They deserve this as much as we do, man, and we're going to party hard."
Springer's biggest dinger: Springer changed the dynamic and tone of the game with his two-run homer off Darvish, which gave Houston a 5-0 lead. Springer belted five home runs in the World Series, and he set records for extra-base hits (eight) and total bases (29) in the Fall Classic.
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
With neither starter getting the win, this is the first seven-game series (out of 39) in Fall Classic history in which starting pitchers recorded just two wins (Kershaw in Game 1 and McCullers in Game 3). As recently as 2011, we saw a seven-game series in which starters got three wins, and that has happened five other times (2002, 1979, '75, '72, '47).
Brian McTaggart has covered the Astros since 2004, and for MLB.com since 2009. Follow @brianmctaggart on Twitter and listen to his podcast.
Ken Gurnick has covered the Dodgers for MLB.com since 2001.
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Chicago Cubs: 2016 World Series Champions
CLEVELAND -- After a 108-year wait for a World Series championship, the Cubs had to wait just a little longer.
Ben Zobrist smacked a one-out tiebreaking RBI double in a two-run 10th inning that lifted the Cubs to an 8-7 rain-delayed victory over the Indians Wednesday night in Game 7. Zobrist was named World Series MVP.
Game 7 of a series in any sport is significant, but this was more than a baseball game to Cubs fans. This win ended more than a century of frustration as the Cubs won their first championship since 1908, ending the longest drought in professional sports. This was for Ernie and Ronnie and Billy and many more.
Dexter Fowler, Javier Baez and David Ross each homered, and the Cubs had leads of 5-1 and 6-3, but the Indians rallied against Aroldis Chapman in the eighth, tying the game at 6 on Rajai Davis' two-run homer.
The Cubs are the first team to come back from a three games to one deficit and win Games 6 and 7 on the road since the 1979 Pirates.
Rain halted play for 17 minutes prior to the 10th inning, and gave both teams and the sellout crowd a chance to regroup -- and breathe. Kyle Schwarber singled to open the 10th against Bryan Shaw, and was lifted for pinch-runner Albert Almora Jr., who advanced on Kris Bryant's flyout to the wall in right-center. Anthony Rizzo was intentionally walked to set up Zobrist, who lined a double down the left-field line past a diving Jose Ramirez.
Miguel Montero added an RBI single and rookie Carl Edwards Jr. got the first two outs of the 10th before walking Brandon Guyer and giving up an RBI single to Davis. Mike Montgomery took over for Edwards and got Michael Martinez to ground to Bryant at third for the most important 6-3 in Cubs history.
Back at Wrigley Field, Cubs fans flocked to the corner of Clark and Addison and were anticipating their own celebration, considering the commanding lead Chicago had until the eighth. They also were well-represented in the stands in the Tribe's home, making it sound like a neutral site at times.
The Cubs, who won 103 games, are the third team in Wild Card era (since 1995) to have baseball's best outright regular-season record and win the World Series. They join the 1998 and 2009 Yankees.
It wasn't easy. This was the third time the Cubs faced Indians ace Corey Kluber in the Series, and the first time in his career that the right-hander did not strike out a batter. Kluber was charged with four runs over four-plus innings, including two home runs, which bookended his outing. Fowler led off the game with home run to straightaway center, and Baez closed Kluber's outing with a leadoff blast in the fifth.
The Indians tied the game in the third on Carlos Santana's RBI single, but the Cubs tacked on runs in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Game 6 hero Addison Russell and an RBI double by rookie Willson Contreras.
Baez's homer not only made up for two errors he made early in the game but chased Kluber, and Andrew Miller took over. Bryant and Rizzo combined for another run as Bryant walked and then scored on Rizzo's single to right. Since Sunday's Game 5 win, Rizzo has been playing the music from the movie "Rocky." As he stood on second base following his hit, he raised his arms in the air, just like Rocky Balboa, and did a little shadow boxing.
Who could blame Rizzo, either? Cleveland looked to be on the verge of a knockout.
Kyle Hendricks started for the Cubs and held the Indians to two runs over 4 2/3 innings, but he was lifted with two outs in the fifth after walking Santana. Jon Lester, making his first relief appearance since the 2007 American League Championship Series, entered along with veteran catcher Ross. It was a little messy, as a Ross throwing error and a wild pitch by Lester allowed two runs to score. But Ross made up for that in the sixth when his solo shot gave the Cubs a 6-3 lead, a great way to cap this storybook season as he heads into retirement.
The Indians were not done writing their own ending, though.
With a runner on first and two out in the eighth, Cubs manager Joe Maddon handed the ball to Chapman, who promptly allowed a run-scoring double to Guyer, trimming Chicago's lead to 6-4. That set the stage for Davis, who ripped a 97-mph fastball to left field, where it cleared the 19-foot wall, eliciting a riotous roar from the crowd.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
You go, we go: Fowler gave the Chicago contingent of fans something to cheer about when he opened the game with a home run, the first homer in history to open a winner-take-all World Series game. Fowler, who had seven leadoff homers during the regular season, launched a 2-1 sinker from Kluber a Statcast™ -projected 406 feet to straightaway center. What also was encouraging was Schwarber on the bases, as he followed Fowler with an infield single, then stole second. Schwarber, playing on a surgically repaired left knee, was limited to being the designated hitter during the Series.
Davis' heroics: The stadium was shaking in the eighth inning, when Davis delivered his game-tying shot off Chapman. The veteran shot an arm high in the air as he rounded first and his teammates could not help but pour from the dugout in celebration. Up in a suite, NBA star LeBron James flexed and shouted with approval, while the crowd erupted in a riotous roar. Davis' blast pulled the game into a 6-6 deadlock, giving Cleveland a slice of hope before the Cubs' final push.
Breaking through: The Indians pulled the game into a 1-1 deadlock in the third inning, when veteran Coco Crisp led off by slicing a pitch from Hendricks down the left-field line. Crisp showed that there is still life in his legs by hustling around first and diving headfirst into second with a double. Crisp then moved up 90 feet on a sacrifice bunt by Roberto Perez, and then jogged home when Santana sent a line drive over a leaping Rizzo and into right for an RBI single.
No way, Jose: Jose Ramirez opened the home half of the second with a chopper up the middle, where it ricocheted off Hendricks and rolled into no-man's land between short and third. After Ramirez reached with the infield single, the Progressive Field crowd roared and chanted his first name. A moment later, though, Hendricks caught Ramirez leaning at first and used a quick move to pick him off. Lonnie Chisenhall followed with a single but was erased by an inning-ending double play off the bat of Davis. So, the Indians had two hits, but Hendricks faced the minimum.
Add-on runs: With the game tied at 1 in the fourth, Bryant singled to left, threading the ball between two defenders, and moved up when Rizzo was hit by a pitch. Rizzo was forced at second on Zobrist's fielder's choice, but Bryant advanced to third and scored on Addison Russell's sacrifice fly to center. Davis threw home, but Bryant safely slid in under Perez's tag. Contreras followed with an RBI double off the center-field wall that Davis misjudged and had to chase. Zobrist scored on the hit to open a 3-1 lead.
Wild turn of events: Ross took over behind the plate when Lester entered in relief with one on and two out in the fifth. After Ross made a throwing error on Jason Kipnis' swinging bunt, the Indians had runners on second and third. Then a wild pitch by Lester caromed off Ross' face mask to the backstop. He stumbled initially when he went to to give chase, allowing both runners to score. Ross then redeemed himself in the Chicago sixth, hitting a solo home run off Miller to open a 6-3 lead. It's a nice way to head off into retirement. At 39 years 228 days, Ross is the oldest player to homer in Game 7 of a World Series.
AFTER FURTHER REVIEW
The Indians caught a break in the third inning, when Kipnis sent a grounder to shortstop Russell, who gloved the ball after it hit the lip of the grass and took an odd last bounce. Russell quickly flipped the ball to Baez, but the second baseman botched a barehanded grab. Santana was ruled out at second, but Cleveland challenged. After viewing all relevant angles, the replay official definitively determined that Baez did not demonstrate complete control and firm and secure possession of the ball. The call was overturned and what looked like a possible double play instead turned into the Tribe having two runners on with one out. Chicago escaped when Francisco Lindor flied out to left and Mike Napoli sent a 103-mph liner into the glove of Bryant at third base.
After Baez's homer chased Kluber, Fowler greeted Miller with a single and the Cubs had one on and nobody out in the fifth, but Schwarber grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. The Cubs challenged the out call at first, saying Schwarber beat the throw from second baseman Kipnis, but the replay official definitively determined that the ball contacted the interior of Napoli's glove prior to Schwarber's foot touching first base and the call was confirmed. The Cubs still mounted a two-out rally, with Bryant walking and scoring on Rizzo's single to make it 5-1.
With the game caught in a 6-6 tie in the ninth, Jason Heyward hit a grounder to Kipnis, who fired it to Lindor at short to retire pinch-runner Chris Coghlan. The Indians challenged that Coghlan's slide interfered with Cleveland's shot at a double play, but the replay official definitively determined that Coghlan engaged in a bona-fide slide and Heyward remained at first base. Heyward ended up on third with one out after a stolen base and an error on the throw from Perez, but the game remained tied after a Baez strikeout on an attempted two-strike bunt attempt and a Heyward groundout that took an impressive play by Lindor.
Jordan Bastian has covered the Indians for MLB.com since 2011, and previously covered the Blue Jays from 2006-10. Read his blog, Major League Bastian, follow him on Twitter @MLBastian and listen to his podcast.
Carrie Muskat has covered the Cubs since 1987, and for MLB.com since 2001. She writes a blog, Muskat Ramblings. You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat and listen to her podcast.
Kansas City Royals: 2015 World Series Champions
Not a drop of Champagne dotted the salt-and-pepper hair or clean-shaven face of Dayton Moore as he sat along the bench inside the visitors’ dugout at Citi Field, the home these last three nights for the greatest Royals team in a generation.
Up above him, hundreds of Royals fans serenaded the players with a rendition of Queen’s “We Are The Champions.” Hidden from sight, away from the spotlight, Moore still looked dazed.
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” Moore said. “This is pretty cool.”
Nine years ago, when owner David Glass chose Moore to resurrect this franchise, Moore dreamed about a parade threading through the streets of Kansas City. The final step of his vision — which restored his organization’s credibility within the game, revived the sport in his community and delivered night after night of indelible memories — will happen on Tuesday along Grand Boulevard. Because at 34 minutes after midnight in New York, the Royals captured their first world championship since 1985 with a 7-2 victory in 12 innings in Game 5 over the Mets.
The win followed a blueprint authored by this club all postseason. The Royals collected their eighth comeback victory, and their sixth with a multiple-run deficit. Silent for eight innings, the team conquered Matt Harvey and Jeurys Familia to tie the game in the ninth. Three innings later, Christian Colon cracked the go-ahead single and opened the floodgates for a five-run flourish.
After the last 95-mph fastball from closer Wade Davis whistled into the glove of backup catcher Drew Butera, this cherished group assembled for one last time as a team in the center of Citi Field, the last mountain they ascended en route to the sport’s apex. Thousands of miles away, fireworks popped in Kansas City and fans clambered through the streets. As the champagne flowed in New York, the Royals erased the bitterness of last October and established themselves as a team incapable of cardiac arrest.
“Never give up,” outfielder Lorenzo Cain said. “Never give up. Came through again. We’re the comeback kids, if you want to call us.”
Along the way, the Royals personified the blueprint Moore brought when he took over the team’s baseball operations department in 2006. The team displayed athleticism in the field and on the bases. They refused to roll over in the face of adversity. They leaned upon one another and relished one another’s company. On a team stocked with All-Stars, there was no one singular star.
Salvador Perez received the Most Valuable Player trophy, but the honor could be shared by so many on his team. Eric Hosmer drove in the run that ejected Harvey from the game and bested the infield arms of the Mets for a daring, game-tying score. Only a few days removed from his father’s funeral, Edinson Volquez turned in six innings of two-run ball. Davis did not yield a run all October.
And in his first at-bat of the entire postseason, Colon found a moment to pair with his game-tying infield single from the American League Wild Card game in 2014. That night, so many months ago, solidified the ethos of this team. Pushed to the brink, the Royals do not break. Instead, it is their opponents who buckle.
“This is too good of a group, too good of a team, not to be remembered as world champions,” Hosmer said.
During the regular season, the Royals resembled a freight train, barreling past their foes. In the playoffs, they transformed into Ali in Zaire, luring opponents into a false sense of comfort, only to strike in the highest-leverage spots. The Royals possessed the chin of a champion. After the way the 2014 season finished, no singular shot could shake them.
“We never quit,” Perez said. “We never put our heads down. We never think about, ‘OK, the game is over.’ No. We always compete to the last out.”
When their season ended last October, with the tying run stranded at third base in Game 7 of the World Series, the Royals felt the sort of heartbreak that lingers through the winter. The players mourned the loss and sought to convert the pain into fuel for 2015.
Kansas City became the best team in the American League. They won their first division title in 30 years. Their players shined at the All-Star Game. Their coffers filled with a franchise-record for attendance at Kauffman Stadium. The renaissance emerged in full bloom.
Except all of this would have been coated with bile, rendered meaningless, if the Royals had been unable to defy incredible odds in the first round. The journey from the brink of the abyss to postseason bliss lasted 21 days. It may be difficult to recall now, in the wake of popped bottles and kept promises, but the Royals looked on the verge of a collapse in Houston.
Across 162 games during the season, the Royals played like the best team in the American League. During the first 34 innings of the American League Division Series with the Houston Astros, the Royals played like the second-best team on the field. October allows scant time for second chances, for extended slumps, for platitudes like “We’ll get them tomorrow.” Tomorrows do exist in the postseason, but they disappear with expediency when you lose.
At 3 p.m. on Oct. 12, Kansas City trailed Houston by four runs. Six outs remained in their season. Their bats never found life, and Yost was preparing for a concession speech.
“I was thinking about how I was going to congratulate the Houston Astros in my press conference,” Yost said. “I mean, I really was.”
Then Alex Rios hit the first pitch he saw from reliever Will Harris into left field. Alcides Escobar fished for a curveball and found a hit. Ben Zobrist cracked a line drive into center field, where outfielder Carlos Gomez declined to dive.
By know, of course, the rest of the story has been written into Kansas City legend, standing alongside the Wild Card Game as the exemplars of this club’s fortitude. The club earned a chance to rewrite the chapter they could not get right last year.
When the ninth inning on Sunday began, the Royals found themselves in the predicament that has become so familiar. They were down two runs with three outs to play. They had overcome so much this postseason, yet with Harvey on the mound, this task looked so tall.
Harvey does not deal in deception. He piles power upon power. His fastball approaches triple digits. His slider clocks at 90 mph. His changeup resides only a few ticks lower.
In the fourth, Harvey displayed the depth and breadth of his arsenal. With the count at 3-1, Cain chased a high fastball. Harvey finished him off with a changeup, down and in. Hosmer flailed at a curveball for a second strikeout.
“Harvey was nasty tonight,” Hosmer said. “He was dirty.”
The last victim was Moustakas. Harvey flipped a pair of curveballs for strikes. Then he blazed a 98-mph fastball past Moustakas to strike out the side. Harvey pumped his fist as he headed for his dugout.
The celebration looked premature. The Royals, after all, do their most devastating damage in the later innings. Harvey would receive a reminder in the ninth. At that point, he had struck out nine. He had not allowed a runner to reach third base. The game belonged to him, and Mets manager Terry Collins refused to take it away.
As the bottom of the eighth inning wound down, the fans shouted for another inning from Harvey. Inside the dugout, he argued with Collins, insisting on staying in the game. Harvey wanted the ninth. He wanted the Royals. Perhaps history will forgive him for his impudence. Because the Royals did not.
Down two strikes, Cain battled his way back for a walk. The crowd stirred. There was life. The future felt recognizable to George Brett, the Hall of Famer from the 1985 Royals.
“As soon as Harvey walked that guy in the ninth,” Brett said, “I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. We’re winning this game.’ ”
With Familia ready, Collins let Harvey stay in the game. Harvey tried to drive a 94-mph fastball past Hosmer’s knees. Hosmer did not let the baseball pass. He thumped an opposite-field, RBI double. The hit halved the score and petrified the park.
Collins fetched Harvey and handed the baseball over to Familia. Before this series, the presence of Familia almost guaranteed a Mets victory. Yet in the first four games here, he had already blown two saves. A third would soon follow.
Guile ruled the day. After Moustakas advanced Hosmer to third base, Perez stepped to the plate. He tapped a grounder toward third baseman David Wright. Wright looked at Hosmer before he threw, but Hosmer did not return to the bag. He prepared to sprint home. He knew Wright lacked superior arm strength and he knew the first baseman, Lucas Duda, is a mediocre fielder.
“Bless his heart, Duda,” first-base coach Rusty Kuntz said. “He’s a good bat.”
The Kansas City scouting report on Duda mentioned his sidearm throwing motion. His volleys often tail away from the intended target. And so catcher Travis d’Arnaud reached in vain as the ball skittered away. Hosmer slid across the plate to tie the game. Joy coursed through the Royals dugout, and the knowledge that now the game would come down to bullpens. No team possessed a deeper relief corps than Kansas City.
Kelvin Herrera returned for the ninth inning, his third scoreless inning. Luke Hochevar turned in a pair of spotless innings. In the top of the 12th, Perez smacked a single off reliever Addison Reed. Jarrod Dyson replaced Perez at first base. Dyson proceeded to utilize his finest skill, the speed that convinced the Royals to stick with him as a 50th round draft pick in 2006, as he stole second base.
Two batters later, Colon picked up a bat for the first time this postseason. Reed refused to throw him a fastball. Colon waited until a fifth slider crossed the plate. Then he punched the go-ahead single into left field and thumped his chest at first. He spent each day this October waiting for an opportunity like this.
“I lived it,” Colon said. “You know what I’m saying? I went to bed almost every night, thinking about this moment. And being ready for my team and for my family and everybody.”
In the aftermath, the Mets bullpen combusted. The Royals notched four more runs, the last three on a bases-clearing double by Cain. The rally turned the bottom of the 12th into a fait accompli. As he did so many times this season, Davis insured the outcome was never in doubt.
In the aftermath of their summit, madness descended onto the Royals clubhouse. The players jostled with camera operators inside the cramped confines. They strapped Oakley goggles over beanies that read “2015 World Series champions.” Corks flew from the bottles of Nicolas Francois champagne. Red bottles of Budweiser operated like helicopters, unleashed torrents of hops around the room.
Alex Gordon, the team’s longest-tenured player, slipped through the throng. He has given 10 years of his life to this organization, and Sunday could have been his final night as a Royal. His ankles were still wrapped. He wore shower slides and sipped from a paper cup.
“Gordo’s hammered,” someone shouted.
“Shocker,” Gordon replied, though his eyes appeared clear and lucid.
Moore stayed away from the party, but other executives ringed the room’s periphery. Drenched across his chest, Gene Watson, the team’s director of pro scouting, engulfed advance scout Alec Zumwalt in a bear hug. It was Zumwalt, along with scouts Mike Pazik and Mike Toomey, who filed the advance reports that helped doom the Mets.
The reports called for the team to pitch inside to Daniel Murphy, the MVP of the National League Championship Series, and back him off the plate. Murphy hit .150 in this series. They also mentioned Murphy’s propensity for fielding mishaps. His error in Game 4 aided another comeback. And the reports nothed the vulnerability of both Wright’s arm and Duda’s arm. The Royals capitalized on that in Sunday’s ninth inning.
“You’re a world champion!” Watson shouted as he grabbed Zumwalt. He said the same to Mike Groopman, the team’s director of analytics.
Nearby, Dyson spotted his closest confidante in the organization. Kuntz has said he intends to retire from the big-league staff after this season. When Dyson found him, his idyllic blonde mane was still in place.
“Where you going?” Dyson asked. “You’re dry.”
Dyson dumped a beer on Kuntz’s head. “Yeah, player!” reliever Greg Holland said.
Someone handed Dyson the Commissioner’s Trophy. He carried it from the clubhouse, through a dugout muddied with Gatorade cups, sunflower seeds and Dubble Bubble wrappers, and onto the field.
“This is what you play for,” Dyson shouted toward the crowd. “This is what you play for, baby, right here.”
Blair and Andy recap Royals' World Series-clinching victory
The Star's Blair Kerkhoff and Andy McCullough recapped the Royals' 7-2 win in 12 innings over the Mets in World Series Game 5 on Sunday night in New York, which clinched the championship for Kansas City for the first time since 1985.
The Royals gathered with their families and friends for pictures and interviews. Yost spotted his kids. “You guys want to be on TV?” he said before sauntering toward an MLB Network interview.
Inside the dugout, Moore wrapped up a conversation with a small throng of reporters. He laughed about a Sports Illustrated story that predicted his club would win a championship in 2015. On this night, it was yet another vision fulfilled.
As ushers shooed the fans out of the park, Moore’s wife and his two children found him in the dugout. Moore hugged his son. His daughter wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Dad,” she said, “we won the World Series.”
Moore dashed a tear from his eye. He would fly back to Kansas City on Monday morning. Meetings about the 2016 season would begin on Wednesday. In between, there will be a parade, the one he envisioned nearly a decade ago.
World Series Game 5
Royals 7, Mets 2, 12 innings
ROYALS WIN WORLD SERIES!!!!!
| Kansas City | AB | R | H | BI | W | K | Avg. |
| A.Escobar ss | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .231 |
| Zobrist 2b | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .261 |
| L.Cain cf | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | .227 |
| Hosmer 1b | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .190 |
| Moustakas 3b | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .304 |
| S.Perez c | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .364 |
| 1-J.Dyson pr | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Butera c | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- |
| A.Gordon lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .222 |
| Rios rf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .133 |
| K.Herrera p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- |
| a-K.Morales ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .200 |
| Hochevar p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- |
| c-C.Colon ph | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 |
| W.Davis p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Volquez p | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .500 |
| Orlando rf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .125 |
| Totals | 47 | 7 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 11 |
| New York | AB | R | H | BI | W | K | Avg. |
| Granderson rf | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .250 |
| D.Wright 3b | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .208 |
| Dan.Murphy 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | .150 |
| Cespedes cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .150 |
| Lagares cf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .300 |
| Duda 1b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | .263 |
| T.d’Arnaud c | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .143 |
| Conforto lf | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .333 |
| W.Flores ss | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .059 |
| Harvey p | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Familia p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- |
| b-K.Johnson ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Niese p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- |
| A.Reed p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- |
| B.Colon p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- |
| Totals | 37 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 11 |
| Kansas City | 000 | 000 | 002 | 005 | — | 7 | 10 | 1 |
| New York | 100 | 001 | 000 | 000 | — | 2 | 4 | 2 |
1-ran for S.Perez in the 12th.
E: Hosmer (2), D.Wright (2), Dan.Murphy (2). LOB: Kansas City 7, New York 6. 2B: A.Escobar (1), L.Cain (1), Hosmer (1). HR: Granderson (3), off Volquez. RBIs: A.Escobar (4), L.Cain 3 (4), Hosmer (6), S.Perez (2), C.Colon (1), Granderson (5), Duda (2). SB: L.Cain 2 (4), Hosmer (1), J.Dyson (1). SF: Duda.
Runners left in scoring position: Kansas City 3 (Hosmer, Moustakas 2); New York 3 (Harvey, T.d’Arnaud, W.Flores). RISP: Kansas City 4 for 11; New York 0 for 5. Runners moved up: Hosmer, Moustakas, S.Perez, A.Gordon, Conforto. GIDP: A.Escobar, Cespedes, T.d’Arnaud, W.Flores. DP: Kansas City 3 (Zobrist, Hosmer), (Moustakas, Zobrist, Hosmer), (A.Escobar, Zobrist, Hosmer); New York 1 (Dan.Murphy, W.Flores, Duda).
TableStyle: SP-basepitchersCCI Template: SP-basepitchers
| Kansas City | IP | H | R | ER | W | K | ERA |
| Volquez | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 3.00 |
| K.Herrera | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.00 |
| Hochevar W, 1-0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| W.Davis | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.00 |
| New York | IP | H | R | ER | W | K | ERA |
| Harvey | 8 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 3.21 |
| Familia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1.80 |
| Niese | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.79 |
| A.Reed L, 0-1 | 0.1 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 9.82 |
| B.Colon | 0.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
Blown save: Familia (3). Inherited runners-scored: Familia 1-1, B.Colon 3-3. IBB: off Volquez (W.Flores), off A.Reed (Zobrist).
Umpires: Home, Alfonso Marquez; First, Gary Cederstrom; Second, Mike Everitt; Third, Mark Carlson; Left, Mike Winters; Right, Jim Wolf. Time: 4:15. Att: 44,859.
AP-WF-11-02-15 0538GMT
Andy McCullough, 816-234-4370, @McCulloughStar
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