It’s official – the Kansas City Royals are the champions of the American League. The Royals beat the Orioles 2-1 in Game 4 of the ALCS on Wednesday to complete a four-game sweep and win the pennant. They’ll meet either the Cardinals or Giants in the World Series, and Game 1 will be on Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium.
Kansas City needed to score in just one inning on Wednesday to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. In the first inning, Miguel Gonzalez allowed an infield single to Alcides Escobar and plunked Nori Aoki to begin the game for Kansas City. After Lorenzo Cain bunted the duo over, Eric Hosmer grounded a ball to Steve Pearce at first base. Pearce threw home in time to get Escobar, but Caleb Joseph couldn’t hang on to the ball, allowing Escobar and Aoki to score. That would be enough, though Baltimore made it a 2-1 game in the third after Ryan Flaherty launched a home run to right field.
The MVP of the series was Lorenzo Cain, who went 8/15 in the series with five runs and two doubles. He also shined defensively, making several huge catches in both center and right field for the Royals.
Quite frankly, this was an incredible series that could have gone either direction – it just happened to fall in favor of the Royals. Kansas City won two games by two runs, and two games by one run. Just a couple of big hits or key defensive plays could have turned this series in the Orioles’ direction, but that didn’t happen. The Royals got great defense when they needed it, big home runs at key situations, and were simply able to do enough to beat the Orioles.
The big story was the dominance of Kansas City’s bullpen in this series – they allowed only two runs on ten hits in 16 innings, striking out 15 and walking four. None of their four starters got through the sixth inning, but with a bullpen like that, it doesn’t matter. They beat the Athletics in a wild Wild Card playoff, ran through the Angels in the ALDS, and shut down the Orioles in the ALCS. They’re going to the World Series, and only either the Giants or Cardinals can prevent them from adding even more hardware to the trophy case at Kauffman Stadium.
