Royals shock Angels with ALDS sweep
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Nobody likes to leave a party early after waiting 29 years for an invite, least of all the Kansas City Royals, who're having an absolute blast.
The game's new darlings assured themselves of sticking around for more October festivities by thrashing the Los Angeles Angels 8-3 on Sunday to complete an improbable sweep of their American League Division Series.
After eking out extra-inning wins in their first three postseason games since 1985, mostly relying on speed, defense and a terrific bullpen, the Royals put together the kind of complete game that should give pause to the Baltimore Orioles, their opponents in the upcoming AL Championship Series.
To wit:
-- Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas, the three No. 1 picks selected to become franchise cornerstones, delivered big blows as Kansas City knocked out Angels starter C.J. Wilson in the first inning and poured it on against his relievers.
-- James Shields, the veteran starter acquired before the 2013 season to guide a youthful staff, pitched six solid innings to keep the Angels at bay while notching his first postseason victory since the 2008 World Series, when he was with the Tampa Bay Rays.
-- Center fielder Lorenzo Cain, who twice robbed the Angels of hits in Game 1, thwarted a rally with back-to-back sensational catches in the fifth, the latest demonstration of Kansas City's ability to frustrate opposing hitters even when they make good contact.
-- The fearsome bullpen that had not yielded a run in nine innings during the series welcomed back seventh-inning specialist Kelvin Herrera, who showed his arm is healthy by hitting 101 mph on the radar gun. The relievers yielded their first run in the eighth but kept K.C. comfortably ahead.
-- Heck, the Royals even got a stolen base out of beloved but lead-footed designated hitter Billy Butler, just one more sign of how comfortable they feel in the typically pressure-packed postseason environment.
"What's so impressive to me is they all look like they're enjoying it,'' manager Ned Yost said before the game, "and that's fun to see, that we get in this type of atmosphere and they're flourishing.''
And on Sunday they came out swinging, getting home runs from Hosmer and Moustakas to surpass their previous series output of runs by one.
The Angels had posted the best record in baseball and scored the most runs in the regular season, yet managed a total of three runs in the first two games. They finally took their first lead of the series when MVP favorite Mike Trout belted a Shields pitch well over the left-center field fence in the opening inning, apparently sparking the visitors.
Their fire lasted about half an inning. Wilson, who had logged the highest road ERA in the AL at 5.31, gave up two singles and a walk in the first, then served up Gordon's three-run double as the Royals took the lead for good.
They tacked on two more each in the third and fourth as a delirious sellout crowd of 40,657 enjoyed thrills not see around these parts since the 1985 club won the franchise's only World Series.
That team overcame a 3-1 series deficit against the Cardinals. Between those two editions, separated by nearly three decades, the Royals have now won seven postseason games in a row.
Shields had done little in the postseason to earn his "Big Game James'' nickname, coming in with a 2-4 record and 5.26 ERA in seven October starts. He was in line to take the loss in Tuesday's wild-card game before the Royals rallied time and again to pull out an epic victory.
On Sunday, Shields wasn't quite dominant, but he didn't have to be. He allowed two runs in six innings and enjoyed his teammates' offensive exploits.
For the Angels, the sweep represented a bitter end to a season that had seen them return to prominence, after missing the playoffs four years in a row.
Their offense went on hiatus the first two games, batting a collective .141 with three extra-base hits, as key performers like Trout, Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton?(0-for-13 in the series) and Howie Kendrick went a combined 2-for-34.
The postseason doesn't afford time for hitters to ride out slumps, and the Angels' offensive futility doomed them to arrive in Kansas City in a huge hole. Of the 44 teams that had lost the first two games of a Division Series since the format was implemented in 1995, only five had come back to win the series, and just two of them after dropping the initial two at home.
The Angels did show more offensive wherewithal Sunday, getting solo homers from Trout and Pujols, and they got two runners on base against Shields in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. But they couldn't deliver the clutch hit that might seriously cut into Kansas City's lead. And when they threatened, the Royals' sparkling defense came to the rescue, especially Cain.
GALLERY: ALDS - ROYALS vs. ANGELS
