ALCS Game 1: Royals 8, @Orioles 6 — That’s eight straight postseason wins for the Royals since 1985. A five-and-oh postseason start would have left a team two wins from the title in 1984; to put that another way, KC is still seven victories from shocking the world, which was a full champion’s portion that year. But don’t bet against them. The Royals don’t know it’s a damn show; they think it’s a damn fight.

Those who care will know the details by now, so here are some stray ruminations:

Zach Britton walked the first three in the 9th and went full to the next, but the O’s held the tie. A game-saving backhand scoop by Nick Hundley finally gave Britton an out — try that with the heel of your catcher’s mitt — and Darren O’Day induced a DP that kept KC off the board.

Buck Showalter’s move to O’Day caught Ned Yost without a lefty bat on the bench — Jarrod Dyson had pinch-run in the 7th — so Billy Butler stayed in. That’s a match made in DP heaven: O’Day’s foundation is grounders from RHBs, and Butler’s a two-time AL dee-pee leader. Buck had seen enough of Britton anyway, so he made a virtue of necessity. Yost’s only options were righties — two rookies who combined for 50 ABs, his backup catcher, and the lumbering Josh Willingham. Could have used “Hammer,” an extreme flyball hitter (about half Butler’s DP rate) who thrives against groundball pitchers.

• Yost might have been swayed by Butler’s two hits off Chris Tillman and his sac fly on a 1-2 pitch from Tommy Hunter, who’s usually tough on righties.
• But really, Ned’s not inclined to hit for anyone: KC’s 51 pinch-hit tries this year rank in the all-time bottom 20, and their 224 pinch-hitters in Yost’s four full years at the helm is the lowest in baseball by far. (Buck is next, with 302.)
• Four prior postseason pitchers walked at least three without retiring a man, including Baltimore’s Jesse Orosco in a ’96 DS loss. (Yet, somehow, folks just remember the slam off Armando Benitez.) Only Art Reinhart issued four walks with no outs, relieving Flint Rhem in the ’26 Series and surrendering the lead to the Yankees. (Hall of Famers drew three of those walks, and the Cards went on to win the crown, but Reinhart never got another chance.)

_____

How fast can a postseason pitcher turn from hero to goat? O’Day’s double play was a colossal game-changer, scoring 0.35 Win Probability Added, the most for any postseason pitching event since 2005. Had he left then, his game WPA would have been highest by a postseason pitcher working less than three innings since his own 2012 escape act, and second-highest ever for a one-batter appearance. But he didn’t leave then. Alex Gordon would start the 10th, and O’Day has a penchant for homers to lefties. But Showalter had used his best southpaws already, and couldn’t afford to use a sixth reliever so soon in extra innings. Besides, Brian Matusz hasn’t been too effective vs. LHBs this year, as later events would show. Gordon’s home run clawed back that very same 0.35 WPA.

• Gordon joined Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas with extra-time go-ahead homers this postseason, accounting for 5% of all such postseason events. A handful of teams had two such blasts in one postseason, starting with Kirby Puckett’s ’91 Twins,* but no other team hit three. (* If you even remember Mike Pagliarulo as a Twin, it’s probably for his pinch-hit game-winner in the ’91 ALCS, or his 7th-inning go-ahead shot off John Smoltz in that World Series.)
• Only one Royals postseason homer had more WPA impact than those three. Here’s a hint: Hall of Famers were involved.
• Random note: The last postseason starter to give up a go-ahead homer in extra frames was Britt Burns, against the O’s in the 1983 ALCS clincher. He’s also the last starter to log more than 9 IP and lose.

_____

Yost stretched his set-up aces Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis for six outs apiece in a tie game, shucking the rote bullpen usage he’s often knocked for. Herrera cleaned up from Brandon Finnegan, after Baltimore tied it with none out in the 6th. (The rookie wasn’t hit hard, but dug his hole with a leadoff walk to Jonathan Schoop, who drew but 13 passes in 481 PAs this year.) Two were aboard for Herrera, but just five pitches got him two grounders for three outs; neither he nor Davis used more than 20 pitches in their stints, so they should be available for Game 2. Davis’s four swinging strikeouts used only 15 pitches; three of those came in the 9th, including righty sluggers Adam Jones and Nelson Cruz, squelching any thought of O’s momentum after their top-half Houdini.

• Herrera and Davis each had just three outings this long during the season, all but one coming in May, and the last on July 22. Herrera’s entrance was his earliest since May.
• Davis hasn’t yielded a homer this year, and held righties to a .128 slugging average, the second-best ever with 100+ batters faced. Which guarantees nothing. In the prior three years, two postseason pitchers went homer-free in at least 40 IP for the season, both in 2011: Brad Ziegler bled 4 runs in his second appearance, tying a postseason record by retiring none of six batters. And Al Alburquerque (who tops that RHB slugging list) served a grand slam to his first-ever postseason batter.

Even so, Yost got singed leaving James Shields in to finish the 5th. After three hits and a walk made it 5-2, bases loaded and one out, Shields got a call for a full-count whiff of J.J. Hardy. But the lefty Ryan Flaherty laced his next pitch into right for two runs — the 10th hit off Shields — and only the placement of Nick Hundley’s liner kept the lead intact.

• Shields is just the third postseason pitcher to survive 10+ hits in 5 IP or less with no more than 4 runs.
• Postseason teams are 9-29 when their starter yields exactly 4 runs in 5 IP, with two of those wins started by Shields this year. Only two pitchers have earned wins in such starts, both in 2002.

_____

Young Jonathan Schoop laid an old-school tag on Jarrod Dyson, subtly helping to separate the Royal’s leg from the bag he had stolen, thus rendering harmless Alex Gordon’s subsequent hit. They called it “riding the runner” in Eddie Collins’s day, an important skill for keystone players, when tags were more common than punchouts. I’ve had no more luck than others in finding a rule that addresses it, and an umpires’ forum suggests it’s “no foul” unless the push is egregious.

• Has anyone seen before the kind of antics that first baseman Steve Pearce employed to hold Dyson on? I couldn’t find a clip, but basically, Pearce set up two or three strides from the bag, towards pitcher Kevin Gausman, and then broke for first to take the throw. They did it several times and nearly nailed Dyson once, and it seemed like an effective novelty. But as Cal Ripken noted, the more Dyson saw that ploy, the more comfy he got; when he did finally break for his date with second base, the play wasn’t close, helped by a bad pitch and worse throw. But as Jarrod learned, anyone can take a reservation; the important part is holding the reservation.

Schoop had first made his own luck on the other side of the ball, turning a pickoff at second into a steal of third, as the relayed throw skimmed off his back. Then he scored the tying run on a daring read of a quail that died on the infield grass. Schoop swiped just two bags during this season, and one in his last year on the farm, but he picked one up against David Price in the last round. Getting caught off second was a blunder, but he had the smarts to break for third, letting the trail runner move up even if he were caught.

• The O’s were last among all teams with 44 steals, but their six swipes of third were more than four teams.

_____

Alex Gordon cleared the bases with a double at two out, full-count — the first such situation in the postseason since last year’s ALDS.

• The 2014 MLB average for non-pitchers with two down, bags and count full: .188 BA (29 for 154), 2 HRs, 26% strikeouts, 30% walks.
• It’s the first time Gordon’s ever put the ball in play in that exact situation — two walks, one whiff.
• Of course, as a Royal, his bases-loaded opportunities are limited. Since his 2007 debut, Gordon is 42nd in total PAs, but 109th in bags-full PAs. This year, just eight of his 643 times up had bases loaded.
• Even with the free start from first base, it took a relay error to score Billy Butler. But the big boy was hustling, there and on the infield hit that set up Gordon.

Alcides Escobar homered on a 2-0 count.

• The Royals were involved in all three 2-0 HRs this postseason, with Eric Hosmer doing it in their ALDS clincher, and Yordano Ventura serving one to Brandon Moss in the Wild-Card Game.
• There were no 2-0 taters last October.
• KC’s only prior postseason homer by a shortstop came from Freddie Patek, 1978 ALCS Game 2. Freddie hit two HRs in that regular season, Escobar three.

It’s the 5th time that the Royals scored at least 4 runs in a postseason inning, and they’ve won all five.

• Their only bigger outburst was 6 runs in the blowout/meltdown 5th inning of the 1985 World Series clincher.

_____

Finnegan’s outing emphasized the poor showing so far by little-used relievers thrust into the limelight. Through the ALCS opener, six of the 67 pitchers used in relief had logged 25 innings in the last two seasons. Those six — five rookies, plus Scott Elbert — had a 2.60 ERA and 0.96 WHIP in 66 innings during the season, but their playoff ERA is an ugly 7.30 (10 ER in 12.1 IP). The only one with an ERA under 4.50 is Bobby LaFromboise, who faced one batter in his lone appearance. Finnegan would have taken the wild-card game loss had the Royals not rallied, as his leadoff walk in the 12th helped the A’s take the lead.

• All other relievers have a 3.44 ERA so far.
• Relievers over all have fared worse than starters:
  SP — 3.60 ERA … 1.12 WHIP … 7.8 K/9 … 3.6 K/W
  RP — 3.81 ERA … 1.25 WHIP … 8.0 K/9 … 2.1 K/W

By the way … Before expansion, only seven pitchers relieved in the postseason (i.e., World Series) after logging 25 IP or less during that year:

• Roy Wilkinson, a 1919 rook, did two mop-up stints for the Dirty Sox.
• Tom Rogers, 1921, a veteran plucked from the minors that fall, also mopped up a blowout.
• Alex “Red” McColl, 1933, a 39-year-old rookie, with (yes) a mop-up outing.
• “Milkman” Jim Turner, 1942, a veteran on the way down, actually pitched in a close game.
• Mike Ryba, 1946, a 43-year-old veteran, made his final appearance in a blowout loss.
• Ken Lehman, 1952, a raw rookie with a janitorial stint.
• Art Schallock, 1953, mopped up a Whitey Ford loss. It was not the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

That’s three actual rookies, one of them old enough to be President. I don’t have a point here, just noting how times have changed.

_____

Nineteen of 29 postseason starters this year hold an ERA of 3.18 or better, while the other ten sport 5.40 and up. The latter group is littered with All-Stars — Kershaw, Wainwright, Scherzer, Lester, Verlander, Shields and Wilson; those seven combined for a 7.43 ERA in 10 turns.

• In all, this year’s 21 postseason starters who were ever All-Stars have combined for a 4.01 ERA in 26 starts. The eight non-All-Stars have a 2.27 ERA in eight outings, with just one yielding more than 2 runs. Both groups averaged 6 IP.