Game 2 of the ALCS went much like Game 1. The Orioles and Royals tied in the late innings, Royals score multiple runs, Orioles get the tying run to the plate, and come up short. We can sit here and lament what could have been or might have been.
What if Adam Jones, a career .149 hitter with 13 K’s in 47 career postseason at-bats, bunts with two on and nobody out in a 4-4 game in the 7th inning? Nelson Cruz, the hottest hitter in the lineup, singled the very next at-bat and may have been able to plate two runs. Instead, Jones struck out and the Orioles didn’t score.
What if Lorenzo Cain doesn’t make that diving catch in the gap to rob J.J. Hardy of a leadoff double in the 6th? Maybe he scores and the pitching matchups turn out differently?
What if Mike Moustakas decides not to bunt in the 9th and instead grounds into a double play? What then?
We can ask “What if?” until we’re blue in the face, but it won’t make a difference. None of those things happened, and the Orioles lost. They find themselves down 2-0 heading to Kansas City for what all of Baltimore hopes is three games.
But rather than focus on the negative, I want to focus on a certain Royals player who may be getting a little ahead of himself. A Royals player who, despite having “Zoom” shaved into his hair, is 0-2 in stolen base attempts this ALCS. A Royals player who doesn’t play every day, is a utility outfielder, and a career pinch runner.
Asked after the game Saturday if he expects to return to Baltimore, Royals speedster Jarrod Dyson said, “No sir, I don’t. And I don’t think they expect that, either.” Mighty big words from a player who has just 55 more at-bats over the last three seasons than Nick Markakis had plate appearances in 2014.
Jarrod Dyson has four official at-bats and exactly zero hits in the 2014 postseason. He has gone 1-3 in SB attempts in the 2014 postseason. Yet he is the authority on how the rest of this series will play out?
Even if he thinks that, you don’t say it out loud. It’s one thing to believe in your team. It’s another thing to poke a sleeping giant. Last I checked, this is a best-of-seven series. Yet it seems as though some within the Royals organization, mainly 30-year-old bench players, believe that they are already in the World Series after just two games.
In fact, eight teams have come back from 2-0 series deficits to win a playoff round: the ’81 Dodgers, ’82 Brewers, ’84 Padres, ’95 Mariners, ’99 Red Sox, ’01 Yankees, ’03 Red Sox, and the ’04 Red Sox (the only team in MLB history to come back from down 3-0). It has been done before, and it will be done again, whether this season or another season down the road.
For the Orioles, this “bulletin board” material set forth by Dyson may be just what the doctor ordered.
Let’s face it, the Birds haven’t played their best baseball in the first two games of this series and yet found themselves tied in the 9th inning of each game. The Royals have scored five runs in the last two games off of a broken bat bloop double and a poorly struck pop fly that fell just beyond J.J. Hardy’s outstretched glove. The Royals have in no way dominated this series.
For Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Nelson Cruz and company, the sting of losing two straight in front of a sold-out, amped up home crowd is motivation enough to blow the doors down at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals better hope Jarrod Dyson didn’t just unlock the deadbolt.
