2015 ROYALS: Game 6—Royals 4, Blue Jays 3

If you’re a Royals fan you’re going to like this story; it has a Good Guy and a Bad Guy and the Good Guy wins in the end.

Let’s start with the Bad Guy and his name is Jose Bautista.

The Bad Guy pretends to throw baseballs to kids, but then doesn’t because he thinks that’s funny. He throws a fit at the plate when an umpire’s call doesn’t go his way. He showboats home runs. When a ball falls in-between him and a teammate, the Bad Guy’s happy to let the teammate take the blame. In the above picture, Jose did an epic home run bat flip, but then claimed he didn’t remember doing it. The only reason anyone puts up with him is the Bad Guy is extremely talented.

Oh, and one more thing: the Bad Guy has the habit of occasionally throwing to the wrong base.

Now let’s talk about the Good Guy and his name is Mike Jirschele.

Mike is a third base coach, not a big star. He never made it to the Big Leagues as a player. In the off-season he works in a furniture store. He works hard, but he’s most famous for not sending Alex Gordon home in the 2014 World Series. It was the right decision—Gordon would have been out by a long long way and the only people who disagree aren’t ballplayers—but that doesn’t stop fans from speculating on what might have happened had Jirschele waved Gordon home.

The Good Guy has to pay attention to what’s going on; it’s how he makes his living—attention to detail.

And the Good Guy notices that the Bad Guy sometimes throws to the wrong base and makes a mental note of that; if the right occasion arises, the Good Guy can use that flaw in the Bad Guy’s game.

And on Friday night in a tie game with the American League Championship on the line, the Bad Guy makes the same mistake he’s made before and the Good Guy’s ready to take advantage of it.

Now Let’s Give Credit to Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer

The score is 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning. If the Royals can score here, the best reliever on the planet—Wade Davis—is going to pitch the top of the ninth. Cain leads off and walks on eight pitches; Eric Hosmer is next.

On the fifth pitch of his at-bat, Hosmer hits an 87-MPH slider down into the right field corner. Jose Bautista—our villain—gives chase.

Meanwhile, Lorenzo Cain is going from first base to third base. But like his third-base coach Mike Jirschele, Lorenzo Cain pays attention to detail; Mike told Lorenzo to come into third base hot—do not come in jogging because then Mike can’t send him home if the opportunity arises. Come in at full speed and Mike can always stop Lorenzo if he needs to.

The other guy who pays attention to detail is Eric Hosmer.

Lots of guys see that they’ve hit safely and throw out a parachute on their way to first base. They slow down as they approach the bag, but Hosmer always makes a good, aggressive turn at first base; even on a single. That puts him in a position to take an extra 90 feet if something goes wrong for the defense.

And tonight, something does.

Timeout for Gibby’s Opinion

I first met John Gibbons when he was a coach for the New York Mets and I was an idiot hanging around the minor leagues. But now Gibby’s manager of the Toronto Blue Jays and I’m an idiot hanging around the Big Leagues.

When I started covering the Royals, Gibby was their bench coach and we spent a lot of time talking about baseball.

At one point, John and I were talking about players that are reluctant to run into outfield walls or dive over railings to make catches. I’ve come to understand that attitude a little better since covering a team full-time: do you really want to lose your centerfielder when he makes a catch and gets hurt in a meaningless game in August?

Now here’s the deal on Big League managers and players:

Most of us stop playing organized sports in grade school or high school or maybe college and at those levels coaches have all the power. That relationship continues (with some exceptions) in the minor leagues. A coach who doesn’t like you or the effort you’re giving can slow your progress through the system by sending in bad reports about your play. (The exceptions are the high draft picks with big signing bonuses because too many front office guys need to justify drafting that player so unless that player develops leprosy or robs a bank, that player’s getting promoted.)

But get to the Big Leagues and the balance of power shifts.

Now the players have a union and make more money than the manager and coaches. If a star player gets sideways with a coach, the coach might be the one in trouble. And if a star player decides he doesn’t need to pay attention to the details or work on the drills, there isn’t a lot a coach or manager can do about it…

Unless the front office backs them up.

Benching a star player is considered a “wake-up call.” You can’t be a star or put up the numbers you need if you don’t play. But then the team has to come up with an excuse for the media and say something like “Bobby’s got a tender hamstring” because “Bobby isn’t going to play until he quits acting like an asshole” is going to cause even bigger problems. Bobby might call his agent and say get me out of here. All things considered, maybe it’s better to let that sleeping dog lie. Lots of sleeping dogs in the Big Leagues.

So what’s all this got to do with the Royals?

John Gibbons—the manager of the opposition—says the Royals have some special players and goes on to name Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer; two guys who could lay back and protect their health and numbers and get away with it.

But Moose and Hos bust their ass and do things like diving into dugout suites or running all out to first base and when your stars play like that, it encourages everybody to play like that.

Even though they’re on the opposing team, John Gibbons appreciates those guys and so should the rest of us.

And now back to a guy who doesn’t take care of the little stuff.

Jose Bautista Screws Up

(The above picture doesn’t have a single thing to do with today’s essay, but I just thought you might enjoy seeing it again.)

Anyway…

When Hosmer hits his 8^th-inning single, Jose Bautista has already hit two homers and driven in every run the Blue Jays have scored. If Toronto wins the game, Bautista will be the hero; he did some very big things at home plate—but then screws up a small thing in right field.

When Hosmer hits the ball down into the right field corner, Bautista goes to his left, fields the ball, spins and throws…

To the wrong base.

The go-ahead run—the run that matters—is Lorenzo Cain who’s coming into third base. Everybody else seems to understand that so the Blue Jays defense lines up for a play at the plate. The second baseman runs over toward the right field line, the first baseman backs up toward the middle of the infield and the catcher gets ready for a play at home plate.

But Bautista throws the ball to second base.

This is what Mike Jirschele noticed earlier in the series: with a runner on first heading to third on a single, Bautista threw the ball to second base. Bautista’s done it once before, but on that play the runner coming into third base was Kendrys Morales. Mike couldn’t take advantage of Bautista’s mistake—Kendrys isn’t fast enough.

So Jirsch puts that play in his data bank and thinks: “If Bautista does that again when I have a fast runner coming into third, I’m going to send the runner home and burn him.”

Had Bautista thrown the ball toward home plate, the second baseman or first baseman would have cut the ball and Jirschele would have stopped Cain at third; cutting the ball off would also freeze Hosmer at first.

But by throwing the ball to second base, Bautista forced two long throws; from right field to second base, from second base to home. When Cain kept right on going, Bautista’s throw to second base had to be redirected to home plate by Troy Tulowitzki and the throw was late, short and off-line.

Cain scored, the Royals took the lead and Wade Davis walked a ninth-inning tightrope to give the Royals their second American League Championship and send them back to the World Series.

The Good Guy Wins

Mike Jirschele has taken a fair amount of grief over not sending Alex Gordon in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series; but he’s never complained. Mike knows he was right not to send Gordon and has just decided to put up with the doubters and haters; people who have never played the game, but still think they know better than he does.

Friday night Mike won a game by paying attention to detail and waiting for the right opportunity to arise—when it did, he was ready.

The Good Guy won.

And the Bad Guy?

He had a long flight back to Toronto to think about his mistake, but being a Bad Guy, he probably didn’t.