Royals' Furious Wild-Card Comeback Provides Epic Start to 2014 Postseason

That is exactly how the Kansas City Royals were supposed to win their first playoff game in nearly 29 years, and it was maybe the most exciting start to any Major League Baseball postseason ever.

It was perfectly fitting, perfectly emotional, perfectly gut-wrenching and perfectly 2014 Royals. For a dozen innings, all the ups and downs that any single baseball game can provide were accounted for, including a dramatic walk-off hit from an unlikely bat as another inning and plenty of rain readied to present themselves.

Robert Murray of Sports Rumor Alert shared concern about the possibility of rain:

Fortunately for youngster bedtimes, writer deadlines and a fanbase that has not witnessed an October baseball game since 1985, catcher Salvador Perez leaned out over the plate and whipped around a Jason Hammel slider by Oakland third baseman Josh Donaldson.

That play allowed Christian Colon to score for a 9-8 victory in the American League Wild Card game Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium, only a few minutes before the calendar officially turned from September to October.

Kauffman Stadium was deafening as strangers hugged, tears gushed and euphoria reigned. MLB.com's Anthony DiComo reminded everyone that this was only "the first night of the playoffs": 

Now, the Royals will actually get to play in the autumn month in the American League Division Series against the top-seeded Los Angeles Angels.

Before that, soak this one in.

It was a game in which the Royals trailed by two runs after one half-inning, by four runs in the sixth inning with a true playoff ace opposing them and by one run going into the bottom half of the 12th. They erased each deficit in dramatic fashion, complete with an array of stolen bases and sacrifice bunts, because, quite simply, that is how the Royals have scored runs all season.

The team that was last in the majors in home runs and walks also led in stolen bases and made no secret about its propensity for bunting runners around. In the end, the comeback was helped by four sacrifice bunts and seven stolen bases, tying a single-game postseason record. 

“This was the craziest game I’ve ever played,” Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer told TBS after the game. “This team showed a lot of character. No one believed in us before this game, no one believed in us before the season. We were down four, but we weren’t going to quit until that last out. We showed a lot of character, we showed a lot of fight.

“We had a game plan, and we stuck to it. We wanted to use our legs. We’re an athletic team. … We’re not going to go home until someone tells us.”

No one told Perez, although the A’s kept hinting whenever they faced him in a high-leverage situation before the 12th. Perez went into that final at-bat 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and a groundout in the 10th inning with the winning run on third. He had stranded three runners before taking that Hammel slider into left field for the game-winner.

Up to that point, it was Hosmer’s breakout party. A first-round pick by the Royals in 2008, Hosmer was tagged for superstardom, and this game might be the start of that. He had three hits and two walks Tuesday, including a triple to start the final rally that nearly left the yard.

Hosmer scored on a chopped single by Colon, who then stole second base on an attempted pitch out by the A’s. Catcher Derek Norris dropped the throw, however, and Colon ended up in scoring position for Perez.

“It puts a ton (of pressure on the other team),” reliever Brandon Finnegan told TBS about the Royals’ speed. “It shows what kind of team we are. We are very aggressive on the bases. We've got a lot of guys that can steal bags. It’s awesome.”

Both the Royals and A’s sort of stumbled their way into the playoffs, as neither was playing great ball by the end of last weekend. But both were able to line up their pitching so that aces Jon Lester (Oakland) and James Shields (Kansas City) could face off in the do-or-die, one-game playoff in what was expected to be a low-scoring pitchers’ duel.

But four hours, 45 minutes after the first pitch, not so much. Still, this was a complete classic of a playoff baseball game, emotionally draining and stunning by the time the final play unfolded and the place erupted.

For 29 seasons, Kansas City waited for a playoff baseball team, and the city was thrilled to host its first playoff game since Game 7 of the 1985 World Series.

MLB Fan Cave's tweet illustrated that excitement:

It was a game that seemed to pack 29 years of emotion into just about five hours and nearly 12 innings. If the rest of the postseason can even mildly resemble this first game, strap yourself in for one wild and crazy October.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado, and talk baseball here.