Royals Rediscover Winning Playoff Formula in Bounce-Back Game 2 Win

They are alive.

A night after having their World Series chances draped in despair and seemingly dismissed, the Kansas City Royals again have a pounding pulse. Giving a vengeful steamrolling back to your opponent in Game 2 will do that, which the Royals and any pessimistic fans now know after Kansas City trounced the San Francisco Giants 7-2 Wednesday night at Kauffman Stadium to even this series at one game each.

Despite the margin of victory and unlike Game 1, this contest had the drama we were all promised by this month’s prequels. The starters scuffled. The bullpens were in play. The managers mattered. Tempers flared. It became a contested series once more.

Each starting pitcher was on wobbly legs before the game even started.

The Royals’ Yordano Ventura had one good start and one ugly one under his belt in this postseason, but shoulder issues and an erratic fastball led one to figure he wouldn’t be a candidate to get deep into the game. He didn’t, but despite eight hits and just two strikeouts—his high-90s fastball got only one swing-and-miss—Ventura kept the Royals tied through his departure in the sixth.

As for Jake Peavy, the Giants starter now has eight consecutive postseason starts of fewer than six innings, a major league record. He allowed four runs in five innings, striking out just one and walking two.

The Royals offense was revitalized in Game 2, although that probably isn’t difficult to believe, considering it faced the best October starter in these playoffs, Madison Bumgarner, in the opener. Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain, Billy Butler and Omar Infante each had two hits, and Butler, Infante and Salvador Perez drove in two apiece.

That offense was helped by normally infallible Giants manager Bruce Bochy making some rare mistakes with his lineup card. The first flub came at the start of the sixth inning when Bochy decided to let Peavy start the frame despite it being his third time through the Royals order, a point in time when Peavy’s opponents hit .323/.387/.545 with a .933 OPS against him in the regular season.

Ed Zurga/Getty Images

Undoubtedly knowing those numbers, Bochy also failed to put the best defense behind Peavy in a 2-2 game. He left Travis Ishikawa in left field rather than using a defensive replacement, a decision Royals manager Ned Yost elected to make in the top half of the sixth with his outfield.

Both failures cost the Giants. Peavy allowed a single to Cain and walked Eric Hosmer to start the bottom half of the sixth. He was lifted for Jean Machi, who allowed a laser-beam single by Butler to Ishikawa. Ishikawa had trouble charging the ball, and because of his weak arm, Cain was sent home and easily scored the go-ahead run.

"

Just disrespected Ishikawa's arm. Cain wasn't even at third when Ishi got it, still got waved home

— Marcus Thompson (@ThompsonScribe) October 23, 2014"

That sequence combined with Yost already electing to go to his lights-out bullpen was enough to give the Royals the game.

This time it was the much-maligned Yost who managed with the necessary sense of urgency. He inserted Jarrod Dyson for Nori Aoki for defense in a tied game in the sixth, and as soon as Ventura found stickiness later in that inning, he again went away from his normally strict bullpen roles and called on Kelvin Herrera to get him out of a two-on, one-out jam.

Herrera threw nine pitches, eight of them at least 100 mph, to escape.

Herrera pitched through the seventh, his normal role, and then Yost went to his trusted formula of Wade Davis in the eighth and Greg Holland in the ninth to finish the win.

It seems reasonable to say that three weeks ago, Yost might have lost this game for the Royals. It is quite possible he would have stuck to his bullpen script and let Ventura or a lesser reliever give up the lead in the sixth, similar to what he did in using Ventura out of the bullpen in the American League Wild Card Game.

Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press

Now it is time to credit Yost for morphing into a postseason shot-caller. As Bochy normally does, and as the Giants manager did in Game 1 when he lifted Ishikawa for Juan Perez in the fourth inning, Yost made decisions in the moment, and they worked. 

"

Sentences no one expected would be true three weeks ago: Ned Yost is managing circles around Bruce Bochy in Game 2 of the World Series.

— Adam Kilgore (@AdamKilgoreWP) October 23, 2014"

Before that, during Kansas City’s five-run sixth, a semblance of bad blood finally simmered. Hunter Strickland and his blazing fastball came in to face Salvador Perez with one out and two on. Perez doubled home two runs, and two pitches later, Infante raked a 98 mph fastball over the left field fence.

As Perez crossed the plate, Strickland was yelling something, either to himself or the Royals. Perez looked confused and questioned Strickland, and then the pitcher lost it. He screamed at Perez, who yelled back and had to be pushed back by teammates.

Infante’s shot was the fifth home run Strickland has allowed in these playoffs, tying the major league record for the most in a single postseason.

"

Hunter Strickland. Other teams love him.

— Ann Killion (@annkillion) October 23, 2014"

Aside from that home run, the Royals won this game with speed, a few timely hits and a shutdown bullpen. It is exactly how they won during the regular season and for part of this postseason.

"My concern innings are the fifth and the sixth innings," Yost said via Matt Snyder of CBSSports.com. "Once we get past the sixth inning, the guesswork is done. We have pretty good success with Herrera, Davis and Holland."

And that is how the Royals will win going forward: Find a lead any way they can and hand the game to the bullpen, whether it be in the sixth or seventh inning. The roles are out the window at this point, and it is now a game of who gives you the best chance to win then and there.

If Yost can continue to manage for the win, it is entirely possible that blueprint can work over the weekend in San Francisco, either giving the Royals the lead going back to Kansas City or even finishing this thing before then. 

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.