For the first time in twenty-nine years, the Kansas City Royals are going to the World Series.
The American League pennant returns to #KC and your #Royals have advanced to play in the #WorldSeries! #TakeTheCrown pic.twitter.com/uHO5UENVq7
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) October 15, 2014
The Royals swept the Baltimore Orioles in Game 4 on Wednesday, taking the American League pennant while further extending their amazing postseason run. The pitching once again shone as they completed the ALCS sweep, with Jason Vargas going 5.1 innings, giving up only two hits and three walks while striking out six for the win. He gave up a home run to Ryan Flaherty in the top of the third inning which was the only run against him.
The bullpen has been lights out this entire postseason. In the ALCS they gave up only two earned runs in 15 innings pitched. Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland have all been dominant in the late innings, shutting down hitters and striking them out fifteen times in this series.
The only runs of the evening for the Royals came in the bottom of the first with one out when Eric Hosmer hit a grounder to first and Orioles first baseman Steve Pearce threw the ball away at home, scoring both Alcides Escobar and Nori Aoki.
For the Royals, this proved to be all the run support Vargas needed as the Orioles were held to only the one run. This marks the 8th straight win for Kansas City and their streak has been nothing short of remarkable. No one would have expected to see them in this position just a couple months ago, but with their persistence they were able to stay in the race and ultimately win the top Wild Card position. The rest has been history.
Now the Royals will wait for the winner of the St. Louis Cardinals/San Francisco Giants series, in which the Giants held the 2-1 series lead as of Wednesday evening before game 4 of the NLCS.
Game 1 of the World Series will begin on Tuesday, October 28th in Kansas City.
(Cover image: AP/Matt Slocum)
