Eric Hosmer's epic at-bat emblematic of Royals
SAN FRANCISCO – Alcides Escobar called it "the best at-bat of the night.''
The one that resulted in his first-pitch double off Tim Hudson to open the game, leading to a quick 1-0 lead? Not quite. His one-out single in the sixth, the one that snapped Hudson's streak of 12 batters retired and sparked a two-run inning? Not that one either.
The Kansas City Royals shortstop was referring to Eric Hosmer's epic sixth-inning battle with San Francisco Giants reliever Javier Lopez, the bane of so many left-handed hitters.
The Royals had finally found a way to stop Hudson's roll, taking a 2-0 lead on an Alex Gordon double to center that drove in Escobar. The Giants were in good position to limit the damage when Hudson got Lorenzo Cain to ground out, and in came Lopez, who has carved out a 12-year career by making life miserable for lefty swingers like Hosmer.
Sure enough, the left-handed sidearmer got ahead of Hosmer 0-2 and appeared ready to put him away, except the Kansas City first baseman, who had never faced him before, wouldn't go along.
Fouling off some of Lopez's best offerings and taking close ones in an 11-pitch at-bat, Hosmer worked the count to 3-2 before slashing a solid single to center to drive in Gordon with what proved to be the decisive run in the Royals' 3-2 victory, which put them ahead 2-1 in the World Series.
"You're just trying to battle,'' said Hosmer, who was celebrating his 25th birthday. "You're just trying to let your hands work and really work the other way, because he has that slider and if you try to pull a guy like that, it doesn't give you a good chance to hit his slider.''
The at-bat was emblematic of the Royals' tenacity, one of the qualities that has brought the youthful upstarts within two victories of the championship a little over three weeks after they were two outs away from elimination in the wild-card game.
"Great at-bat. It doesn't get any better than that,'' Cain said. "That's what this team has – heart and fight. He continued to fight, didn't give in whatsoever, smoked a drive up the middle, ended up being the game-winner.''
Once they cashed in that extra run, the Royals knew the odds of collecting a victory that would assure they at least send the series back home were in their favor. Three runs up with four innings to go is a huge margin to overcome against Kansas City's nearly impenetrable bullpen.
"We were talking about that a little bit on the field,'' third baseman Mike Moustakas said. "But we can't sit there and be happy about three runs. You saw what happened. Those guys aren't going to give up. That's a great ballclub over there.''
Indeed, the Giants' first two batters in the bottom of the sixth reached base against starter Jeremy Guthrie, who had been cruising until then, and they came around to score to trim the margin to one.
But on a night when most of manager Ned Yost's moves paid off, that's as close as San Francisco got. Kelvin Herrera pitched out of the jam and the last nine Giants batters went down in a row as four Kansas City relievers – Herrera, Brandon Finnegan, Wade Davis and Greg Holland – held down the fort.
In an effort to present his best defensive alignment in AT&T Park's large and quirky outfield, Yost started Jarrod Dyson in center instead of bringing him in as a late defensive replacement, and he moved Cain to right. The personnel changes – which included keeping DH Billy Butler on the bench in the National League park – also prompted Yost to alter his lineup for the first time since Sept. 21.
Gordon, who was batting .176 in the postseason and was 0-for-7 in the World Series, moved up from sixth to second in the order, and Moustakas from ninth to fifth.
Not only did Cain make a couple of sparkling catches that usual right fielder Nori Aoki probably wouldn't have, but Gordon drove in a run and scored the other.
"I was really glad to see Gordy get the big hit,'' Yost said. "It was on a fastball. We were hoping to get him more fastballs to hit. Hitting in the two-spot (he) drove in a big run for us.''
Lopez eventually got out of the inning by striking out Moustakas, the expected outcome for a pitcher who has limited lefty hitters to a .210 batting average over his career and .194 this past season.
But his failure to put away Hosmer – coming close with a 2-2 fastball that was called a ball – may wind up as one of the turning points of the series.
"I threw some good pitches and he fouled them off,'' Lopez said. "He did what he's been doing all postseason, he put together a great at-bat. To his credit, he made me get to a full count, and when I had to throw that pitch over the plate to try to hit the corner, he just stayed on it, stayed through it, and that's what a good hitter does.''
And on a birthday he'll never forget.
"All I wanted was a win. That's all I asked for,'' Hosmer said. "A great, great present.''
GALLERY: WORLD SERIES -- ROYALS vs. GIANTS