Ned Yost manages to get another victory for Royals
SAN FRANCISCO – "The sixth inning … if we can get into the sixth inning …"
For all the debate over Kansas City manager Ned Yost this season, he certainly has that part right.
Getting out of, more than into, the sixth inning Friday was the key to the Royals' 3-2 victory and 2-1 World Series lead over the San Francisco Giants.
Yost has insisted all month that his shut-down bullpen trio of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland lets him kick back and say, "Have at it, boys," once his team takes a lead into the late innings.
Not so this time and Yost authored another chapter in what's become a charmed managerial existence – we'll call it that because Yost insists he's no genius, in the same sentence he also reminds us he's also not stupid.
This one took all his expertise … or gall … or brinkmanship -- despite stretching a one-run lead to 3-0 with a couple of sixth-inning runs, despite starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie providing the bonus of five shutout innings on 67 pitches.
"If our starter is into the sixth inning, he's pitching pretty well," Yost says. "It depends on the score. If we have a two- or three-run lead, you can build in a little more leeway."
And this being Game 3, the only three-games-in-three-days, added to what was loomed as more than a rocking-chair finish for the manager.
"Absolutely, it does," Yost says. "You want to have, if at all possible, all three guys available for this three-game set."
When Brandon Crawford led off the bottom of the sixth with a single, you could almost hear Yost's, "Hoo-boy" through the ballpark.
Herrera scrambled to the bullpen.
As pinch-hitter Michael Morse's rocket-shot bid for a two-run homer hooked foul, as his at-bat dragged on, as the count went full, Yost had to be wondering if Herrera was ready yet.
RBI double over third base for Morse, crowd ignited, this could be the game right here … no turning back now.
So much for the talk about the five-out appearance from Herrera.
"I wasn't going to take any chances," Yost says. "It's a pivotal game. I was going to go with my bullpen."
Could it be six outs for Herrera? Win this one and worry about the future when it gets here?
Or was Yost considering finding another bridge in the middle of this?
Consider the rest of his pregame thoughts:
"So we're going to probably mix and match the sixth a little bit differently than we did with guys having five days' rest and an off day the next day," he says. "That incorporates (Brandon) Finnegan a little bit more. "
And he went on to mention other bullpen options.
"Again, we'll see where we're at," he says. "But if I have to use Kelvin Herrera for a five out appearance, the odds of him being available tomorrow just lessened by a whole lot. You've got to kind of pick your poison."
He opted for a sip of everything on the table.
When Herrera entered – to face lefties Gregor Blanco and Joe Panik – six batters loomed before the next lefties in the San Francisco lineup, Brandon Belt, Travis Ishikawa and Brandon Crawford consecutively. That could be the safe zone to try Finnegan.
After walking Blanco, Herrera got Joe Panik and Posey on grounders, the second one driving in the Giants' second run.
Finnegan was warming up – to turn around switch-hitter Pablo Sandoval to his weaker side?
"I didn't know when I was going to come in," says Finnegan, whose previous World Series appearance this year was in the College World Series for Texas Christian. "They just told me to be ready for whenever."
The whenever Yost was focused on were those three lefties later. So focused in fact that, after Herrera escaped the sixth with a Sandoval ground out, Herrera got his first at-bat since turning pro in 2007 despite a two-out single from Jarrod Dyson.
"I was hoping Dice would make an out there," Yost says, joking – maybe. "But he steps up there and foils my plan and gets a hit."
Yost says he considered all of the options, especially when Herrera walked the first batter he faced. Once the sixth ended and Yost had a chance to talk with Herrera and catcher Salvador Perez, the do-or-die with Herrera was cast.
"That's one of those decisions that's tearing you apart," Yost says of not pinch-hitting for Herrera. "But I felt that sending Kelvin out for the seventh inning was going to be more important than trying to add a tack-on run."
There you have it – how the Royals operate, how they win, with that one advantage Yost calls "monstrous."
Herrera struck out of course, but that had him back on the mound for surely his final batter – Hunter Pence, who he walked.
Finnegan warming … no move … not until after Herrera struck out Belt.
The lefty finally entered for Travis Ishikawa, who's actually the one lefty Giants manager Bruce Bochy will take out. Yost had to feel somewhat more comfortable considering Bochy had used Morse, the one serious offensive threat on his bench.
Finnegan admits watching batter after batter from the bullpen, thinking, "Let's go. I'm ready to go."
He was.
Finnegan got pinch-hitter Juan Perez to fly out then struck out Crawford.
"Phew," said Yost, ready to return to his late-inning rocking chair – Davis and Holland cruised through the ninth.
"Take that," Yost would have said, but he's told us he doesn't read what's written about him and, oh, it up to about 77th-guessing by the time the seventh was over.
But there's still that part about Herrera's use. He's the youngest of the bullpen trio and the one the Royals were most conservative with during the season. This indeed was a five-out appearance – 27 pitches.
He threw 32 in Game 2. The most pitches he's thrown this season and come back the next day is 21.
"I don't know," Yost said of Herrera's availability for Game 4. "Look, we're in the World Series. Everybody is available. But we don't want to be stupid either."
All that and nearly forgotten was a Royals lineup shuffle that paid dividends.
Not only did Yost predictably go with what had been his late-inning defensive outfield – Dyson in center and Lorenzo Cain in right – from the beginning, he moved Alex Gordon to second in the batting order from fifth and Mike Moustakas from ninth to fifth.
Two points:
--Yost was trying to get more fastballs for the slumping Gordon and having him behind hot leadoff hitter Alcides Escobar could help.
--And the manager had no concern about lefties Hosmer and Moustakas back to back in the middle of the order, "Because both of them are swinging the bat well against left handed and right handed pitching right now."
In that pivotal sixth for Royals, Gordon doubled after Escobar singled – but it was on a sinker rather than a fastball.
And in the at-bat that produced the ultimate winning run, Hosmer stretched it to 11 pitches against left Javier Lopez. The 10th pitch was just off the plate, one that Lopez thought he had gotten on the outside edge, and the 11th pitch was in the same spot but lined into center field for an RBI single.
The sixth inning – just like the Yost and Royals planned it.
PHOTOS: 2014 WORLD SERIES