Royals' Lorenzo Cain scores decisive run from first on single in Game 6
Jose Bautista: 'Now I wish I would have thrown the ball home.'
By
Dave Brown
•
2 min read
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- If they keep on sending Lorenzo Cain, he'll keep on running.
In a play that looked a lot like another one that helped advance the Royals earlier in the 2015 playoffs, Cain scored from first base on a single by Eric Hosmer in the bottom of the eighth inning Friday night, and it proved to be the winning run in a 4-3 victory in Game 6 of the ALCS, sending Kansas City to the World Series for the second straight season.
On the other side, Jays right fielder Jose Bautista was second-guessing himself about his choice of throwing the ball to second base.
With 20-year-old Toronto closer Roberto Osuna on the mound and the score tied 3-all after a Blue Jays rally and a 45-minute rain delay, Cain led off the eighth by working a walk. Hosmer followed with a drive into the right-field corner, giving Cain a chance to move his legs. Bautista ran to the ball, but quickly whirled and made a long throw across the field to Troy Tulowitzki near second base, rather than having someone cut off the ball in short right field near the line.
Bautista said he was trying to stop two baserunners with one throw.
"I felt like that I cut it off quick enough, I could throw to second and I would prevent [Hosmer] from going to second, and prevent Cain from scoring," Bautista said. "But I was wrong."
Hosmer pulled up, reversed course and dived back into first, but Cain kept running, embolded by third-base coach Mike Jirschele waving him, and Tulowitzki's relay was off the mark and late. Jirschele said later he had noticed that, on similar plays earlier in the series, Bautista had been throwing to second base consisently.
Bautista, who also hit two home runs in the game, including a tying two-run blow in the eighth inning, started to second-guess himself in the postgame interview scrum.
"Now I wish I would have thrown the ball home," Bautista said. "But god knows what would have happened had I tried to throw home. If I throw the ball home, the situation’s probably men on second and third with no outs. So, it’s not a guaranteed run because I threw to second, but they were in a pretty good position to score at least one."
Hosmer remembered the Royals taking advantage of an opponent's defensive lapse in the decisive game of the ALDS against the Astros, when Carlos Gomez fell down in center field and Jirschele waved in Cain from first base after a Hosmer single.
"I heard the crowd roar diving back into first, and didn’t really know what had happened at first," Hosmer said. "It was a credit to Cain for running the whole way, and it was a credit to Jirsh for sending him.
"That’s our style of play."
Which the Jays should have realized.
The Royals survived a rally in the ninth when the Jays put runners at first and third with no outs -- but Dioner Navarro and Ben Revere struck out, and Josh Donaldson grounded out to third base with runners at second and third against Wade Davis.
"A sour loss," Bautista said. "But we had enough opportunities to do more, and we didn’t, and they deserved to win."
