Once he saw Crawford gather the ball cleanly, there was only one option. "įor Jirschele, it was all about the catch. In that situation, you're leaving everything on the line so if you have a chance to score, you're probably going to take it. "Get out there and make a good relay if you have to. "Don't let 'em score," Crawford said he was thinking.
Perez bobbled the ball once when he tried picking it up – "If he bobbled it again, I would have sent him," says Jirschele – but made a strong throw to Crawford. With the Royals, their fans, and millions of amateur third base coaches with the same two-word exhortation on their lips – "Send him!" – he was the one charged with making a sober, pragmatic decision.įor the Giants, it was a matter of maintaining focus. Yet as Juan Perez chased after Blanco's error and Gordon put his head down and ran, here was Jirschele with several factors to weigh, not the least being with Bumgarner on the mound, even a faint shot at scoring is better than no shot against a pitcher re-defining postseason excellence. None of those wins involved a World Series-turning decision. "I was hoping he could just…keep going, get an inside-the-park home run."Īnd processing the final decision of thousands in this breakthrough Royals season was Mike Jirschele, a consummate baseball lifer with more than 1,000 minor league managerial victories on his resume. "I was over there waving Gordo around myself," Cain said. Make somebody else make a good throw instead of Bumgarner."Īs Gordon – an excellent athlete but at 6-1, 220 pounds, hardly a speed demon – picked up steam on the basepaths, center fielder Lorenzo Cain couldn't contain himself. "Hits were at a premium against Bumgarner. "I was thinking, send him," said Game 7 starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie. And as the Royals scooted to the edge of their dugout, their eyes betrayed what their hearts believed. Was this their only chance to counter Bumgarner's dominance, as the Giants ace had just set down 14 consecutive batters?Īnd was the championship of baseball really going to come down to the decision of a third base coach in his very first season coaching at the major league level?
ALEX GORDON GAME 7 SERIES
In the dugout, hearts raced and suddenly, this taut Game 7 of the World Series hung in the balance.Ĭould Gordon, an average runner, cover 360 feet in the time it took the San Francisco Giants to recover the ball and get it back to the infield? When Gordon's ball scooted past Blanco and rolled all the way to Kauffman Stadium's wall in left center field, a crowd of 40,535 erupted. – Down to the final out of the season, trailing 3-2 and desperate to make even the slightest dent in Madison Bumgarner, the Kansas City Royals got a glimmer of hope when Alex Gordon's ninth-inning single fell in front of a charging Gregor Blanco.
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