The Kansas City Royals run to their first World Series title in 30 years produced some of the most exciting playoff baseball in quite a long time. One play stands out though and it will be talked about for a very long time to come. The improbable run that Kansas City first baseman Eric Hosmer scored will no doubt go down in baseball lore. It not only tied the game but became the catalyst for the Royals to win the game.
If you haven't seen it, here it is -
CBSSports sets the scene, "With closer Jeurys Familia on the mound, Mike Moustakas put Hosmer 90 feet away by pulling a grounder to first for one out. That brought Sal Perez to the plate. Familia broke his bat on a full swing, hitting a grounder in the hole."
While most New York Mets fans will be cursing first baseman Lucas Duda for his errant throw home, it is the baseball smarts of Eric Hosmer that made it all happen. When David Wright ranged to his left to field the ball hit by Perez, Hosmer dared him to come after him, straying further down the third baseline. Wright gave Hosmer a cursory look and threw on to first.
When Hosmer saw the ball leave Wright's hand, he dashed for home. Essentially Lucas Duda became the pivot man in a double play attempt, which, as a first baseman, it is not done very often. Hosmer, himself a first baseman had to have that in the back of his mind as he broke for home. Of course, it all very much fit in the aggressive style of baseball the Royals have been playing the last couple of years. Hosmer wanted to force Duda to make a throw first basemen don't regularly make.
Duda could not make the throw to cut down Hosmer and the game was tied. Jeurys Familia had blown his third save. As for the improbable run that Eric Hosmer scored to tie the game, he had this to say, via New York Daily News, "That's our motto: we want to be aggressive as a team. You realize with the guy on the mound, how nasty he is, you have to take chances. I shuffled along with David and as soon as he made the throw, I decided to go and see what happened. It ended up working out for us."
