2014 AMERICAN LEAGUE
KANSAS CITY ROYALS CHAMPIONSHIP RING
THE STORY OF 2014 AMERICAN LEAGUE
KANSAS CITY
ROYALS
CHAMPIONSHIP RING
The Kansas City Royals' season of 2014 was the 46th for the Royals franchise. On September 26, 2014 the Royals clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 1985. They began the post-season by defeating the Oakland Athletics in the Wild Card Game and sweeping both the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the ALDS and the Baltimore Orioles in the ALCS, becoming the first team in Major League history to win their first 8 postseason games in a row. They lost to the San Francisco Giants in seven games in the 2014 World Series.
www.championshipringclub.com
THE STORY OF 2014 AMERICAN LEAGUE
KANSAS CITY
ROYALS
CHAMPIONSHIP RING
After the first 29 games of the 2014 regular season, the Royals had a record of 14-15. In all of their 14 wins, the Royals had scored at least 4 runs. In all of their 15 losses, the Royals had scored 3 runs or less. In the 30th game of the regular season, the Royals were playing the Tigers at home and the Tigers were winning 9-3 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. Mike Moustakas walked to lead off the bottom half of the inning, Alcides Escobar struck out, and Jarrod Dyson grounded out, but advanced Moustakas to second. With two outs and a runner on second in the bottom of the ninth inning, with his team down 6 runs, Nori Aoki hit a single to center field that would score Moustakas, making the score 9-4 Tigers. After Omar Infante singled and advanced Aoki to second, Eric Hosmer recorded the final out of the game with his team at 4 runs by popping out to the catcher, becoming the first Royal in the 2014 regular season to hit into the final out with the Royals at 4 runs or more. The Royals would then become 14-1 when scoring at least 4 runs. After 30 games, however, the trend of always losing when scoring 3 or less was still in place, with the Royals being 0-15 in these games. Finally, on the 32nd game of the regular season, the Royals had a record of 14-17 heading into the game. They beat the Padres in San Diego 3-1 in 11 innings to end the winless streak of games where they scored 3 runs or less.
www.championshipringclub.com
THE STORY OF 2014 AMERICAN LEAGUE
KANSAS CITY
ROYALS
CHAMPIONSHIP RING
The Royals went on a 10-game winning streak in June, beating the Yankees twice at home, the Indians twice at home, the White Sox three times on the road, and the Tigers three times on the road. At the end of the streak, the Royals were in first place in the AL Central. This was the first time since 2003 that they were leading their division that late in the season.
www.championshipringclub.com
THE STORY OF 2014 AMERICAN LEAGUE
KANSAS CITY
ROYALS
CHAMPIONSHIP RING
From June 1–18, the Royals posted a 13-3 record with one rainout, followed by a 9-17 record from June 19 to July 20. The last three games of this slump, which immediately followed the All-Star break, was a three-game sweep by the Boston Red Sox. After the July 20 game, first base coach Rusty Kuntz entered the team's clubhouse and found many of the players intently playing the computer game Clash of Clans on their smart phones. The team lost a fourth game to the Chicago White Sox on July 21. Before the July 22 game, the coaches and players held a meeting to discuss the priorities of the team. After that meeting, the team went 25-9 between then and August 27.
www.championshipringclub.com
THE STORY OF 2014 AMERICAN LEAGUE
KANSAS CITY
ROYALS
CHAMPIONSHIP RING
On Friday, September 26, 2014, the Royals won a game in Chicago against the White Sox 3-1, which would clinch a postseason berth for the Royals for the first time since 1985.
www.championshipringclub.com