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Royals survive letting Kelvin Herrera and Jeremy Guthrie hit for themselves
The first at-bat in the professional life of right-handed relief pitcher Kelvin Herrera, coming in the seventh inning of Game 3 of the World Series, went as well as the Kansas City Royals could have hoped.
Actual hitter Eric Hosmer explained why after the Royals 3-2 victory Friday night at AT&T Park, which put them two more victories from their first championship since 1985.
"I was just hoping he didn't pull an oblique, or didn't get hit in the hand," Hosmer said. "That's all I was hoping."
Wisdom. Herrera came through healthy after his three-pitch strikeout against right-hander Sergio Romo, which stranded Jarrod Dyson at first base. Herrera even fouled off the second pitch, catching it off the end of his bat.
"He did make contact? That's pretty impressive," Hosmer said.
The Royals could laugh it off, considering manager Ned Yost got away with not one, but two questionable decisions to let his pitchers hit. Yost also let starter Jeremy Guthrie lead off the top of the sixth with the Royals leading 1-0. Guthrie, at least, has compiled a professional body of work as a hitter. But when the Royals went on to score two runs after Guthrie made the first out of the inning — and then was removed from the game in the next half-inning without retiring any more Giants hitters — it seems like Yost made a foolish decision.
"Guthrie threw the ball extremely well through the first five innings," Yost noted, before Brandon Crawford reached on a single — "a little base-hit through the four-hole" — and Mike Morse followed with an RBI double to left to get a rally cooking.
"I wasn't going to take any chances, this is a big game — a pivotal game in my mind," Yost said. "I was going to go with my bullpen in the sixth."
Not going to take any chances?! Then why not pinch hit someone for Guthrie in the top of the sixth? The Royals managed to win without having a designated hitter and without using a pinch hitter at any point. Billy Butler and Nori Aoki stayed on the bench with Yost, who was asked by a reporter after the game how he would have felt if the Royals had lost the game after such tactics.
"I didn't lose the game, so I don't think about that stuff," Yost said.
Right. What does he care? Yost has come up golden the entire postseason. It's the other team that's been getting Yosted.
Pinch hitting for Herrera in the seventh was trickier. Yost said he didn't want to employ a double switch involving Mike Moustakas, "not with the lead," because it would have made the Royals weaker defensively at third base.
Yost also said, inconceivably, that Dyson getting a two-out single messed with his intentions.
"I was hoping Dyson would make an out there," Yost said. "But he steps up and foils my plan and gets a hit. So that's the way the National League game works."
They let you try to score more runs in the National League, don't they?
Think about this: Dyson, whom Yost uses frequently as a pinch runner, gets on base — which means he stands a chance to steal second and put himself in scoring position. It's a one-run game at this point. The Royals could use another run. It's not a frivolous desire.
The downside to having Dyson try to steal: What if he gets caught? Then the pitcher's spot leads off the eighth. Yost could pinch hit again, or even try a dreaded double switch — if he could bring himself to do it. He could double switch second baseman Omar Infante, maybe, if not Moustakas or Eric Hosmer. That way, Yost could use Aoki or Butler to bat and keep turning the screws on the Giants. But no. Because he had planned to use Herrera over parts of two innings, he wouldn't dare pinch hit for him and start the seventh inning with Brandon Finnegan or someone else on the mound.
Of course, who gets two outs in the seventh inning anyway because Herrera continued to be spotty with his command, so Yost pulled him? Finnegan.
Yost has done a mostly splendid job managing the Royals in the playoffs, but he did them no favors with his decisions to let his pitchers hit in Game 3.
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David Brown is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rdbrown@yahoo-inc.com and follow him on Twitter!
