Play on, Royals: Kansas City clinches first playoff berth since 1985

The ball hovered in the air for only a few moments. For the diehards, perhaps, it felt like a lifetime. At last, at 9:51 p.m. on Saturday, the final out of a 3-1 victory over the White Sox landed in the glove of Royals catcher Salvador Perez, and a generation of waiting was over.

A teeming mass of humanity emerged from the visitors’ dugout, as fans clad in Royal blue threw up their hands and snapped pictures. The photographs captured history.

The longest postseason drought in major North American sports will end next week. For the first time since Oct. 27, 1985, when Darryl Motley gloved the final out of the seventh game of the World Series, the Kansas City Royals are going to the playoffs. The Royals could host Oakland in Tuesday’s Wild Card at Kauffman Stadium.

The group united around Perez and leaped up and down. They flung their gloves to the ground. They replaced their caps with new ones, commemorating their feat.

They gathered at the team’s complex in Surprise, Ariz., for their first official workout 218 days ago. Inside the office of manager Ned Yost hangs a framed portrait of the 1985 World Series trophy. Yost gazed at it each day. The team now has a chance to add to their collection.

Kansas City (88-72) still has an outside chance at the American League Central crown. The Tigers lost on Friday and reduced their lead to one game with two to play. The Royals could force a one-game playoff on Monday at Comerica Park.

On Friday they relied upon the formula that shepherded them here. The hitters staged a first-inning ambush for three runs. Jeremy Guthrie delivered one of his finest nights as a Royal, and struck out six across seven scoreless innings. The final six outs belonged to Wade Davis and Greg Holland, the backbone of this club. Davis yielded a run in the eighth, but recovered with a pair of strikeouts. Holland locked down his 46th save of the year.

The nine innings created a microcosm of the previous 159 games. All season long Kansas City weathered sporadic disappearances from the offense and the occasional tactical misfire from Yost. Their cure was always the same: The man on the mound, and the eight men defending for him. In that sense, they fulfilled the vision set forth by their architect.

On that night nearly 29 years ago, fans stormed the field and flung streams of toilet paper from the upper deck. Fireworks burst above Interstate 70. On a grassy embankment outside the park was an 18-year-old student at Garden City Community College, a plucky infielder from Wichita named Dayton Moore.

Moore, now 47, transferred to George Mason University and became a college coach. The Braves hired him as a scout in 1994. He climbed the executive ladder until 2006, when Royals owner David Glass sought Moore to resuscitate a moribund franchise. He strove to build a club in Atlanta’s image by placing a premium on pitching and defense.

The process lasted eight seasons, years that were long and lean. The journey carried Moore to 4:06 p.m. on Friday, when he walked into the clubhouse. Trailing behind him was George Brett, the franchise’s icon. His title of vice president for baseball operations is mostly honorary. Brett curates a connection to the past, a badge he sometimes wore with dishonor.

"If these guys only knew what it means to the city," Brett said before the game. "Jeez, it means the world to me. I’ve lived here 40 years. I’ve been sticking up for them for all these years. ‘Hey, we’re not that far away! We’re not that far away!"

Brett intervened as hitting coach during a crisis in last season’s 86-win campaign but departed after two months. He tired of the travel, and felt the players did not listen to him. He turned down a similar offer this summer, part of the franchise’s ceaseless carousel of hitting coaches.

As Brett headed for the clubhouse kitchen on Friday, he crossed paths with third baseman Mike Moustakas. They shook hands, and Moustakas called Brett "sir." Then Moustakas went outside to play catch with Pedro Grifol. Grifol assisted Brett last summer and replaced him full-time when Brett quit – only to be demoted in May during another crisis.

During this charmed season, the Royals flirted with both delight and disaster. When Grifol was reassigned to a catching instructor, with Dale Sveum replacing him, the club hovered in fourth place. They soared to first in June only to sink back to two games below .500 on July 21. They captured first place for 32 days in August and September, then squandered the lead to Detroit down the stretch, and stabilized in time to hold on to a Wild Card spot.

"It’s a resilient group," Moore said. "They always come back. They always respond."

The group was subdued on Friday afternoon until a few minutes after Moore arrived. Jarrod Dyson cranked the clubhouse speaker system, and a steady stream of Usher and early-period Kanye West boomed through the room. Guthrie studied video on a Lenovo ThinkPad, and Lorenzo Cain did the same. Nori Aoki contorted on a rolling pad in front of his locker.

On a black leather couch in the back of the room, rookie Terrance Gore lounged. The team promoted him as a pinch-running specialist in September. His positioning caught the eye of first baseman Eric Hosmer, a 25-year-old in the process of learning to lead. With 42-year-old veteran Raul Ibanez standing nearby, Hosmer delivered message to Gore that was somehow both stern and playful.

"Everybody’s got a part," Hosmer said. "What do you do, sit on that couch all day? Go stretch your quads."

Gore hopped up and embraced Hosmer. The room was coming to life, moving to the music, preparing for their moment. The ceiling’s perimeter was lined with plastic drapery, ready to be unfurled to protect the players’ lockers.

They would leave little doubt. Four pitches into the game, Nori Aoki slashed an RBI triple into right field. Two pitches later, Lorenzo Cain rifled an RBI single up the middle. Cain stole second, and Billy Butler shuttled him home with a grounder into center.

Guthrie strode to the mound with a three-run lead. He required 46 pitches to complete four low-stress innings. The fifth marked his first troublesome encounter. With a runner on first, Chicago second baseman Marcus Semien bounced a grounder up the middle. Guthrie could not help himself, and deflected the ball with his bare hand.

Yost and trainer Nick Kenney visited the mound. Guthrie shrugged them off. To the plate came Adam Eaton, the pesky leadoff man for the White Sox, a 5-8 outfielder who vexed Kansas City during their final homestand. Guthrie brushed him aside with a changeup. Eaton tapped a weak ground to second to strand the runners.

This story was originally published September 26, 2014 at 10:01 PM with the headline "Play on, Royals: Kansas City clinches first playoff berth since 1985."