Bob Lutz: Royals becoming postseason darlings

The Los Angeles Angels are paying C.J. Wilson, Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton $477.5 million in multi-year deals that were struck with the idea of bringing the team a championship.

But money can’t buy you rings.

The Royals would need to hold car washes on every corner of every street in Kansas City to come up with that kind of loot. But this is a team that has ingredients you can’t purchase.

We saw it all season. We saw it during the Royals’ improbable rally against the Oakland Athletics and left-hander Jon Lester in the American League wild-card game. And we saw it as Kansas City made quick work of the over-matched Angels in the American League Division Series.

The Royals wrapped up the Angels in a tidy package and sent them back to LA, where they will spend the next five months figuring out what hit them.

The team that scored more runs than any other club in baseball managed just six against the Royals in a three-game KC sweep. The Angels batted just .170. Mike Trout had one hit – a first-inning homer during Sunday night’s 8-3 KC win – in the series. Pujols had two. Hamilton had none.

But enough about what the Angels didn’t do. Give the Royals lots of credit for not allowing LA to crack a door.

Kansas City played spectacular baseball. The Royals pitched great, hit when hits mattered most and – get this – flashed leather all series long.

Baseball people always talk about the importance of defense, but for many it’s with a wink and a nod. But the Royals aren’t kidding when they put on their gloves.

Part of the reason the Angels didn’t hit in this series is because the Royals were playing with six outfielders and seven infielders. At least that’s how it seemed.

Kansas City covers ground. Lorenzo Cain made two special catches in a fifth inning that otherwise could have spelled real trouble. The Angels had two runners on when Pujols hit a liner into left-center field. Cain was closing fast, but it didn’t appear he would get to the baseball. And then he did, reaching out to nab it just before it touched the grass.

Then Howie Kendrick hit one into shallow right-center field, again into Cain’s turf. He made the sliding catch as a delirious sellout crowd of 40,657 collectively turned to the person beside them and screamed unintelligible comments.

That’s what the Royals have done. They’ve turned their fan base into a bunch of screaming illiterates, so overcome with pride and shock to utter even the simplest words and sentences. They just scream.

When Billy Butler, the Slowest Man in America, caught the Angels napping and stole a base in the third inning, all Royals fans could do was to wave their white flags and yell, “Let’s Go Royals.”

Butler had stolen five bases in his big-league career, which is about five more than I expected he had stolen when I looked it up. Earlier, in the first inning, Butler scored from first on a bases-loaded double by Alex Gordon. Is it possible that this Kansas City playoff run is making Butler faster?

Strange things are happening.

The team that hit the fewest home runs in the majors this season hit four against the Angels, two each by Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas.

Moustakas was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2007 major-league draft and the Royals have been waiting a long time to see the kind of production promised.

Hosmer was the overall No. 3 pick in the 2008 draft and he, too, has mostly lived under expectations.

Maybe all they needed to take off was to be on a team like this, one that finds ways to win in the darkest places. The Royals believe and their fans believe. And these are the same fans who have been programmed not to buy into anything Royals related for nearly 30 years.

Amazing.

Many of the Royals spent 20 minutes after the game on the field, in goggles and popping champagne bottles, so that the fans who hung around could rejoice in the moment with them. The Royals slapped the hands of the crowd, waved flags and danced. Lots of dancing. Catcher Salvador Perez hopped on top of the Royals dugout with a broom in his hand, within reach of his adoring throng.

This isn’t a fluke. This is a team that plays throwback baseball during a season when offense was down around the game. The Royals pitch. They run. And they play the most incredible defense seen around baseball in years. Game-changing defense capable of snuffing the opposing team. Cain was the MVP of Sunday night’s game because of his glove.

“Both of those plays were phenomenal plays,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “The first play, I didn’t see any way that he could make that play. And he came out of nowhere like Superman and caught it.”

The Royals’ battle with the Orioles in the ALCS should be epic. Baltimore hits from early in the morning until the dead of night. The Orioles haven’t been to a World Series since 1983; the Royals since 1985.

There will be those who don’t give Kansas City a chance. But the Royals have a chance because they play baseball, old-school baseball. They catch the ball and they throw the ball.

And new and old generations of Royals fans are having a ball.

This story was originally published October 5, 2014 at 11:07 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Royals becoming postseason darlings."