Bob Lutz: Royals manager Ned Yost suddenly can’t do anything wrong

As Ned Yost finally sauntered off the field at Kauffman Stadium, after celebrating with his players, raising the American League trophy and conducting one interview after another, he waved his hat to a crowd that wanted to take it all in.

And the crowd chanted: “Ned, Ned, Ned, Ned” until he disappeared into the dugout, headed for a crazy, champagne-soaked clubhouse.

What the Royals have done this postseason – eight straight wins including a 2-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in an ALCS sweep on Wednesday afternoon – is flabbergasting.

But what Yost has done – and he’ll bite your head off for suggesting that he’s done anything – is silence critics whose roar just a couple weeks ago could be heard three states away.

Royals fans wanted Yost gone after he took James Shields out of the American League Wild Card game against Oakland in the sixth inning, after the first two Oakland hitters reached, and brought in Yordano Ventura. It was a move that blew up in Yost’s face; the A’s Brandon Moss clubbed a three-run homer off of a pitcher who just two days previously had thrown 73 pitches in the final game of the regular season.

Moss’s homer gave Oakland a 5-3 lead, which the A’s built to 7-3 with two more in the inning. The Royals fought back, won in extra innings and have been steamrolling teams since.

They swept the Los Angeles Angels, all 98 wins of them, in the ALDS. And they brushed aside the 96-win Orioles in the ALCS. Kansas City now awaits the National League winner for Game 1 of the World Series – Kansas City’s first since 1985 – Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.

And while Yost may still not be revered by all KC fans, he joins Jim Frey and Dick Howser as the only managers to get the Royals this far.

As Yost tells it, he just stayed out of the way and made sure not to turn on a hose after his team caught fire.

“I’ve seen a world of difference in this team from that wild card game on,” Yost said. “Something clicked and all of a sudden these guys were immune to any type of pressure, any type of situation. They totally believed. In the middle of that game, bam, it just clicked and they believed in each other and in their ability to win a championship.”

And in so doing, they helped free their manager from the type of lambasting normally reserved for last-place skippers who can’t seem to get out of their own way.

“Yosted” became a trending term on Twitter, signifying the manager’s keen ability to screw things up.

Yost, though, insists he never paid much attention to the naysayers.

“I don’t need validation, man,” Yost said on the field after the series clincher. “I don’t need it. I’m real comfortable with myself, right? I get criticized all the time – I’m the dumbest manager in baseball. I’m OK with that ’cause I got really smart coaches. So I’m OK with that. I don’t need validation. I know who I am and I know what I’m about. So, you know, I just wanted this for our fans, for our players.”

Yost talked about how he has been to five World Series as a coach with the Atlanta Braves from 1991-2002. He admitted getting nervous in the ninth inning – “my leg started shaking a little bit” – but had faith that Greg Holland, the third shark out of the Royals’ “Jaws” bullpen – would get the job done.

And, of course, Holland did. He almost always does. The same can be said for Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis, who also stopped the Orioles in their tracks in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.

“There’s no better weapon than that bullpen,” Yost said. “No better weapon than our great speed and defense.”

The Royals, you may have heard, finished last in the American League in home runs this season. Well, home runs aren’t what they used to be, especially for a team that flashes leather like Kansas City.

It started with the very first hitter Wednesday, Baltimore’s Nick Markakis. He bounced a ball up the middle against Royals starter Jason Vargas. KC second baseman Omar Infante got to the ball behind the bag and made a perfect off-balance throw to Eric Hosmer at first to retire Markakis.

Later, left fielder Alex Gordon made three outstanding catches, the best of which came on J.J. Hardy’s drive to the wall to lead off the fifth. Gordon made the grab then slammed into the left-field fence.

Baltimore, which left town dazed and confused, put its leadoff hitter on base in five innings. But the powerful Orioles, who led the AL in home runs by a wide margin, were able to manage only one run.

The opportunistic Royals, meanwhile, scored both of their runs in the first thanks to the speed of Alcides Escobar. He got down the line quickly and knocked the ball out of catcher Nick Hundley’s glove when it looked like a throw home by first baseman Steve Pearce was going to nab Escobar, who took off at the crack of the bat on Hosmer’s grounder.

When the ball got away, the speedy Nori Aoki also scored for a 2-0 Royals lead.

Besides winning eight straight in the postseason, the Royals just might be revolutionizing baseball.

“It goes back to playing the game the way the game was built to be played,” Yost said. “Really athletic players, speed, defense, the ability to manufacture runs and not be reliant on home runs. And really good pitching. I think it’s an exciting brand of baseball and I think if you ask anybody in the country who has watched our series, I think they’d agree.”

As Yost spoke, dozens of media members hung on his every word. He’s a baseball savant now, a manager and leader of men not to be taken lightly. His team, the Kansas City Royals, is headed to the World Series.

This story was originally published October 15, 2014 at 8:13 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Royals manager Ned Yost suddenly can’t do anything wrong."