The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

[Guccilafluer]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

Well... That was beyond epic.. Good win brotha

[Bluejaysfan65]

Damn.... 26 innings? That is one epic game.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

That game will definitely find itself among some of the greatest games I've ever played in this franchise. As you can see below, it's in good company.

2013 Wild Card Game Vs. Texas (Win)
2013 ALDS Game 5 Vs. Detroit (Loss in 14 innings)
2014 ALDS Game 2 Vs. Detroit (Win in 26 innings)

My only problem though is that this didn't happen in like a Game 3 or Game 5 situation. All of the key moments in this series are happening in games that don't mean a whole lot; or games where the microscope is on us. I'll admit though, I was pretty burned out due this game that I had to take 2 days off myself just to clear my head and let the Show gain more of its luster.

Now after partying it up on the Charter to Detroit, we arrived at the hotel by 6:00 AM and were out on the field for the 7:10 game by noon.

Detroit had Doug Fister going instead of Verlander in a shocking last minute change. I almost hate Fister more than Verlander, the looping curve the 2 seam with a ton of movement, it's nearly unhittable. Fister drops that curve and we can't lay off of it and it gets frustrating after a while.



So after finding out Fister was starting, we scratched Shields in favor of Cashner. Shields will instead start Game 1 against either Toronto or LA in the ALCS on 5 days rest... but we still gotta win this game first. Ultimately, the decision came down to either Ventura or Cashner but Joe Maddon handed the ball to Cashner due to his postseason experience.

Cashner spent most of the season in AAA but the way he carved up Detroit hitters tonight was almost otherworldly... Throughout the game, I had a tough time wrapping my mind around the fact that this was indeed the Andrew Cashner who couldn't throw 5 innings to save his life.

Fister and Cashner went back and forth matching each other pitch for pitch and it looked as though our offense was mired in yet another slump. We could get the leadoff hitter on, then comes the double play ball followed by a roll over... I wanted to punt my controller into my TV but against my better judgement I chose not to.

Eventually, things got rather dicey for Detroit in the 7th inning. Jed Lowrie singled back up the middle, we pinch ran for him with Bonifacio and Boni stole second on the first pitch to Alex Gordon. Then with the runner in scoring position, we small balled it and had Gordon bunt Boni over to third, however on an error Gordo reached first.

Enter Dom Brown. On a 2-1 count, Brown ripped a shot to the warning track that was reeled in by Austin Jackson somehow but Bonifacio was able to tag up and score the go ahead run in the top of the 9th.


Put in Donnie Joesph for the save and it's virtual checkmate against the hated Detroit Tigers.

I might be the Farm Director now, but wait until I come back... The Kansas City Royals embarrassed our franchise. Absolutely embarrassed us... and that's not OK. I know they've got a beef with Cleveland and Minneosta. You can go ahead and count us in on that.

OK Jim.... simmer down... simmer down. I think it's safe to say that we just made a new friend...

[Bluejaysfan65]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

Congrats on getting past the beast known as the Detroit Tigers!

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

So after heading back to KC for a little R&R we get geared up to face our next formidable opponent, The Toronto Blue Jays... Again, the odds are stacked against us. Toronto is coming of it's second straight 100 win season and they're even more dangerous with the likes of Shin-Soo-Choo and Ben Zobrist now featured in their lineup.



Coming into the series, the chips are in the Jays favor... they've been doing everything well while we're starting to struggle hitting wise and our pitching has been wishy washy thus far. We need to try to start hitting like we were in the regular season because it took the pressure off our pitching. Now, we're finding ourselves in a lot of close ball games and our bullpen is having to throw some high stress innings.

James Shields Vs. Brandon Morrow folks... let's do it!



Shields was OK tonight... He didn't carve up the Jays, instead he just sort of ate innings and didn't allow runs. Brandon Morrow on the other hand was throwing 98 MPH and gassing all of our hitters... It wasn't even fair folks... Not by a long shot. Come the 5th inning, we were being no hit and I figured that it would continue... And then Morrow started hanging sliders.

Shields was having trouble working low in the zone and it showed when he let up a pair of fountain shots to Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion.

Now speaking of Joey Bats...


He teed off on us. His .254 batting average during the regular season caused us to put our guard down and he burned us... big time. Bautista is still a dangerous hitter here in the year 2014. As the game went along, we finally figured out that you have to get him to chase pitches out of the zone so hopefully that will neutralize his bat during the series. He's not exactly Miguel Cabrera scary but he's still a player that could change the outcome of a game, and potentially a series, with one swing of the bat. I guess this is what we get for trusting regular season stats...



But dang nabbit, we would win the ball game. Our bullpen was able to hold the lead after Jed Lowrie nabbed it on a 2 run inside the park homerun as part of a 5 run bottom of the 8th. With another game one lead, maybe our offense won't die out after all.

We'll go ahead and play another one here and then it's off to the 30 degree temperatures of Canada.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

Congrats on getting past the beast known as the Detroit Tigers!

It wasn't easy... that's for sure haha.

[Bluejaysfan65]

I'm sorry but imma have to cheer for the Jays in this one...

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

I'm sorry but imma have to cheer for the Jays in this one...

Alright... Alright.... I see how it is haha.



Time to get crackin' again. We got a little game 2 action on tap and there's nothing better than being able to leave the home crowd with another W since it boosts TV ratings and what have you. Tonight, we've got Jon Lester squaring off against the one and only Josh Johnson. Johnson's been good this postseason but I'd rather face him than Brandon Morrow... dude's impossible to hit.

Now I know we aren't that deep into October but we already had to bench somebody...



David Lough becomes the first casualty from poor postseason play. He hit exactly .300 during the regular season but that's not what makes good players great. Good players become great by playing well in the regular season and the post season.

Therefore, Chris Denorfia gets Lough's spot for the forseeable future. This could potentially spell the end of Lough in right field for us but this is his first rodeo so we'll give him a break. He absolutely has to hit though in the future. That's the whole reason why we have him... because he'll drive in runs while hitting for a high average.



So John Lester dueled it out with Johnson and was able to show that his last start was a fluke. This is exactly what we planned on when we singed Lester last season, duke it out behind Shields and get us a 2 game lead in the series.

Lester was really effective tonight. The velocity seemed to be up, he was getting a ton of groundballs and if Alcides Escobar would actually show some effort at short, then he might have allowed 3 or 4 hits instead of 7.



The real story has been Donnie Joesph. These might just seem like ordinary save situations but when you entrust a rookie of all people to close ball games for you in October, you know he's legit. Both of our most productive postseason pitchers have been rookies (Walker & Joesph). I know that it's not too often that you see a left handed closer but when you have the stuff that Joesph has from the left side (since most right handers are at a disadvantage towards lefties) it makes him nearly unhittable.

So after the late night win, we grab our passports and head on up north of the border.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

With you facing off against the Blue Jays, expect a spike in page views

[Bluejaysfan65]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

With you facing off against the Blue Jays, expect a spike in page views

Definitely...

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

With you facing off against the Blue Jays, expect a spike in page views

Hah, you're probably right, those Jays fans always come in groves. :wink:

It's always a hassle to fly up to Toronto... we've gotta get the passports in order, pay to have all of our gear shipped (premium overnight), make sure nobody is on their wanted list or banned from the country... There's just problems galore for us to fly up there. I think at one point Jed Lowrie recommended we take a bus... but that's even more of a pain in the rear...

It's the whole logistics of it that gives me a headache. The stadium up there is usually a side attraction (no offense) but we're typically up there to hit the slopes or see the sights.



First of all, I don't get why exactly the roof is open tonight... It's 35 f'n degrees and we've got the damn roof open. We're used to the cold down here in KC so I'm not exactly what the deal is...

Second of all, this image is extremely intimidating. The good people of Canada packed the house tonight and it seemed like there was 200,000+ people there. Every single seat was packed by Jays fans and a handful of Royals fans. The roar of the crowd itself almost sent David Lough into a nervous breakdown but a quick whack across the head fixed that. t's intimidating for our younger guys to see that many people there to cheer against them. Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer love the people filled with disdain though and attempted to get even more boos for the boys in blue.

For a game one three start, we handed to ball to Andrew Cashner again and sat back to let him do his thing... except it wasn't his postseason thing... It was his "Allow 7 earned runs in a playoff game/ this is just another game" thing.

He was cruising though until Joey Bats came up and hit a 2 run shot.



Dave Eiland has stressed NOT throwing Bautista any pitches he can handle but for whatever reason it's like our pitchers can't resist and absolutely have to serve one up. The only way to fix this is to either walk him every AB or hit him... We'll get our money's worth hitting him and it'll be taken care of in less pitches (hopefully). I honestly have no idea how we need to go about this.

He's starting to become even more of a problem than Miguel Cabrera has been. There's a difference though, we respect Miguel Cabrera... for Joey Bats there is little respect. The monster bat flips, the stare downs, the show boating... it's starting to **** me off. Maybe it's all coming down from the Jays' Manager who actually was the Royals bench coach from 08-11.

I don't know... But you know, there's nothing that I love more than jumping to conclusions and throwing at people without proper information in the playoffs.



I figured that after Cashner's ALDS performance that we'd be cruising to a 3 game lead and we might actually sweep the series. Unfortunately, everything that could go wrong went wrong and now here we are with the Blue Jays still very much in the series. The bats were quiet, the pitching sucked... everything was just awful. Maybe it was the crowd or maybe Bautista crushed our souls... I don't know.



When Alcides Escobar is you're top hitter of the game.... no, just no.

[Bluejaysfan65]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

When Ricky Romero beats you in a postseason game, you know there's something wrong with your offense...

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

When Ricky Romero beats you in a postseason game, you know there's something wrong with your offense...

We are struggling really bad offensively. It's one thing to be streaky during the regular season but in the postseason, you just can't do that. We can't afford to have our bats down. That's a huge part of our offense.

So with that Game 3 not going as planned, Lester is unavailable and Cashner is unavailable. So we don't have a whole lot of options to choose from for this situation. Shields could pitch and we could throw Lester Game 5 or Wade Davis could pit... no.

There is one other option however...


Yordano Ventura; the human gas tank... He's a rookie but it's really either him or Wade Davis and I don't want to have to throw Wade Davis out of the rotation any more than I have to. Ventrua had a ton of success during the regular season striking out 90 batters in roughly 90 innings.

He's going to be a key cog in our rotation next year so we figured, why not get him a little experience now?

So while we let Ventura do his thing up on the bump, the offense continued to die.



However, things aren't as bad as they could be. Moose and Hos are still hitting but with few runners to drive in, their numbers are starting to suffer. Moose and Hos are the guys we're trying to build around so it's good to see them producing... still, there guys like Salvy and LoCain who are huge to our future are struggling. Cain and Salvy both hit .300+ this season and now they're barely hanging on in the postseason.

Aside from Hos and Moose doing work, there is one other guy putting the team on his back:



Alcides Escobar of all people is hitting .343 this postseason and is in line for the postseason MVP. How did this happen? Escobar hit .234 during the regular season and now suddenly he's becoming a postseason hero... Go figure.

Tonight, Esky went 3-4 with a pair of doubles and a single. We really, really need for him to keep this up or we'll completely implode in the World Series and that'll be embarrassing for me, McGovern and the entire Royals Organization.



Luckily though, we got a little help from Alex Gordon and we were able to bring Toronto to their knees. We really need a Game 5 win tomorrow because we can't afford to keep this going. The longer we take to play the Jays, the more likely their bats will wake up and they'll blow us out of the water.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2



This is the moment I've been waiting for for quite some time... The opportunity to go to the World Series for the first time since 1985... We deserve it. After all of the blood, sweat and tears we've poured into this, we're about to finally see the dividends. The Jays really packed the house for tonight. The crowd was almost too loud. In fact, 5 people ran across the field at various points in the game.

But that's not the point... the point is, is that this is the most important game this franchise has played since 1985.



First of all, David Lough is still struggling but we had to play him today in an attempt to find SOMETHING that will work for us moving forward. The kid went 3-5 with 3 base knocks today and a suicide squeeze that effectively won the game for us. David Lough survives another round but a poor showing the World Series could end his starting duties here in KC... or potentially his tenure.

I'm rooting for the kid and I really want him to be successful but if he doesn't perform, we might just have to show him the door.



Aside from all the postseason drama, we also need to take a look at what this postseason means for Alex Gordon. This postseason is crucial for Gordon, he is already a good player but he now has an opportunity to be a great player. But that's not the point, the point is, he has a unique opportunity to assert himself as the face of the franchise and earn his spot in Royals lore. This isn't just a peanuts type of game, this postseason could actually define Gordon's career and affect it for the rest of his days.

Tonight, Gordon went 4-5 with 3 base hits and a double. With those types of numbers, Gordon is well on his way to asserting himself among the postseason greats.

The real story though, has to be the Cy Young- James Shields.


Shields did it again. He put up another masterpiece, 8 innings, 6 strikeouts... It doesn't really get much better than that. Hopefully he can't repeat this next year and show baseball that he truly is a top 5 pitcher and that this is not a fluke. I still can't believe we've got this guy on lock for 4, 5 years.

The fact that he can throw effectively in big games is a trait that's hard to find. A lot of pitchers can post sub 3 ERAs and 200 strikeouts but it means nothing if they can't pitch big games. Luckily, we don't have to worry about that problem.




Boom! That'll be a nice plaque in the stadium to go right next to our ALDS plaque. Combined with Toronto's errors and some luck on our part, we were able to come away with the victory tonight and the series victory. This was a great test for us and we were able to pass it. Hopefully, the success continues into the World Series... We can't afford to not come away with a World Series victory.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2



The Royals had done it... no Bo Jackson, McGovern and their team had done it. They'd taken a franchise in limbo and had turned it into one of baseball's most talented young teams. The scene unfolding before them was incredible; they just couldn't believe it.

McGovern, Bo Jackson, Andrew Friedman and Dayton Moore stood outside of the Roger's center at about 12:00 P.M. The area was desolate. The players had moved the party back to the hotel and the surrounding area.

As they stood talking, McGovern personnel blackhawk helicopter arrived. "Does anyone want a ride?" He asked. The others simply replied no and waited for their limo to pull up.

By 12:30 the group was in their limo headed to the airport so they could fly back to KC. The group drove through an area filled with shops and people walking all over... They simply couldn't fathom why so many people would be out and about this late at night.

As they pulled up to a stoplight, Dayton Moore looked out the window and amid the bustling crowd noticed a lone figure dressed in a black overcoat speaking into a walky talky... "Was that Ned Yost? It couldn't have been. What would he be doing up here unannounced?"

The light turned green and the limo drove 5 more blocks until it came to a fork in the road where a set of buildings divided the street. Something was off, Dayton could feel it. Outside, he noticed that no cars were around them any more and that no people were walking on the sidewalks.

Dayton turned to say something to the others but a lone figure slowly appearing in the top window of the building that seperated the street caught his eye.

AMBUSH!!!!

Suddenly the lone figure produced a some sort of rocket launcher and aimed at the hood of their limo. Dayton watched in horror as a white trail of smoke moved quickly towards their car. Everyone else seemed oblivious, stuck in time...

Without warning, the projectile hit the hood of the limo and it flipped over itself throwing the driver out the front windshield and everybody else about in the cabin.

Disoriented and in and out of consciousness, Dayton watched as 6 Suburban SUVs pulled up and men dressed in special forces gear hopped out of them. Dayton tried to move but everytime he did, there was a sharp shooting pain down his leg.

He tried to crawl out through the pain but to no avail. Suddenly a pair of troopers grabbed him and pulled him from the flaming wreckage and threw him aside. Still disoriented, Dayton watched as several of the troopers grabbed the unconscious figures of Bo Jackson and Andrew Freidman and loaded them into SUVs... He tried to yell for help but it only came out as a terrified whisper. As the two troopers held him Dayton watched as the man in the overcoat appeared.

Load them up and keep those people away! We can't afford another media outbreak.

You son of a *****! What the hell are you trying to pull!?

Ned looked around as his team pushed the crowd away and put up the limo fire.

Something I should've done a long time ago my friend...

With that a trooper came over and informed Ned.

We've got the two HVIs loaded up sir and we're putting out the limo fire. What do you want us to do with the driver and this man sir?

Driver dead?

Yessir, thrown through the windshield...

Suddenly police sirens were heard in the distance.

Let's get out of here. Wipe his memory...

******