KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Salvador Perez remembers what it was like when playoff baseball returned to Kansas City after nearly 30 years of dark, dismal failures. It seemed to come alive, fans changing their red Chiefs shirts for Royals blue as they packed Kauffman Stadium.
The Royals advanced all the way to the World Series in 2014, losing a Game 7 thriller to the Giants. But they returned the next year and finished the job, winning both World Series games against the Mets at home before clinching the title in New York.
Now, the Royals are ready to play the Yankees on Wednesday night in Game 3 of their AL Division Series, the first playoff game at the K since that title run. And Perez, the 34-year-old All-Star catcher whose homer Monday night helped the Royals even the series with the Yankees at a game apiece, will be back to revel in the postseason atmosphere.
“It’s going to be amazing,” he said. “I think we have the best fans in MLB. I think it’s going to be good for everybody.”
There are certainly plenty of people looking forward to it, including Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who owns a part of the franchise. While he was busy leading the defending Super Bowl champions to victory over the Saints on Monday night, he could not keep from noticing the roar of the crowd in Arrowhead Stadium every time the Royals scored a run in New York.
With the Chiefs off this week, Mahomes is hoping to be in the ballpark on Wednesday night.
“We know the fans at Arrowhead are going to be loud and a ruckus and be really into the game,” he said, “but I haven’t gotten to experience that in Kauffman — sold out, playoffs and that stuff, and so it was cool to see that kind of combine.”
The Royals haven’t played a home game in more than two weeks. They finished the regular season with a sweep of the Nationals and a series in Atlanta, where they clinched a playoff spot. Then they headed to Baltimore and swept the wild-card series before landing in New York, where over five days they managed to split two games with the AL East champions.
The Royals have been good at home this season, an 0-6 homestand in late September notwithstanding. But the Yankees should feel good about their chances after taking three of four at Kauffman Stadium during a series in mid-June.
“It should be awesome,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Kauffman Stadium is one of those great, historic places that has stood the test of time. It’s a beautiful ballpark rich in history. So I would imagine they are going to be excited to see their Royals at home, coming on the heels of what’s been an outstanding regular season after some lean years for them.”
Starting showdown
Clarke Schmidt, who returned from a lat strain last month, will make his first career playoff start for New York after going 5-5 with a 2.85 ERA in 16 starts this season. The Royals will counter with Seth Lugo, who allowed four runs over 14 innings across two starts against the Yankees during the regular season.
“Obviously a very big swing game there, and going into a hostile environment, it should be a lot of fun,” Schmidt said. “We treat every game as a must-win, but going to their place, we’ll be ready to play.”
Judge-ment time
Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hit 58 homers, drove in 144 runs and had a .322 average during the regular season. But the MVP front-runner’s postseason struggles have continued against Kansas City. He has just a single infield hit, has yet to drive in a run and struck out four times through the first the first two games of the series.
Witt’s up with Bobby?
The biggest rival to Judge for MVP is probably Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who drove in both go-ahead runs for Kansas City in its wild-card sweep of Baltimore. But the 24-year-old AL batting champion is 0 for 10 against New York with four strikeouts of his own, leaving the bottom of the Royals lineup to pick up the slack.
Unsung heroes
So who exactly is picking up for Witt these days? Maikel Garcia, who hit just .231 this season, returned to the top of the order for Game 2 and had four hits. Utility man Garrett Hampson has three RBIs in two games, while 40-year-old first baseman Yuli Gurriel and second baseman Michael Massey have been solid at the plate and on defense.
Bulletin-board material
The Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. undoubtedly rankled the Royals on Monday night when he claimed “they just got lucky” in their 4-2 win that evened the series. Boone tried to downplay those comments Tuesday, before the team flew to Kansas City, and said that he disagreed with Chisholm’s assessment.
“Jazz can be colorful sometimes in his head, because of the confidence he has in himself and our group — ‘Hey, they got lucky,’” Boone said, “but I don’t think that was the case.”
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