NEW YORK—A year after stranding the tying run on third base and losing a World Series title showdown, the Kansas City Royals have taken motivation from the heartbreak to become champions.
The Royals snapped a 30-year drought Sunday by capturing Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven championship with a 7-2, 12-inning victory over the New York Mets, taking the series four games to one.
Kansas City became the first team since the 1989 Oakland A’s to win the World Series a year after losing it, having fallen to San Francisco in seven games in 2014.
“I felt from the beginning that this group, after what they accomplished last year and the heartbreak in their eyes after game seven, that we had unfinished business to do,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “And, yeah, I sit there sometimes and think this is just the way it’s supposed to be.”
The Royals are also the sixth American League club to lose a seventh game of the World Series and win the title the next year, the first since the 1961 New York Yankees.
“Last year was such a hard defeat for us in game seven,” Yost said. “Everybody came to spring training as determined a group as I’ve ever seen. So from day one there was no doubt in my mind that they wouldn’t accomplish it. There was no doubt in their mind that they wouldn’t accomplish it.
“It’s just a special group that doesn’t come around very often.”
Some predicted the Royals would not even manage a winning record this season.
“I laughed at it. I thought it was a joke,” Yost said. “I think the players took it personally. They thought what they accomplished last year was special, and for people to call it a fluke, I think deep down inside, some of them took that personally.”
It’s part of the motivation that has been building since they came up short a season ago when the Giants’ Pablo Sandoval grabbed a fly ball for the last out.
“When you get that close to winning a World Series and you fight all through the playoffs and you’re convinced in your mind that you’re going to win, and Sandoval catches that ball, I think I was just kind of dumbfounded, like, what happened?” Yost said.
“But when you get that close and you don’t achieve it, it’s a hard feeling. It’s hard to go through. So I just think that everybody’s mindset was we don’t want to feel that again.”
‘How bad that felt’
Royals slugger Eric Hosmer said they knew the odds were long for a repeat chance but the players were confident.
“We all realized how special it is to have another chance of accomplishing this goal, because there’s plenty of teams in the past that have come close to winning the World Series and the next year you just don’t get back,” Hosmer said.
“We think about it quite often. It’s something we all turn to mentally. I just think everyone kind of relates back to that and relates to how much that hurt.
“We’ve been one game away from winning the world championship and it didn’t happen. We all know how bad that felt. We can always relate to that.”
The Royals also became comeback kings, winning eight playoff games after trailing, including all four of their World Series triumphs.
“The resiliency of this team and the way we can come back and the way we just count ourselves in every single game,” Hosmer said. “It makes for a fun team to watch. It’s definitely a fun team to play for.”