19. A win that changed a city.
MLB Postseason Moment: 2014 Wild Card game in Kansas, City Missouri. Kauffman Stadium. Kansas City Royals vs. Oakland Athletics.
Why It’s Memorable: With the Wild Card format added to the mix in 1995, it opened things up for teams like the Royals to make a run, who would have (in the past) been on the outside looking in. It also gave the second team, like the Oakland Athletics, in this case, an opportunity as well.
We can thank the powers to be for those two additions, or we would have been robbed a game for the ages, with this one giving us a bit of everything.
In a see-saw battle that had some small ball, home runs, and tense moments, the final inning is what summed up the entire game. In the extra innings, Hosmer smacked a triple, after Alberto Callaspo put the Athletics ahead in the top of the inning. Colon drove in Hosmer with an infield single.
Now, with Colon at second, Perez hit a line-shot past diving Josh Donaldson at third, to end the game, sending a frenzy of over 40,000 Royals fans — who have waited since 1985 to be in a postseason game — with that walk-off win by Perez with the Royals winning it 9-8 in 12 innings.
Yost told the Kansas City Star: “That’s the most incredible game I’ve ever been a part of.” That would soon change just weeks later, with the Royals in the World Series game seven that topped even this epic moment. Stay tuned for the details of that Fall Classic thriller.