2015 Kansas City Royals
When the free agency era began in baseball, it began the (not so) proud tradition of teams blaming their failures on the rich teams buying up all the good talent. To this day it remains the go to excuse for teams that refuse to spend money on why they don't make the playoffs. One of the most notable "small market" teams that don't spend money (and pocket the revenue sharing money they receive) are the Kansas City Royals. So the irony is rich that when free agent spending became a thing in baseball, the Royals went on a dominating run of winning the AL West 7 times in a 10 year stretch, that included 2 pennants and a championship.
When the 2000s began, the Royals were on the opposite end of that success, refusing to spend money on players and living in the bottom end of their division. In the 2010s they began a rebuild that led to a World Series appearance in 2014 that went the full 7 games but was ultimately won by the Giants. The challenge now was could KC rebound or would they sink into their usual habits?
2015 saw manager Ned Yost back for his 6th season in charge, riding the high of helping the Royals end their almost 30 year playoff drought. There was one more drought to end though. The Royals played in the AL Central division, but the last time they won a division crown was way back when they played in the west. The Royals that season got off to a hot start and never really slowed down as they easily won their first AL Central title by 12 games over 2nd place Minnesota. Their 95-67 record was also best in the American League.
The Royals trailed 1-2 in the ALDS against the Houston Astros, but since Houston wasn't utilizing trash cans yet, KC was able to bounce back and win the series in 5 games. Then after dispatching the Blue Jays in 6 ALCS games, the Royals were back again right away in the fall classic, this time to face the New York Mets. The Royals didn't waste any time this go around, winning the first 2 games at home. When Game 5 started, they were up 3-1 and ready to pop champagne on the road. By the 9th inning, however, the Mets led 2-0 and were getting ready to take this show back to Kauffman Stadium, but KC had other plans.
With Matt Harvey still in the game for NY, Lorenzo Cain walked and Eric Hosmer double him home to make it a 2-1 game. The Mets finally went to the bullpen and Mike Moustakas moved Hosmer to 3rd with a groundball to the right side of the infield, then Salvador Perez continued the small ball by hitting another groundball to bring the tying run in. We had extra innings on the way.
By the 12th inning, the game was still 2-2- and the Royals decided enough was enough. After a single, stolen base and some more small ball, the Royals had a runner on 3rd with one out. Conventional wisdom suggests an intentional walk to setup an inning ending double play possibility, but the Mets decided to pitch to Christian Colon, who in turn singled and give the Royals the lead. It didn't end there and when the dust settled, the Royals had a seemingly insurmountable 7-2 lead. The Mets offered no fight in the bottom of the 12th and for the first time in 30 years, they Royals had their crowns again.
