ALCS 2015: The anatomy of Lorenzo Cain's not-so-mad, series-winning dash

Ryan Fagan

ALCS 2015: The anatomy of Lorenzo Cain's not-so-mad, series-winning dash image

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Mike Jirschele just laughed at the question. 

Yes, the Royals' third base coach knew all about Enos Slaughter, the Hall of Famer best known for his mad dash home from first base in Game 7 of the 1946 World Series at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. In the eighth inning of that one, the Cardinals outfielder raced around the bases on a ball into the gap, scoring the go-ahead run.

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Turns out, that was the winning run in a 4-3 victory against the Red Sox. On Friday night, on the other side of Missouri, the Royals clinched another trip to the World Series on a similar play — outfielder Lorenzo Cain scored from first base on a hit down the right-field line in the eighth inning — and by an identical score: 4-3

“Yeah,” Jirschele said, still grinning, “but it was a long single.” 

The biggest difference? Slaughter blew through a stop sign his third base coach was holding up before he slid across the plate with the go-ahead run. 

On Friday night at Kauffman Stadium, Jirschele was instrumental in Cain scoring what proved to be the winning run, after Eric Hosmer sent a Roberto Osuna pitch toward Jose Bautista in right field. Jirschele’s decision wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing. Far from it. 

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“He was waiting and waiting and waiting for that play to happen the whole series,” Royals Hall of Famer George Brett said after the game. “He said, if we hit the ball down the line, (Bautista is) going to run over and just throw it to second, and if you’ve got a guy like Cain on first base …”

Mike Jirschele waves home Lorenzo Cain with the go-ahead run. (Getty Images)

It just so happened that, in one of the most important moments of Kansas City’s drive for a championship, the perfect mix of preparation, personnel and positioning came together to allow the Royals a second shot at claiming their first World Series title since 1985. 

Here’s how it happened:

First, Cain worked a walk off Osuna as the first batter after a 45-minute rain delay. Don’t overlook the patience he showed in that at-bat, working the count full, then fouling off two pitches and finally drawing the walk on the eighth pitch.

That brought up Hosmer, the Royals’ cleanup hitter. On a 2-2 count, Osuna threw an 87 mph slider down and in, and Hosmer went after it. He drove it toward the corner, and Bautista came sprinting over to cut off the ball before it could hit the wall. 

At that point, both Jirschele and first base coach Rusty Kuntz were watching Bautista, not their own runners, and thinking the same exact thing. “If he throws it to the guy at second, Hoz walks into second base,” Kuntz told SN. “But if he throws it to second to try and get Hoz, that gives the third base coach a chance to score (Cain) from first base.”

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Ryan Goins, Toronto’s second baseman, sprinted out to his cut-off spot, the No. 4 hole, lined up directly between Bautista and home plate. Cain, who got a great read off the bat, sprinted to second and picked up speed after he rounded the bag. 

“I definitely wasn’t expecting (Jirschele) to send me there,” Cain said. 

But Jirschele knew something Cain couldn’t know, because Cain wasn’t watching Bautista. Jirschele had been studying Bautista all series, and he’d picked up on a tendency. “I just knew Bautista always tried to hold that guy to a long single, and he’d come up and throw it to second,” Jirschele said. 

As Hosmer made a huge turn around first base, Bautista hustled toward the line, grabbed the ball and, sure enough, turned and fired toward second, all in one motion. That’s when Jirschele knew, without a doubt, what was going to happen next. “I’m just watching his setup,” he said, “and as soon as I saw the release coming this way, I just sent him.”

"I felt like I cut it off quick enough to where if I threw to second, I would prevent (Hosmer) from going to second and Cain from scoring, but obviously, I was wrong," Bautista said, per MLB.com.

At this point, Cain was speeding toward third, looking at his coach. 

“That’s what makes that play work,” Brett said. “If Cain’s not running hard, that play doesn’t happen. It doesn’t happen. Give Lorenzo a lot of credit.”

Jirschele started waving in Cain, probably expending as much energy frantically waving his arms as Cain was expending with his seemingly effortless full-throttle stride.

"(Cain) did a great job running, hustling the whole way and not slowing down, and their third base coach did a great job making the decision to send him," Bautista told reporters.

The Kansas City bench, of course, was going crazy by this point. 

“When Hosmer hit that ball,” ALCS MVP Alcides Escobar said, “I’m going out, jumping and going, ‘Come on, come on, come on, Lorenzo.’ ” 

The whole play, from the time Hosmer made contact to the time Cain slid across the plate, took fewer than 10 seconds. The preparation that went into those seconds, though, took hours of study, and the courage to execute the plan when the opportunity arose. 

“It was,” Kuntz said with a smile, “a great read by Jirsch.”

Ryan Fagan

Ryan Fagan Photo

Ryan Fagan, the national MLB writer for The Sporting News, has been a Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2016. He also dabbles in college hoops and other sports. And, yeah, he has way too many junk wax baseball cards.