Less than a week ago the Kansas City Royals were one loss away from being eliminated from the 2015 MLB playoffs.
Now they're one win away from going back to the World Series.
The Royals routed the Toronto Blue Jays 14-2 on Tuesday in Game 4 of the ALCS to take a 3-1 lead in the series. Kansas City busted the game open in the first inning and scored four runs off Blue Jays starter R.A. Dickey.
Ben Zobrist smacked a two-run homer in the second at-bat of the game, Lorenzo Cain scored on a wild pitch and Mike Moustakas hit a sacrifice fly to put the Royals up 4-0 in the first. Alex Rios then added a solo blast in the second, which pretty much ended Dickey's day.
The knuckleballer walked two batters after Rios and was removed from the game without getting out of the second inning.
He surrendered five runs (four earned) on four hits and two walks in 1 2/3 innings.
Toronto added two runs in the bottom of the third off Chris Young, but that was the extent of their run production on the day. Young allowed two earned runs on three hits and two walks over 4 2/3 innings and the Royals' bullpen took over from there.
Luke Hochevar, Ryan Madson, Kelvin Herrera and Franklin Morales combined for 4 1/3 scoreless innings. They allowed only four hits and struck out four.
The Blue Jays' bullpen couldn't say the same. Manager John Gibbons was forced to bring in infielder Cliff Pennington in the ninth because the game had gotten so out of hand. Liam Hendriks came on in relief of Dickey and threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings, but LaTroy Hawkins, Ryan Tepera, Mark Lowe and Pennington combined for two innings of work and let up nine earned runs on 10 hits and three walks.
The only reliever who didn't give up a run out of those four was Pennington.
Toronto will have one more chance tomorrow to keep their World Series hopes alive, but the momentum is no longer in their favor. They scattered only six hits and two walks on the day and had one extra-base hit in their embarrassing home loss.
On the other hand, the Royals' first three batters - Alcides Escobar, Ben Zobrist and Lorenzo Cain - went 6-for-11 with four runs scored, two walks and nine RBIs.
Kansas City is one win away from making back-to-back World Series appearances while Toronto is one loss away from having a lot of questions to answer in the offseason.
The Royals will send Edinson Volquez to the mound tomorrow at 4:07 p.m. ET to face Blue Jays' right-hander Marco Estrada in what could be the game that decides who will represent the American League in the World Series.
