Brandon Moss Hit His Second Homer of the Wild Card Game to Silence Kauffman Stadium
By Mike Cardillo
The Kansas City Royals first playoff game since 1985 hit a serious speedbump in the top of the sixth Tuesday night vs. the Athletics. "Big Game" James Shields allowed the first two runners to reach base with his team clinging to a one-run lead. Kansas City manager Ned Yost decided to pull Shields for rookie Yordano Ventura — a starter — rather than, say, lights-out reliever Kelvin Herrera. Put into a brutal, unfamiliar situation, Ventura promptly served out a three-run bomb to Brandon Moss to straightaway center, Moss' second homer of the game to make it 5-3.
Yost was booed when he walked to the mound to pull Ventura for Herrera. He’ll face all sorts of scrutiny in the postgame for his decision-making process in the sixth. He’s already trending on Twitter, which is never a good sign.
Ventura better against LH (.642 OPS) than RH (.705) this season. But Yost had numerous options preferable to using rookie starter in relief.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) October 1, 2014
The A’s batted around in the sixth and lead 7-3.
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