The sonic boom erupted from ’s two-run seventh-inning home run, an encore to the thunderclap out of Bobby Witt Jr.’s triple two batters earlier on Saturday night at jam-packed Kauffman Stadium. It was part of a postseason vibe, really.
With fans on their feet in the ninth, that energy and buzz hovered through the end of the — whose fans appeared to represent half or more of the 36,799 at The K but were virtually muted in those marquee moments. When I asked Perez if it felt like a playoff atmosphere, he smiled and said, “36-37,000 people? That’s pretty cool. And the weather, too.
Kind of chilly a little bit. October baseball.” At least as much as you might be able to feel that in August, lest you’ve forgotten, as the Royals play meaningful baseball this late in the season for the first time since their 2017 hopes evaporated down the stretch.
But the beauty of a victory that boosted them to 65-53 — their best record to this point of a year since the 2015 World Series championship season (72-46) and a game better than the 2014 American League title team — wasn’t merely the deeds of one of the most popular players in franchise history and the surfacing superstar. It was broader, deeper and more reassuring than that — exhilarating as those two made it. The Royals’ MLB-leading 33rd comeback win was made of the stuff that suggests the capacity to generate wins that don’t depend purely on the two faces of the team.
Because it was built on scads of essential .