The inevitable crowning is finally upon us. With a 10-4 win over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday, the Kansas City Royals clinched their first AL Central championship and first division title overall since their 1985 World Series run.
Mike Moustakas drove in three runs, and Johnny Cueto gave up three earned runs over seven innings of work to help the Royals clinch the division.
MLB shared the final out and the subsequent celebration:
Chris Fickett of the Kansas City Star captured the moment the team streamed onto the field in triumph:
ESPN Stats & Info pointed out the 2015 season marks the first time the Royals made back-to-back postseasons since 1984-85. Given that timeframe, it should come as no surprise they were ready to party, as Baseball Tonight highlighted:
Fox Sports Kansas City shared more of the celebration that spilled from the field to the locker room:
Manager Ned Yost put the length of time between division crowns into context, per Matthew DeFranks of Sports Radio 810 in Kansas City: "Like 25 of these guys weren’t even born the last time the Royals won a division."
With Kansas City galloping well ahead of the Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins, Thursday's ceremony has been weeks in the making. The Royals were poised to clinch the division at some point during their final homestand of the season, which allowed the team to take a peek at the postseason.
"It's certainly a different feeling," general manager Dayton Moore said, per Jeff Deters of the Topeka Capital-Journal. "Last year we were fighting for everything, and we still are. No one is going to give you anything in this game. You've got to go take it and earn it every single night. It's very challenging to win a Major League Baseball game. But in the same mindset, you think a little bit into the future on what certain matchups might be if we are in the playoffs."
Dan Plesac of MLB Network offered his congratulations:
Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star looked toward the inevitable party:
Bleacher Report's Scott Miller pointed at the team's doubters:
With their playoff spot clinched, the Royals can now concentrate on landing home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs. They are two games ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays through Thursday, which means there won't be time to sit players out down the stretch. Both teams have looming intradivisional matchups, so it'll be up to East and Central teams to help decide the top overall seed.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports noted it's up to Kansas City to decide where postseason games will be played:
While clinching home-field advantage would prove helpful, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports noted this team has the right formula to win in any location:
If the Royals keep their lead, they'll host the winner of the wild-card matchup, which is looking increasingly like a battle between the New York Yankees and Houston Astros. Houston and New York have both taken four of their six matchups against Kansas City during the regular season.
Of course, being an underdog is nothing new to this Royals roster. A year ago, it would have seemed impossible that the small-ball outfit would make a run at an American League championship and narrowly miss out on raising a banner. This year's version is far different, featuring a number of All-Stars and high-profile midseason acquisitions meant to complete the title push.
Step 1 is now complete. We'll see if these Royals have the same October magic as their predecessors in a couple of weeks.
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