The Royals take out the Astros to earn their second trip to the World Series in 3 years, and 5th in 8 years. For the first time in that run it will not be the Los Angeles Dodgers that the Royals face as the Wildcard Brewers win a game 7 to take the series and earn their first trip to the World Series since 2032. That year, the Brewers won the World Series, defeating the Royals 4-1 in the teams only postseason match up to date.
It is going to be a little harder for the Royals after learning that they have lost SP Jeremy Ogans for 8-9 months after he was injured in game 4 of the ALCS. The more frustrating news is the loss of RP Juan Anaya, who had stepped into the closer role against the LHP-dominating Astros. Anays suffered an off field injury which is the real frustration but will miss the whole series:
First the bad news: Kansas City's Juan Anaya has a sprained ankle, an injury he sustained while slamming into a car stopped at a red light. Now the good news: the injury, which was thought to be more serious, will keep the Royals reliever out of action for only about 5 weeks.
The Royals add two relievers, RHP Cheng Hsien Baker and LHP Julio Pesina. Ethan Chafin will move into the rotation and will pitch game 2 for the Royals.
The Brewer were a power hitting, pitcher dominant team in 2045, winning the NL Central with the 3rd fewest runs against while hitting the 3rd most HRs.
Their rotation is an all RHP set up, led by 2043 Cy Young winner Andy Pennington in the absence of David Armendariz, who suffered a forearm inflammation injury and has missed all of the playoffs. Pennington pitched the game 7 NLCS match up against the Dodgers, pitching 6 innings to help them to a shut out victory. Gredan DeGennaro was the pitcher led the team in ERA with a 3.45 rate helping him to 11 wins. In the bullpen, Davon DeLaine had an 85% success rate in racking up 35 saves while setup man Chris Lokey was the only other pitcher with an ERA under 4.00 (3.73).
On the batting side, the Brewers had three 30+ HR hitters, with David Maldonado (36), former Royal Juan Moreno (35), and Frank Posadas (30). Posadas led the club in batting average (.294) and RBIs (91) while both Maldonado (34) and Moreno (31) had 30-30 seasons.
The Royals did win the regular season series 2-1.
Game 1 in Kansas City: Ben Lane vs Josh Dearman (2042 Trade LAD)
• Milwaukee wins 2-1
• Dearman: 4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R INJ 4 months
• Lane (L): 6.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R
• Arturo Camacho (W): 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R
• Jim Robinson (SV): 0.1. IP, 0 H, 0 R
• Milwaukee HRs: Jorge Escobedo (3rd)
• Kansas City HRs: Jadon Tezeno (4th)
• POTG: Ben Lane (KC)
• 1-0 Milwaukee
Game 2 in Kansas City: Ethan Chafin vs Steve Mathews (2045 Trade CWS)
• Kansas City wins 5-3
• Chafin: 5.2 IP, 7 H, 3 R
• Mathews: 3.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R
• Luis Danys Rhodes (W): 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R
• Juan Leal (L): 2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R
• Joe Manley (SV): 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R
• Kansas City HRs: Edgar Mir (3rd, 2R; 6th, 2R)
• POTG: Edgar Mir (KC) 2-4, 2 HR, BB, 4 RBI
• 1-1 Series Tied
Game 3 in Milwaukee: Greg Moehring vs Andy Pennington (2042 Free Agent)
• Milwaukee wins 4-0
• Pennington (W): 9.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K, 108 PI
• Moehring (L): 5.0 IP, 9 H, 4 R
• Milwaukee HRs: David Maldonado (1st)
• 2-1 Milwaukee
Game 4 in Milwaukee: Chris Kuehn vs. Gredan DeGennaro (2041 Waivers ATL)
• Milwaukee wins 2-1
• DeGennaro: 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R
• Kuehn: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R
• Shawn Denn (W): 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R
• Dan Nichols (BS)(L): 2.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R
• Davon DeLaine (SV): 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R
• Milwaukee HRs: Alfredo Luna (8th, 2R)
• Kansas City HRs: Luis Aceves (4th)
• 3-1 Milwaukee
Game 5 in Milwaukee: Lane vs Jim Robinson (2043 Trade CLE)
• Milwaukee wins 7-0
• Robinson: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R INJ
• Lane (L): 7.0 IP, 4 H, 4 R
• Juan Leal (W): 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R
• Milwaukee HRs: Maldonado (6th, 2R), Frank Posadas (8th, 3R)
• POTG: Frank Posadas (MIL) 2-4, HR, 4 RBIs
•
4-1 MILWAUKEE WINS
Series MVP: David Maldonado (MIL) 6-19, 2 HRs, 5 RBIs
The Brewers defeat the Royals 4-1 to win their second World Series after defeating the Royals by the same score in 2032. The Royals bats went quiet at the worst possible time while Andy Pennington put up one of the great pitching performances in the World Series, his game 3 no hitter coming with a solitary walk across 108 pitches and including 9 Ks. The Royals didn’t recover, scoring one run over the final three games of the series. A solitary World Series from 7 AL pennents and 14 AL Central division titles is a poor return but the Royals do keep putting themselves in the right place to go for the title.