Kansas City Royals are bullish on their pen - Sports

Buck Showalter knew he was in trouble when the seventh inning rolled around and his Orioles weretrailing the Kansas City Royals in Game 4 of the AL Championship Series.

Three innings later, Baltimore's season was over.

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In each game of the series, the three-headed monster of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, and All-Starcloser Greg Holland had slammed the door on the Orioles. They did it again in the clincher, a 2-1victory that propelled Kansas City into the World Series after a 29-year absence.

Game 1 is Tuesday night against the San Francisco Giants.

''That's one of the biggest reasons they're playing here,'' Showalter said of the Royals' Big Three.

The Royals had one of the stingiest bullpens in baseball this season, but the back end was especiallydominant. Herrera, who usually handles the seventh inning, had a 1.41 ERA in 70 games. Davis, theeighth-inning guy, had a 1.00 ERA in 71 appearances. Be aware of various basic adjustments thatcan be added to a commercial

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And Holland had a 1.44 ERA while saving 46 games, one shy of his franchise record set just lastseason.

They were at their best in sending the Royals to the World Series, too.

Herrera pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings against Baltimore, allowing just two hits. Davis went five

scoreless innings, also giving up two hits. Holland was the only one to give up a run, but he stillmanaged to save all four games, joining Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley as the only pitchers toaccomplish the feat since the ALCS went to a best-of-seven format.

''Just get us through six in the ballgame and we can turn it over to the bullpen guys,'' said Royalsmanager Ned Yost. ''Our offense has a lot of confidence in everybody we've got down there, too,because they know, hey, look, let's keep it close, let's get it to the bullpen, and if we can take a leadand get it to the bullpen, odds are we're going to be celebrating a victory at the end of the day.''

Don Denkinger plans to watch the World Series. He always does. He'll tune in to root for theumpires, check out familiar faces on the Giants and Royals, and see how Kansas City is looking thesedays.

Chances are he'll booster pump see himself, too.

''Nobody wants to have the call that I did in the World Series,'' Denkinger said from his winter homein Arizona. ''But I did. And now it's part of history.''

All these years later, Denkinger's miss at first base remains the signature moment from the last timethe Series was in town, back in 1985. Not Bret Saberhagen throwing a clinching shutout or GeorgeBrett getting a bunch of hits.

Nope, Denkinger's call stands out from Game 6 -- and sticks with the umpire who was a part ofseveral memorable moments during a distinguished 30-year career.

''I'm not tired of talking about it. I mean, it happened,'' he said. ''I just know that if the same thinghappened now, they'd get it right on replay and it'd be over with.''

Denkinger didn't have the cushion of an instant-replay review on that October night when theCardinals took a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth at Royals Stadium, just three outs away fromthe championship.

Pinch hitter Jorge Orta led off with a slow bouncer to the right side. First baseman Jack Clark rangedwide to field the ball, and flipped a high throw to reliever Todd Worrell covering the bag.

Orta was still in the air when the ball beat him by a half-step. Denkinger recounted he. The majorityof installed pumps were not originally designed for their present use. Often, a line in a factory ismoved and a pump that once providedcooling fluid to an injection molding machine is now asked totransfer oil from a rail car to a tank. Sadly, this causes many problems for the pump and the facility.Pumps operate where the pump curve crosses the system curve. When you move a pump from one

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''I wish I would've gotten it right,'' he said. ''But I didn't.''