Die Bildergalerie » could, theoretically, have a defence that i

ANAHEIM, Calif. - When Mike Moustakas smacked a high fly into right field in the 11th inning, the Kansas City Royals No. 9 hitter had no idea whether it had enough juice to get out of the Big A.I knew I hit it pretty good, but that fence out there is pretty tall, the Los Angeles born-and-bred slugger said.Although this group of Royals only has two crazy games of playoff history, its becoming clear that good things happen to Kansas City in October.The Royals went a few more extra innings, withstood a few more scares and figured out another dramatic way to win a playoff game a€” thanks to the local boy.Moustakas homered leading off the 11th, and the Royals kept rolling in their first post-season in 29 years with a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels in their AL Division Series opener Thursday night.Kansas City had managed just two baserunners since the fifth inning when Moustakas hit the first extra-inning homer in post-season history for the Royals, a high shot off Fernando Salas that barely reached the elevated right-field stands at Angel Stadium.Its probably the biggest one Ive ever hit so far, said Moustakas, who had dozens of friends and family members in the Royals tiny cheering section. It felt really amazing.Game 2 in the best-of-five series is Friday night at the Big A, with Angels 16-game winner Matt Shoemaker taking on fellow rookie Yordano Ventura.Alcides Escobar had an early RBI double for the Royals, and their bullpen repeatedly escaped trouble in Kansas Citys first game since that spectacular, 12-inning comeback victory over Oakland in the wild-card playoff Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.Chris Iannetta and David Freese homered early in the Angels first playoff game since 2009, but the majors most productive offence stranded eight runners in the five innings before Greg Hollands perfect 11th.This is the type of game that we play, Royals manager Ned Yost said. We dont score a bunch of runs ... so we have a lot of confidence in our pitching.Winning pitcher Danny Duffy worked the 10th for Kansas City, and Holland picked up the save after arriving at the ballpark around the fourth inning. He went to North Carolina on the Royals off day to attend his childs birth.Mike Trout was 0 for 4 with a walk in his playoff debut. The favourite for AL MVP grounded into a fielders choice in the 10th before Albert Pujols popped out to end his 0-for-4 Angels playoff debut.Josh Hamilton popped up to end the game, capping his 0-for-5 return to the lineup.We had some guys in scoring position, just couldnt get that one hit, especially late, Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. Those guys hung in there and got the big outs and got the big hit late. So we hit two home runs to keep ourselves in the game, but outside of that, we didnt really pressure those guys very much.Jered Weaver, Joe Smith and Huston Street combined to retire Kansas Citys final 15 batters before extra innings a€” and thats when the Royals went to work. Kevin Jepsen let two runners on in the 10th, but retired Salvador Perez and Omar Infante to escape.Salas wasnt as lucky, giving up a homer to a third baseman who grew up in the San Fernando Valley before making his big league debut and hitting his first homer in Anaheim three years ago.A raucous crowd banged balloons and cheered on the Angels throughout their post-season return after a half-decade away, but the fans got tense while the teams managed just three hits apiece in the first nine innings. Los Angeles earned home-field advantage throughout the post-season with a big league-best 98-64 record.The Royals cant match Los Angeles lineup on paper, but theyve got some remarkable post-season mojo.Even before Moustakas homer, Nori Aoki made dramatically awkward catches on the right-field warning track to end the sixth and seventh, twice making up for poor routes to the Angels drives with a last-instant stab. Lorenzo Cain also made two exceptional plays in centre field in the first two innings, underlining Kansas Citys stellar defence.Lorenzo Cain is one of the best centre fielders in baseball, and Aoki made some unbelievable plays, Moustakas said. We were able to cut their rallies down a little bit on some of the huge catches there in right field and centre field, and hats off to those guys.Weaver yielded three hits over seven strong innings for the Angels while Jason Vargas, his good friend and Long Beach State teammate, pitched six innings of three-hit ball for Kansas City.TRAINERS ROOMRoyals: RHP Kelvin Herrera walked Freese on five pitches leading off the seventh and then left the game with right forearm tightness. Herrera, a key member of Kansas Citys vaunted bullpen, will be re-evaluated Friday.Angels: Hamilton played left field and batted seventh after missing 21 of the Angels final 22 regular-season games with upper-body injuries.UP NEXTShoemaker (16-4, 3.04 ERA), the 28-year-old rookie who gets credit from Scioscia for saving the Angels season, makes his playoff debut. He hasnt pitched since Sept. 15, when he strained an oblique muscle. Kansas City counters with Ventura (14-10, 3.20), who struggled in the sixth inning of the wild-card game, but possesses a 100 mph fastball. Toby Alderweireld Hotspur Jersey . Never caused problems. Never raised a ruckus. Never got sick or hurt while frolicking in the fields of Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky. Georges-Kevin NKoudou Hotspur Jersey .Boston beat the Nashville Predators 5-3 on Tuesday night and celebrated consecutive wins for the first time in more than a month. http://www.footballhotspurstore.com/Wome...Hotspur-Jersey/. The two were in the batting cage moments before game time. Bautista was taking final warm up cuts. Pillar was hitting soft toss. The one-time utility player turned All-Star pulled aside the clubs young, fourth outfielder and offered him some advice. Erik Lamela Jersey . -- Novak Djokovic benefited from an erroneous call and claimed he didnt realize he had broken the rules. Juan Foyth Hotspur Jersey .C. -- Theyll remember the OT from the first Syracuse-Duke game -- and the Ts that decided Round 2.As a fun NHL Draft exercise, I decided to go through each NHL team and re-configure their rosters, only allowing teams to include players that were drafted by the team. In order to keep the roster numbers up, those that were undrafted free agents were included with the teams for which they played their first NHL games. Take it easy, agents. This isnt about removing trades or free agency -- those are some of my favourite parts of the game too -- but its about how teams identify and secure talent and which teams have done these things more effectively. As you can see, by looking through these hypoethetical depth charts, there are teams that have provided a disproportionate number of the players throughout the league. Certainly, some teams have had and used more draft picks than other teams, so thats part of the reason why they bring so much more talent into the league, but theres probably a lesson to be gleaned from that as well. Take the defence picks of the Montreal Canadiens and Nashville Predators, for example. The Canadiens could, theoretically, have a defence that includes Ryan McDonagh, Francois Beauchemin, Mark Streit, Stephane Robidas and Ron Hainsey in addition to the guys they kept -- P.K. Subban, Andrei Markov, Alexei Emelin (could have included Francis Bouillon and Mike Komisarek, too). Nashville has done very well on the blueline, drafting Shea Weber, Ryan Suter, Dan Hamhuis, Roman Josi, Seth Jones, Cody Franson, Kevin Klein and Ryan Ellis (as well as Mattias Ekholm and signing Victor Bartley). On the other hand, there are teams that have had a hard time bringing in defencemen, like the Philadelphia Flyers, who have preferred (or been forced) to acquire their defencemen through other means. Dennis Seidenberg and Joni Pitkanen are the two best active NHL defencemen that the Flyers have drafted and Pitkanen missed all of last season due to injury while Seidenberg missed half the year. Of course, the Flyers have had brought in (and subsequently let go) some serious talent up front, including Patrick Sharp, Justin Williams, Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, among others, but their hypoethetical forward depth chart is impressive. Sometimes, circumstances have made it that a team doesnt need to draft at a position. Think of the Boston Bruins goaltending situation recently, carried by Tuukka Rask (acquired in trade) and, before him, Tim Thomas (a Quebec Nordiques draft pick!), so -- at least prior to drafting Malcolm Subban in the first round -- the Bruins havent brought in a lot of blue-chippers in net. By contrast, the Toronto Maple Leafs have had Rask, James Reimer and Ben Scrivens, or the Washington Capitals, who have had Semyon Varlamov, Braden Holtby and Michal Neuvirth through their system. A few quick obserrvations: - Some lean resuls in Columbus, where they barely have an NHL centre aside from Ryan Johansen and Derick Brassard.dddddddddddd - Tons of depth with Detroit, particularly after making call-ups this year. Joakim Andersson and Luke Glendening, who played regularly for the Wings this year, didnt crack the five-deep depth chart. - Crazy depth in Ottawa too, where so many forwards -- Marian Hossa, Martin Havlat, Daniel Alfredsson, Antoine Vermette, Brooks Laich, Jakob Silfverberg -- have moved on to other teams. - A few other rules of this "what if?" game: I allowed players that were drafted twice to be used by both organizations, so look out for Jarret Stoll playing both sides in the Battle of Alberta! - The Edmonton Oilers come by their defensive woes honestly. Theyve drafted four active NHL defencemen, including Martin Marincin and Oskar Klefbom, rookies they called up last season. - Using the Atlanta Thrashers and Winnipeg Jets franchise doesnt yield much up front, especially with Ilya Kovalchuk gone to Russia. Bryan Little, Evander Kane, Mark Scheifele, then who was the fourth-best forward in 2013-2014 that was drafted by this franchise? Patrick Dwyer? Dany Heatley? The story is better on defence and in net. Using only players that played in the NHL in the 2013-2014 season, I came up with rosters (Maple Leafs example below) that you can see by clicking here. TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS LW C RW Alexander Steen Nazem Kadri Brad Boyes Jiri Tlusty Tyler Bozak Nikolai Kulemin Viktor Stalberg Matt Stajan Jimmy Hayes Jerry DAmigo John Mitchell Matt Frattin Josh Leivo Spencer Abbott Shawn Thornton D D G Carl Gunnarsson Anton Stralman Tuukka Rask Morgan Rielly Luke Schenn James Reimer Carlo Colaiacovo Jay Harrison Ben Scrivens Jean-Philippe Cote Mike Kostka Jonas Gustavsson Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '