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NEW YORK — When it came down to it, Eric Hosmer's mad dash home was fueled by the knowledge that Lucas Duda is not a good first baseman, David Wright's arm is weak, and the Royals were playing with house money.
That's at least according to Kansas City first base coach Rusty Kuntz, who watched it all go down as the Royals captured a 7-2 win over the Mets in Game 5 for their first World Series title since 1985.
With one out in the ninth inning, the slow Eric Hosmer on third base and the Mets protecting a 2-1 lead, Salvador Perez hit a soft grounder at third baseman David Wright, who looked backed Hosmer and threw to first base.
Then Hosmer broke for home.
Duda received Wright's throw, got the out at first base and then tried firing it to catcher Travis d'Arnaud at home. But his throw was wide left, Hosmer scored, and a rocking Citi Field fell silent before watching the Royals erupt for another five runs to seal it in the 12th inning.
Hosmer's rush wasn't just a gut reaction. It wasn't just intuition.
It came from scouting, Kuntz said.
The Royals were aware of two things: Duda is slow and his arm isn't the best, and Wright — because of his back injury — was forced to adjust his throwing motion from over the top to side arm. The change made his throws weaker and gave them a sideways arc, making them take longer to get across the diamond.
"Our scouts told us that coming in: "Any time you can maybe ... " and they remember that stuff," Kuntz said. "And you go, 'Oh my god, he's really going to do it.' And then, bless Lucas' heart, he was wide left — not wide right — but wide left. That was pretty cool though."
Kuntz said they wouldn't have just tried a daring move like that on anybody, but Duda "is a good bat. One of those kinds of deals." Translation: K.C. wasn't concerned about his defensive ability.
Still, Kuntz said, he would have understood the criticism if Duda somehow had made a great throw and nabbed Hosmer at home. And, still, Kuntz said, the Royals would have been fine with the decision. Kuntz said it was a good baseball play.
"In that situation, yes," he said. "Because we hadn't done anything offensively. Nothing."
But it would have probably forced a Game 6, he was reminded.
"But that's ok because that's our safety net," Kuntz said. "But you know what, Game 6, if that play comes up again, we're playing Game 7. We're going to do it until they screw it up or until they rush it. I don't mean to say Duda screwed it up, but it's all about pressure at this level. "