MLB Kansas City Royals

Ned Yost, Kansas City Royals Could Get Exposed In San Francisco

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Ned Yost Kansas City Royals World Series

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The Kansas City Royals took a must-win game Wednesday night in Kansas City to even the World Series at one game apiece. The series now shifts to San Francisco for three games, and this is where things could get interesting.

San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy isn’t perfect; there were zero reasons to send Hunter Strickland out there in Game 2, and it might have cost the Giants the game. However, Royals manager Ned Yost has made many more questionable moves than his counterpart, and the spotlight will be on him this weekend in Kansas City.

With the series shifting to the National League park, so do the National League rules. That, of course, means no designated hitter. The pitcher must hit. That means more pinch hitting, double-switches and strategy comes more into play.

Everyone likes to say the Royals play like a National League team because they use speed and they bunt all the time. Playing like a National League team doesn’t mean you have a National League manager. Yes, Yost managed in the NL with the Milwaukee Brewers for nearly six seasons, but Yost’s team never reached the postseason and that’s where managers make their mark.

Yost has made quite a few questionable decisions during the postseason, but none have come back to bite him thanks to the Royals’ incredible play. The world criticized Yost for pulling James Shields in the Wild Card game against the Oakland A’s, but the Royals responded with an historic comeback. Another head-scratching example was during Game 2 of the World Series. Billy Butler hit an RBI single in the sixth inning giving the Royals a 3-2 lead. The Royals had runners on first and second with nobody out. Yost replaced Butler for pinch-runner Terrance Gore. Butler was the team’s designated hitter, so the move had nothing to do with defense. Butler represented the third run of the inning and second base was not open, so Gore had zero chance to steal; and being that it was only the sixth inning, Butler was guaranteed to have another at bat late in the game. Why would Yost pull arguably his best hitter for a pinch-runner when he already had the lead in the game with his bullpen? These are the type of moves that could eventually cost the Royals.

Speaking of the bullpen, Yost had a funny line talking about how great his pen has been. “After the sixth inning, my thinking is done.” For the most part, Yost is right. The Royals have been untouchable in the last three innings with the combination of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland. Yost trots each one out there for an inning and the game is in the books.

That’s not as easy with NL rules. Yost has to worry about pinch hitting. He has to keep in mind that if a game gets extended into extra innings, he is going to have to consider extending each one of those pitchers and must decide how he wants to handle Holland if the score is tied through eight.

And of course, no designated hitter means no Butler. Therein lies strategy in itself. The Royals lose of their significant hitters in their lineup, and he is going to get one at-bat in these games. Yost needs to decide when is the best chance to use Butler. If he has a runner on in the fifth inning, does he pull his starter early, hope Butler gets a critical RBI early and lose his bat for the rest of the game? Or will he hold onto Butler until the late innings regardless?

The spotlight is on Yost. With a daunting task of trying to beat Madison Bumgarner in San Francisco in Game 5, if Yost makes a move that costs his team a win in Games 3 or 4, he will put his team seriously behind the eight-ball. The in-game strategy of baseball is the most intriguing of all the major sports, especially in a seven-game series. All eyes are on Yost; anyone downplaying the importance of the manager over the next three games doesn’t understand the sport. We will know by Sunday night how well Yost does.

Bill Zimmerman is covering the World Series for www.RantSports.Com. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.

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