KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Mike Moustakas finished hitless in three at-bats Tuesday night in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, yet he still received two standing ovations from the Kauffman Stadium crowd.
The Kansas City third baseman made a pair of stellar defensive plays in the Royals’ 2-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
Moustakas robbed Orioles first baseman Steve Pearce of a hit by snagging his screamer leading off in the fourth.
“From where I was standing, I didn’t see any way he could get a glove on that ball,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “Just tremendous reactions, made a tremendous play on that.”
In the sixth, Moustakas tumbled into a dugout-area suite but held on to center fielder Adam Jones’ foul popup.
“I’ve been playing at this field my entire career in the big leagues,” Moustakas said, “so I’m pretty familiar with that little dugout suite over there. I’ve been in there once or twice, maybe, but never anything like that. And those people helped me out the entire way, didn’t let me fall and kind of lifted me up out of there. It was pretty awesome.”
The standing-room-only crowd of 40,183 gave Moustakas a thunderous applause after the catch.
“It really did fire up the whole stadium,” first baseman Eric Hosmer said. “Hats off to the fans in the dugout suite, pick him up and put him back on the field. That was a great play. Moose is finding ways to get it done whether with the bat or defensively, he’s doing it.”
The Royals did it three games in a row, and they sit one game away from a World Series appearance. Kansas City left-hander Jason Vargas will try to complete the sweep Wednesday when he faces off against Baltimore right-hander Miguel Gonzalez.