It's Chevalier's Thread and He Can Do What He Wants To

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 28

Situation, start of turn 28:




Barb took a shot at the slinger, and got punished in return. I should be able to clean him up on turn 29. The key thing is to try and land the kill with the slinger, to save a few beakers on Archery. The warrior is there for support and backup. Part of me wonders if I shouldn't ought to have hit the barb last turn or this turn - because then I could knock him down into the red with the warrior, and let the slinger finish it? But then I also remember that if I hadn't whacked away, the slinger would be more injured and so just as unlikely to get the kill. No regrets, let's swing away:




That's 56 damage, plus whatever he took on the interturn, call it 28 (split the difference) - so the warrior should be at ~16 health, yeah? I'm not sure how the defending damage is calculated - does it use the slinger's melee strength? That would make sense, which would be ~18 with terrain and Discipline in place - but I am reasonably confident that the barb will suicide on the interturn. Should have left the worker there as bait but I only just thought of that. Already moved him. Fingers crossed that he hits the slinger, as I expect he will.

Situation, end of turn:




Spearman is on the hill to the southwest - what's he doing there? I can start trying to beat him down with the warrior, or bypass him and just go for the camp to clear it. Slingers can handle him and clearing the camp earlier spares my warrior's health and limits barb spawns. That scout is STILL out there somewhere to the northwest. We'll see how the spear moves and I can decide.

If I clear the camp, I need to start thinking about era score. I need 24 for a golden age, which I can't see myself getting by turn ~60 or so. But can I keep myself under 12 and land the Dark Age? Weaker loyalty doesn't matter a damn on islands, no one will be settling in my face. I could take Monasticism, which would boost both cities (if I can get districts up by then), and then slingshot to a Heroic Age in the Medieval Era - which is right when Mamluks come online. Use a modest navy to escort Mamluks across the water, invade a neighbor who might just have neglected his army, and see what I can do. 

Pinned Morales on the tea, as a filler city. This and Hosmer would be luxury grabs and nothing more, really, really low priority plants. Colonization and the Ancestral Hall would make them just on the inside edge of viability, though:




Morales could have 3 2/2 tiles by stealing from Escobar, and 1 forest for chopping. Use the flatland for districts. Not a fantastic city by any means, but it fills the space and gets tea for a bit of science. Might even be able to position districts around the Government Plaza for some more boosts and it's actually not too terrible from a district science/culture/faith standpoint. 

Score. Rowain and Emperor both founded cities last turn. With Zobrists's slow start, I didn't really gain much of an edge by settling early. Must step up my game.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 29

Just as planned: 




I was pretty sure he'd go for the slinger, and pretty sure he'd die in the process, but I couldn't be certain. Anyway, for now at least I'm Light Yagami.

Situation start of turn 29:




Warrior was attacked by the spear, which, uh, okay. I go ahead and finish off the stupid robot, which should leave the camp clear. However, I'm not sure about newly spawning units, so I have the dilemma - play it safe and heal up, or go ahead and clear the camp, with an injured warrior potentially in danger in case a barb wave spawns? Right now, I need more intelligence on the camp itself to decide, and the terrain is pretty defensive, so I'll creep down. If the camp is clear, I will take it. If not, I will fort up and heal while the slingers come in to support. 

Slinger has a promotion, so I go ahead and take Volley. Garrison may have been better, since my ranged units will probably be mostly defensive - except that ranged units have an attack penalty against ships in R&F, so Volley is the flexible option that enables me to attack.

The builder I embark. I'll sail for the crabs after all. 1/3 of Craftsmanship and 1/2 of Celestial Navigation's Eureka is equal to 24 beakers and 5.33 clefs, equal to 8 and 3 turn's output, respectively. Not a bad bargain for 16 cogs (1/3 of a builder). And, of course, if my pop ever grows high enough I might even want to work the crabs! 

Situation, end of turn, and score:






I'm down the near the bottom, obviously. 

Rowain and Archduke have two civics each. Two possibilities: Early builder -> Craftsmanship, or early foreign continent ->Foreign Trade. Archduke is on one city still, so Arabian Intelligence Agency estimates that he has Craftsmanship. Rowain has a second city, though, so AIA's estimate is Foreign Trade in his case. 

Rowain has 15 empire score. 2 cities = 10, palace adds one, so he has 4 pop total. One more than my empire's 3 pop, though in 2 turns that will have risen to 5 population. 
Archduke has 1 city, no districts, so he has 4 pop in a single city (which means he's getting higher yields from his one city than I am from my 2. Pop growth will push me ahead in the next two turns). 

Both have 3 techs completed. Two possibilities: 

1)Pop growth hasn't been significant enough for an early science lead, so they could be working science tiles like tea or something. Probably not, though, production is more important early game. 
2)They have grabbed cheaper techs - I have gone Mining -> Sailing -> Animal Husbandry, they could be grabbing Pottery instead of Sailing. If so, this is encouraging, since I will be first (hopefully) to crank out a galley for some Era points and city-state contacts. 

Era scores are 4. Each got them in 2 groups of 2, I think. Barb camps and pantheons? Need to double check the chart. 

Emperor has Code of Laws and 2 techs, and 2 cities with 4 total pop. 3 era points - not sure if that's a 1/2 score or a single 3 point achievement. 

Japper has 1 city with 3 pop, Code of Laws, 2 techs, and 4 era points. Like Rowain, I know some of that is from his pantheon. 

Reasons for my lag:

1)Civics. I have Foreign trade 60%, need the inspiration. Swapped to Craftsmanship to save culture since I don't need Maritime Industries just yet. Plan is to finish Craftsmanship and swap in Agoge, crank out until I have 3 total warriors (for Grenada) and 3 slingers (for Machinery), then swap to Maritime Industries. Got lots of time. 
2)Empire - low pop. Artifact of my food-poor start. This will stay roughly even, I think, especially as I develop Zobrist. 
3)Science - Researched one expensive tech. Should stay relatively even.
4)Era score - I have 0. No barb camp clears, no pantheon yet. No worries. Era score will come. You can't force it too much.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Moment type:	Moment Description	Total Score	Age Obsolete
Threatening Camp Destroyed	Clear a barb Camp within 6 tiles of 1 of your cities	3	Medieval
Religion Adopts All Beliefs	Your religion has 4 beliefs	3	-
Old Wonder	Complete a WW from an earlier era	3	-
Largest Civ	Have 3 more cities than the next-largest civ	3	-
City of Awe	Found a city within 2 tiles of a Natural Wonder	3	-
Enemy City Converted	Convert a city while at war with the owner	3	-
Splendid District	Build your first district of each type with 3+ adjacency	3	-
First Neighborhood	First neighborhood in the world	3	Modern
Successful Emergency	Participate in an emergency & win	3	Modern
Natural Wonder Discovered	First in the world to discover a Natural Wonder	3	-
First Tier 1/2/3 Government	First in the world to adopt a government tier	3	Varies
Patronage	Recruit a Great Person with gold/faith	3	-
First Religion	Found the first religion in the world	3	-
Met All Civilizations	Meet all Civs in the world	3	-
Flight	Discover Flight	3	-
Trading Posts	Have a Trading Post with every Civ	3	-
First Seafaring	Build the first ship in the world	3	-
Enemy Veteran Defeated	Defeat an enemy unit with 2+ promotions	3	-
World Circumnavigated	Uncover a tile in every vertical line on the map	3	-

Moment Type	Moment Description	Total Score	Age Obsolete
Barb Camp destroyed	Destroy a hostile barb camp anywhere	2	Medieval
City on New Continent	Found your first city on a specified continent	2	-
World's First Large/Enormous/Gigantic City	Be the first in the world to a city with 10/15/20 pop	2	Modern/-/-
Free City Joins	A free city joins your empire	2	-
First Civic/Tech of New Era	Be the first in the world to discover a tech in the new era	2	-
Neighborhood	Build your first neighborhood	2	-
World's First Corps/Fleet/Army/Armada	Be first in the world with the specified unit	2	Atomic/Modern
Next Government Tier	Reach your first Tier 1/2/3 government	2	Medieval/Renaissance/Atomic
First Inquisition	Be the first in the world to launch an inquistion	2	-
First Pantheon	Be the first in the world to adopt a pantheon	2	Medieval
City-State's First Suzerain	Be the first in the world to suzerain a specific city-state	2	Medieval
Levied Army Stands Down	Use envoys to convince a city-state levied army to return home	2	-
Enemy City-state Pacified	Use envoys to make peace with a city-state at war with you	2	-
City-state levied near enemy	Levy a city-state army near your enemy's cities	2	-
Religion founded	Found a religion	2	-
First master spy earned	Earn the first master spy in the world	2	-
Seafaring Unit	Build your first ship	2	-
First Strategic Resource	Be the first in the world to build a unit with a strategic resource	2	-
General/Admiral Victorious	Your GG/GA wins his/her first engagement	2	-
Casus Belli	Declare war with a casus belli	2	-

Moment Type	Moment Description	Total Score	Age Obsolete
Artifact Extracted	Extract an artifact.	1	-
Aggressive City	Found a city within 5 tiles of another civ.	1	-
Snow/Desert/Tundra City	Found a city on the specified terrain.	1	-
First Large/Enormous/Gigantic City	A city in your civ reaches 10/15/20 pop	1	Modern/-/-
First tech/civic	Research your first tech/civic of a new era	1	-
First armada/army/corps/fleet	Your civ forms its first unit of the specified type	1	Modern/Atomic
Tribal Village	Contact a goodie hut	1	Classical
All Governors Appointed	Recruit all 7 governors	1	-
Governor Fully Promoted	Give 1 governor all 5 promotions	1	Modern
Great Person Recruited	A great person joins your civ	1	-
Inquisition	Your civ founds an inquisition	1	-
Pantheon	Your civ adopts a pantheon	1	Medieval
City-state Levy	Levy a city-state's army	1	-
Met New Civ	You meet a new civ	1	-
First in the world - Space Race Project completed	Be the first in the world to launch a satellite/moon landing/Mars project.	1	-
Space Race project completed	Your civ completes a space-race project.	1	-
Master Spy recruited	You fully promote a spy	1	-
Trading Post established	You establish your first trading post with a specified civ	1	-
Distinguished Unit	A unit reaches 4 promotions	1	-
Enemy Formation Defeated	Defeat an enemy formation with an inferior unit	1	-
Strategic Resource	Your civ has its first unit with a strategic resource	1	-
Nuclear Project Complete	Manhattan Project/Operation Ivy	1	-

Rowain had 1 on 25, then 4 on 28.
Emperor went from 0 on 27 to 3 on 28. 
Archduke had 2 points last turn, then 4 this turn. 
Japper had 4 on 25, which is when I started showing the score.

Japper has Pantheon = 2. Other 2 is almost certainly a barb camp clear. 
Rowain had 1 from a pantheon, then he earned 3 points. Possibilities: Threatening camp, Natural Wonder. Probably not first ship, timing isn't right with his science and settler.
Emperor earned 3 points. Possibilities: Threatening Camp, Natural Wonder, again, with the settler finishing when it did, probably not the first ship. 
Archduke had 2 and then 4. The first 2 was almost certainly a barb camp, the next 2...I don't see how it could be anything but a barb camp. 

So that's my best guess on era score. It's also possible that, say, Rowain and Emperor met, then each cleared a barb camp, for 3 combined points. All kinds of possibilities there, but we can't know that for now.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 30




Hooray, sheepies! Of course, can't actually pasture any yet, since I have none in my borders. Soon, though.

Situation, start of turn 30:




Guess there was a barb wave, as a second warrior makes his way north. The slingers can probably handle this chappie solo, while I slip around the flank and try to knock out the camp itself. Then I can send my slingers ascouting and start to concentrate warriors at Grenada. 

I go ahead and build the crab boats. 

Once I pasture the sheep, Escobar will have fully 6 good 4 yield-or-better tiles to work, 7 once it grabs the PFH in the second ring. So, I feel okay burning a charge on the fishing boats in pursuit of the eureka. Really, if I'd been smart - Escobar has no urgent need of a builder, while Zobrist could really use one to get up and running. So if I'd been using my brain I would have sent the builder along to Zobrist right away and gotten a farm and some mines up. Well, we're only 6 turns away from our builder there, with pop growth. Really need more culture at this city - the second ring tiles are great, but it's gonna take ages to grab those. I'm considering building or even purchasing a monument at Zobrist once I have the gold for it. 

Alternate strategy would be to slowbuild a monument, purchase a trader, and run that back to Escobar for more food and production, which would also really help the city. I'll noodle it over.

Scores:






Notes: Archduke gained an era point = Archduke has selected a pantheon, most likely. I'm still 11 turns away from mine. No faith resources in sight. :/ 
Japper has a settler out. 

Next goals: Finish Craftsmanship, Agoge some warriors, kill Grenada. 
Get out a second trireme w/Maritime Industries, chop out Holy Site at Escobar.
Zobrist will build a monument and then I'll evaluate where to go from there.

[Banzailizard]

I have been a horrible deadlurker. I have mostly been caught up in packing for my move and such. I will hopefully be able to deliver some graphs to you tonight. I will try to provide thoughts and suggestions as well.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Hey, no worries. I have half a dozen supposed dedlurkers and never the less I'm still talking to myself all the time. ):<

I kid, I kid. There hasn't been much to discuss in game, so everyone's sitting quiet. I do miss bouncing ideas off of aetryn, and Ichabod's solid advice, and RFS helping me think through stuff. But hey! The game is starting to pick up, and other games are winding down. 


anyway, long story short, we have another turn!

Turn 31

Our first two-turn day, I think. 

Situation start of turn 31:



Warrior brought a slinger friend along. That evens the odds somewhat, but I have great terrain here. Plan is to swing my own slinger and warrior into line stretching southwest, along that line of hills. Discipline, terrain, and first strike will do the rest. We can probably clean these up in two turns, depending on how they move.

Both my cities have grown, and now we see the challenges inherent in my start. First:





Escobar has hit size 3, but we're looking at 63 turns before we hit size 4! Partially it's because of a few 1-food tiles I'm working - the sheep will help on this front. I briefly select the crabs and that brings growth down to 32 turns. The other problem is we're already starting to bump the housing cap, so we're losing part of our food surplus as is. 

I'm working on pottery now. A granary I think is in order once I finish the next warrior out of the city - that will give the city more native food production, and it will bump housing up to 6, which let us grow a bit higher. It makes use of my high production to mitigate my low food. 

Zobrist is in the same boat - 23 turns to grow, and it's on fresh water. There's a 4-food floodplain, but it's in the second ring. The plains wheat will only be a 3/1 tile once it's improved. So, what to do? An early harvest clears the space for the holy site and avoids a marginal improvement in the meantime. I want to clear it sooner rather than later in order to trigger district discounts - two holy sites before 1 campus would be ideal. But, that extra pop will have few good tiles to work thanks to the city's poor first ring, and I won't get as much from a harvest as I would later. Plus, it means avoiding the Craftsmanship eureka for a bit until I get one of the mines or the pasture up.

Hmmmm. Like I said last turn, the main issue at Zobrist is lack of culture. The main issue at Escobar is lack of food. We also really want to grab Magnus as soon as we can (more culture)...gods, why couldn't I have made things easy on myself and just taken Rome?

Oh, because easy is boring. Right. This will all have been worth it when my faith and science-fueled civ drowns my enemies in a sea of blood, you'll see! 

Anyway, couple of options at Zobrist - slowbuild monument, purchase monument, purchase trader. All would help. I'll keep thinking about it. 




Situation, end of turn. Each barb can attack, but won't accomplish much attacking into Discipline on hills. The central slinger can pivot north or south to support either unit next turn. Plan is to launch an offensive out of these hills, sweep the bad guys off the plain, then finally clear the camp. The barbs have been easy to handle, but my exploration of the south and east has suffered. Need to get back on track - I'll kick mself if there's a culture state on the far end of this land mass. 

A look at the empire in normal view, since I rarely use that:



Scores:





No ships yet. If someone launches one before my next turn I shall be very put out.

Japper grew a pop back. Emperor K finished a tech. Our deficit is entirely attributable to culture and era score. We're in good shape on that front. 

I really want to get Cain settled asap, that'll be a nice city.

[Banzailizard]

Ok well that took longer to make than I thought but here it is.  I should think of something to put in that 6th spot in the lower right-hand corner.


One thing I am not sure you caught ( skimmed your post but did not see it) but archduke also lost a pop 4 turns ago.  He must have made a settler and should settle very soon.

Question, why do you want the first naval ship? I thought the goal was an early dark age now while it does not matter, into a heroic age in the Medieval Era.  That has plenty of synergy with Arabia's UU.  Now granted I think its just fine to have an early ship to scout the coasts and hopefully meet some city states. A lot also depends of course on how close you are to neighbors and how well you can generate faith to dump units on them.  If that dark to heroic age method is the plan, then you should be careful about what you do.  Its 10 to normal age? well you will get +3 for the ship, +2 for the barb camp (which you should clear for gold and peace of mind) now what happens if you meet a new civ?+1 Your Pantheon? +1 puts you at 7.  Awfully close. Meet 3 more civs and you cross the line.

Also you should scout northeast, I think I spy another short river up there by the sheep. You have a ton of sheep actually, while not by your capital then to the northeast south and north west.  God of the open sky might be very helpful. Save you hammers on monuments to put into shrines and temples for faith. I think I would still support a faith pantheon like god of the harvest, but if that is taken, then open sky is not a bad choice.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I did miss that Archduke had a settler out, nice catch. Your graphs are so pretty! o_o

Anyway, I do want SOME era points. It's 12 for normal age/24 for golden. I'll probably get 7 easily, and a first natural wonder will put me at 10. However, I don't expect to meet every civ before turn 60. I'll have about 25 turns to explore with the galley before the classical age begins - it's possible, but it's not likely. 11 points would be ideal.

And yeah, I really want to scout around the lake area. It's mostly desert, so I didn't go there initially, trying the more promising directions, but there's probably a good city spot near that copper on the lake (which is another reason why I put Zobrist where it is, to keep that spot open), and I'm not at all sure how far the continent extends that direction. Looks like it ends just beyond the sheep, but then again it's so wrinkly who can tell?

Goddess of the Harvest is still my first choice, but it's almost certainly going to be taken. God of the Open Sky wouldn't be half bad, and would save me the trouble of early monuments since I'll have an alternate source of culture. Let me check the appeal for Earth Goddess, though.




Now, if I understand how the system works correctly, Earth Goddess just adds +1 faith to the yield of any Charming or better tile. I don't THINK that you get more faith for being more levels above. Anyway, that means that only Charming tiles I actually work will benefit. The good news is that's quite a lot in the early game - 3 at Escobar, 3 at Zobrist. So that's 6 faith per turn in the early game. 60 faith every ten turns, or 120 every 20 turns. Okay, not at all as good as GotH, but let's be honest, I'm not gonna get away with Goddess of the Harvest twice. I talked it up too damn much in my last thread and now all those other jerks know about it. Hopefully someone's still dumb enough to take Divine Spark, though.

Anyway, EG is a modest boost. But it scales well. Cain, for example, has 5, which has me up to +11 faith once the city is at size 5. Hosmer, that ugly stepchild, has only 1, but Morales has as many tiles as it can possibly work, which gets us up to 17 or 18 faith by the time we're at 5 cities (I expect to settle otehr cities before Hosmer and Morales, though. I hate those sites).

However, the barb camp is looking like a good city site. Nothing spectacular, but lots of improvable tiles. The forest can get a lumbermill to make it a 2/3 tile, the cows can become 3/1 pastures each, and we don't know what might lie to the south. With 2 cows and 4 sheep visible (too bad Zobrist is on the horses), that's 12 culture - I think that's a better bet than Earth Goddess's modest faith yield.

So, top three choices:

1)GotH
2)GotOS
3)EG

After that, things drop off a lot. Stone Circles is worth, uh, a whopping 4 fpt. God of the Sea can get me 3 production from the various fishing boats nearby. Reeds and Marshes gets Zobrist 1 production. And Desert Folklore might let me mess with Holy Site placement in the north. But overall, hopefully one of those 3 will be available.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 32




Woo! Suck it, everyone else, Arabs know how to sail! 

Anyway, the era points aren't so important as the information that I'm the first on the water. This means I can get out and scout for neutral islands, city-states, maybe even a natural wonder or a foreign continent for those inspirations, and have a leg up in that department. Really, I think I might crank out another galley as soon as I can fit it in - we really want to get going on this. 

Situation, start of turn 32:



Looks like both barbs concentrated their attacks on the slinger. This means we can rout them this turn, easily. The slinger is open to my own slinger and warrior, and the northern warrior is red-lined, should be able to finish him off with the slinger alone:








Both are easily cleaned up, and for the moment, at least, the land is clear. I've now killed a spear, 2 warriors, and a slinger from the camp. How many barbs spawn? There might be one more warrior on the way, or I might be finished. I'll start to probe south next turn and see what I can see. 




I mull over what to build for a bit, before settling on, er, a settler. At 8 turns that's still a pretty quick build for Cain. We're not at Agoge yet, and I can get a bit more production efficiency by waiting to crank out my next warriors. Can't build a granary yet without pottery. So, we'll whip out Cain's settler really quick, then the warriors for Grenada, then either galley->holy site or some variation thereupon.

Situation, end of turn:




Score:





Archduke founded his city #2. I'm already started on the settler for city #3, so we're in good shape on that front. Not falling behind yet.
Japper has somehow fallen behind again. He'll close the gap a bit when he founds his second city soon, but sheesh. 

Overall, my only lag is in culture so far. I'd love GotOS if I can grab it. But with 3 pantheons already gone, it's basically a race between me and emperor for last pick. I founded before him and I move before him in turn order, so I should be able to grab one of my three choices. Need to think about where to fit in monuments before I fall too far behind. Another reason to get more galleys out - need the PP inspiration desperately!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

2015 ALCS Part Three

Video Summary: Here



The Royals came into Toronto right where they wanted to be: up two games to nothing, with the Blue Jays unable to eliminate them without winning at least one game back at Kauffman. KC would face a stiff challenge at Rogers Centre, though - the Jays had won 53 of their home games that season, a levle of play which would have seen them finish with a 106-56 record if they matched it on the road. The last Jays home game, of course, had been the infamous Game 5, climaxing in Bautista’s bat flip for the ages.

Johnny Cueto was not making his first high-pressure playoff start on the road. Cueto, two years before, had played in his own wild card game. A year before the Royals snapped their 29-year drought, the Pittsburgh Pirates had ended their own 21-year playoff drought with a trip to the wild card game. Like the Royals, the Pirates played at home, but unlike the Royals, there was no drama in their return to the playoffs. They faced the Reds, and Johnny Cueto, and Cueto crumpled under the pressure. In the second inning, as 40,000 Pirates fans mockingly changed “Cueeeee-toooo! Cueeee-tooo!”, the Reds pitcher had dropped the ball from his nerveless fingers on the mound. On the next pitch, he gave up a home run and the lead. The Reds would not regain it and were eliminated. Cueto’s only two playoff starts since then had come at home, in KC, against the Astros.




For a few minutes, though, it looked like he would pitch under no pressure at all. Alcides Escobar led off again, and again he swung at the first pitch. He didn’t hit it, but he did hit the second pitch, which bounced over Jose Bautista’s head. Had Bautista been playing further back, as he probably should have, he could have held Escobar to a single. Instead, the aggressive right fielder charged in at the ball, hoping to beat Escobar to first - only to have the ball carom past him. By the time he corralled it, Escobar was well on his way to third. Ben Zobrist followed with an RBI ground-out, and up two games to nothing the Royals were already jumping all over the Blue Jays, up 1-0 in the first. The Jays were in the brink of being run right out of the ALCS.

But they were widely believed to be the best team in baseball for a reason. The Jays rallied against Cueto in the second, scoring 3 runs. The Royals scored in the top of the third to draw within a run, but in the bottom of the third Cueto collapsed, again. A walk, a single, and then a home run busted the game wide open. The Jays fans mockingly began to chant Cueto’s name.Cueto spiralled into ineffectiveness and exited the game - the only pitcher in playoff history to give up 8 runs without making it through the third inning. In other words, it was the worst start by any pitcher in the 112 year history of the playoffs, ever.

To their credit, the Royals didn’t go down without a fight. In a 9-2 hole by the time the third ended thanks to Cueto, the Royals fought back. The Jays scored 3 more runs during the game off scattered home runs as their high-powered offense came to life, but Kansas City matched them. They grabbed two more runs in the 6th to make it 9-4, the Jays scored two more of their own to push it to 11-4, then in the 9th Jays fans got nervous. Cain and Hosmer each scored RBI hits and suddenly it was 9-6 as Kendrys Morales came to the plate. He destroyed the ball, it was 11-8, and suddenly the Jays weren’t quite so confident in their chances. They quickly pulled their weak reliever and put in their best closer, Roberto Osuna, to shut down the Royals’ rally. It was a moral victory for KC, but the Jays were quite happy to take the real victory.




Game 4 is usually the most important game in any 7-game series (after Game 7 and Game 1, of course). If the leading team wins, it becomes a 3-1 series and the loser has only the slimmest of chances to come back.* If the trailing team wins, the series is evened at 2-2 and it’s a best of 3 going forward. The Giants won Game 4 in 2014 to even the World Series up, and went on to win.

The Jays sent veteran RA Dickey to the mound, appearing in his first postseason ever despite nearly 20 years of service. The Royals countered with Chris Young, a risky move, given that the flyball-prone pitcher could easily become a home-run prone pitcher in the small Rogers Centre, against the explosive Jays. All signs were that it was going to be a nail-bitingly tense game after the previous 3.

The Royals made sure that didn’t happen.

Alcides Escobar led off (again), and he swung at the first pitch (again). This time he caught the Jays off guard by dropping a bunt, though, and before they could recover he was at first.

Now, R. A. Dickey is a knuckleball pitcher. The knuckleball (the name stems from the grip the pitcher uses) is a rarely used pitch, but it was Dickey’s signature. The ball veers and spins erratically as it comes towards the plate, making it very difficult to predict and for the hitter to square up on...if it works.

Dickey’s knuckleball that day wasn’t knuckling.

With Escobar on first, he pitched to Zobrist - who ambushed the ball and knocked it out of the park. 2-0 Royals and they hadn’t even recorded an out yet.



Nothing went right for Dickey and the Blue Jays to start Game 4 – after the bunt single and homer, Lorenzo Cain walked and stole second base, and Eric Hosmer singled to put men on the corners with no one out. Dickey finally threw a knuckleball with movement to Kendrys Morales – only it moved so much that it bounced off Russell Martin’s glove and ricocheted off the backstop. Martin made a great play to get to the ball and fire it to Dickey at the plate, but Cain was called safe to make it 3-0 Kansas City. The play was close enough that the Blue Jays challenged it, but replay ultimately upheld the call.




An out would have been a gift to a Jays team that really needed it, and had the Royals come away with only a 2-0 lead the Blue Jays would have very much been in the game. But instead it was 3-0, and thanks to the passed ball, Morales’ groundout to second base would move Hosmer to third instead of being a double play. That allowed Mike Moustakas to hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0 before the Blue Jays even batted. The Royals would add a run on Alex Rios’ homer in the 2nd, but Toronto would score two runs in the 3rd and have the tying run on deck as late as the 6th inning. If Cain had been called out at the plate, the game would have been a one-run affair after six innings, and the Royals might not have been able to feast off the soft underbelly of the Blue Jays’ bullpen for nine runs in the last three innings.

But Cain was safe, and they did. With the score 5-2 in the 7th, the Royals piled on. LaTroy Hawkins (one of the Jay’s star acquisitions at the trade deadline) put two men on with a walk and a single. Ryan Tepera gave up a sacrifice fly to Escobar (6-2), then threw a wild pitch and let in another run (7-2). Zobrist walked, Cain singled (8-2), and Hosmer hit a sacrifice fly (9-2).

In the next inning, Tepera loaded the bases, then let Escobar hit another sacrifice fly (10-2), reloaded the bases by walking Zobrist (again), then let Cain rifle another single (12-2). By the 9th inning, the Jays waved the white flag, and literally didn’t even bother using a pitcher. It’s true! To save their pitchers’ arms for hopefully better circumstances the next day, the Jays used a position player, Cliff Pennington, to pitch - the first time in playoff history any team did that. Pennington came in with 2 men on and 2 outs (Tepera had tried to get through the 9th), allowed a single to load the bases, then gave up one last single to Escobar. Final score, 14-2, Royals. It was an utterly dominant game for KC from start to finish. They took a 3-1 series lead and were one win away from returning to the World Series. The dream of redemption was so close, they could taste it.




Game 5 looked like a good chance. Volquez and Estrada tilted at each other again - in Game 1, Estrada had been unable to cope with the Royals, while Volquez had held the Jays scoreless through 6 (including that memorable 6th inning) as KC won 5-0. But today, the roles were reversed.

Volquez was strong through 5, as usual - the only run came off a Chris Colabello homer in the 2nd. But in the 6th, stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Yost left him in just a little too long. He walked Donaldson, then strike 3 on Bautista was called ball 4 instead to load the bases (3 of Volquez’s called balls in that at-bat were, in fact, strikes). Volquez, rattled, couldn’t find the strike zone and walked in a run, then was pulled in favor of Herrera, who allowed a bases-clearing double to Troy Tulowitzki as the Blue Jays blew the game wide open, 5-0.

Estrada, for his part, pitched a gem, allowing only a single home run to Perez in the 8th inning. The Jays added a pair of runs against Danny Duffy in the 7th and 8th innings, and they kept their season alive, winning 7-1.

The ALCS was going back to Kansas City, where it would feature the most climactic, tense, and controversial game of them all.

*But it does happen. The Chicago Cubs overcame a 3-1 lead to win the 2016 World Series, which makes up for their blowing a 3-1 lead to the Marlins in the 2003 NLCS. The Giants did it in the 2012 NLCS. The Red Sox have done it 3 times in the last 30 years, all in the ALCS - in 1986, 2004 (when they overcame a 3-0 series lead, the only team in history to have done so), and 2007. The 1985 Kansas City Royals overcame 3-1 deficits in both the ALCS and the World Series, the only team in history to do it twice in one season.