On Friday, Sept. 26, 2014, the Royals ended a 29-year playoff drought with a 3-1 win over the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.

With a popup near home plate, Salvador Perez caught Greg Holland’s 46th save of the season. More importantly, it secured postseason baseball for the Royals for the first time since 1985. Royals Hall of Famer George Brett joined hundreds of Royals fans in Chicago for the historic occasion.

“What a team. What a season. What a relief.
The Kansas City Royals are off the hook and headed back to the postseason.”

Ryan Lefebvre, Royals commentator

The Royals would then embark on two remarkable postseason runs with the same core group of players.

That group consisted of Perez, Holland, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Jarrod Dyson, Danny Duffy and Kelvin Herrera who played together in the Royals farm system and were later joined by Lorenzo Cain.

This core made it to the majors in 2010 and 2011 at the same time as when Alex Gordon moved from an underwhelming third baseman to one of the best left-fielders in baseball. They were bred to be winners after winning titles at every level in the minor leagues.

“When they arrived here, they said that they were going to do the same thing,” Royals Hall of Famer director Curt Nelson said. “It took a little while, it didn’t happen overnight.”

The big year was supposed to be 2012, but it did not work out. Progress became apparent in 2013 when the Royals finished the season with a winning record for the first time in a decade.

By the end of 2013, the core was very tight because they had been together for so many years. They simply would not accept losing because they had won so much together in the minor leagues.

The Royals finally arrived as a wild card team in 2014. Following an extravagating win over the Athletics in the Wild Card game, the Royals swept the Angels and Orioles before falling to the Giants in the World Series.

This Royals team was different because they had been together for so long. Their innocence meant the only option they had was to get back to the World Series and win the following year.

The team was filled with energetic athletes that didn’t hit many home runs but were ruthless when they got on base. Defensively, the Royals were as good as it got.

“That’s what makes them a little bit different than some teams,” Nelson said. “They had played together for quite a while and had won at various levels.”

In 2015, the Royals beat the Astros and Blue Jays before defeating the Mets to claim the franchise’s second-ever World Series title.

“An amazing time in Royals history to watch all of that happen,” Nelson said.

With so many late runs in the playoffs, the Royals could never be counted out.

That was never more true than in game five of the World Series, in which the Royals were up three games to one. Down 2-0, the Royals came back to tie it up after Hosmer dashed home and capitalized on an errant throw. A five-run 12th led the Royals to World Series glory.

Leading the Royals through this era was manager Ned Yost. Yost showed great patience with his players, sticking with them when times were tough.

“One of his key skills was being able to manage a clubhouse and believe in his players,” Nelson said. “He would show his belief in them, which in turn would give them the power to believe in what they were doing.”

This Royals era defied the odds by playing their own style of baseball, altering away from the big home run ball. The starting rotation was good enough to set up the phenomenal Royals bullpen with three closer-quality pitchers available in the final three innings.