The AL Central Clinch 1 Year Later
Exactly one year ago on Saturday, September 24, the Kansas City Royals became division champions for the first time since the 1985 season. That piece of information proved foreshadowing, as that year of course was the last time the Royals had won the World Series and they would go on to become World Champions in 2015.
For several of those alums, it wasn't the first division title they had ever won. Outfielder Lorenzo Cain was part of the 2011 Storm Chasers team that won the American Northern Division en route to the club's first Pacific Coast League championship.
Infielder Eric Hosmer also helped Omaha clinch the American Northern Division while on a Major League Rehab Assignment with the franchise in 2014, even recording a walk-off single on August 30 that moved the Storm Chasers into a first place tie for the division. He homered the very next night in the division clinching victory.
As was the case throughout the 2015 season, former Storm Chasers players made a big impact in the Royals' AL Central Division clinching 10-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners on September 24, 2015. Six alums combined for 12 hits in 25 at-bats that evening, including five extra-base hits, while scoring seven runs and driving in eight RBI.
| Player | Years w/ Omaha | H-AB | R | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB |
| Lorenzo Cain | 2011-12, 14, 16 | 2-5 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Alex Gordon | 2009-10, 15-16 | 1-4 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Eric Hosmer | 2011, 14 | 2-4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Mike Moustakas | 2010-11,14 | 3-3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | |
| Salvador Perez | 2011-12 | 1-4 | 1 | |||||
| Alex Rios | 2015 | 3-5 | 1 | 2 |
Hosmer (2-4, 2 R, 2B, HR, RBI) and fellow infielder Mike Moustakas (3-3, 3 R, 2B, HR, 3 RBI, 2 BB) each collected two extra-base hits, including a solo homer apiece, with Moustakas reaching base five times. Moustakas' longball came in the second to push the Royals ahead 2-1, while Hosmer's big fly in the fifth evened the contest at 3-3.
The key hit of the game would then come in the sixth inning courtesy of Cain, who slapped a go-ahead two-run single in that frame to give the Royals a lead they would not relinquish.
Kansas City would pour it on from there thanks to a pair of RBI knocks from Alex Rios in the seventh and eighth frames, while Moustakas added his second and third RBIs with a single to center. Royals cyborg closer Wade Davis would then close out the ninth inning to give the Royals their division title.
And the rest, as they say, is history. The comebacks over the Houston Astros in the ALDS, Cain scoring from first on a single to right thanks to a brilliant send from third base coach and previous longtime Omaha skipper Mike Jirschele as part of a wild ALCS, and Hosmer's game-tying scamper home before Christian Colon's clutch 12th-inning hit in the World Series.
It all led to the Royals franchise's first World Series Championship since 1985, after the franchise's first division crown since 1985.