AL champion Kansas City Royals from 2014 recall great times (and tomato plants)

Among the revealing notes about the Kansas City Royals’ glory runs of 2014 and 2015 was their drumbeat of improvement.

Starting in 2009, when they lost 97 games and finished in fourth or fifth place in the AL Central for the six straight year, the Royals became the second team in baseball history to improve their victory total over the next six seasons.

With Ned Yost taking over in 2010, early triumphs were measured in small doses. But by 2013 the Royals were a winning ball club, with the next two teams finishing in the World Series.

The first of those championship squads, the 2014 Royals that rampaged through the American League playoffs and fell to the San Francisco Giants in a World Series Game 7 heart-breaker, is the subject of spotlight and adulation in Kansas City over the next few days.

Let the memories flow.

The AL Wild Card game triumph over the Oakland A’s, 9-8 in 12 innings — one of the most memorable games in Royals history — concluded with Salvador Perez’s base hit past third.

Perez’s game-winner touched off a wild Kauffman Stadium celebration.

“It really was an out-of-body experience,” former star first baseman Eric Hosmer said Thursday.

Next came the tone-setting AL Division Series Game 1 against the team with baseball’s best record, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Mike Moustakas’ 11th-inning home run won it and ignited a series sweep.

“I remember the homework I did that day, and I knew the pitcher (Fernando Salas) liked to go 1-1 (count) change-ups,” Moustakas, who anchored third base for the title years, said Thursday. “I was waiting for it. He threw it, and I hit it for a homer.”

More magic was in story in the AL Championship Series, as the Royals swept the Baltimore Orioles and became the first team to win their first eight playoff games in a postseason.

The franchise that hadn’t appeared in the playoffs in three decades was now in the World Series. And although the tying run, Alex Gordon, was left standing at third base when that World Series ended, the Royals had energized their fan base and an entire region.

“The way this city blew up was unbelievable,” former starting pitcher James Shields said.

Shields was one of the veteran additions — along with pitcher Wade Davis and outfielder Raul Ibanez — brought in by general manager Dayton Moore to influence a clubhouse teeming with young players.

Many of those younger players had came up through the Royals’ then-vaunted farm system, which had recently been rated No. 1 in all of the majors by Baseball America.

“What I remember is the caliber of players Dayton brought in,” Moustakas said. “They changed the culture of our clubhouse and changed how we went about our business.”

By 2014 and 2015, the Royals’ young talent was more fully developed and players like Hosmer, Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar, Greg Holland and Kelvin Herrera were All-Stars or were having their best seasons as major-leaguers.

“They grew together, they learned together,” Yost said.

The 2014 Royals got as far as they did despite hitting just 95 home runs — dead-last in baseball. Their lights-out bullpen, anchored by Herrera, Davis and Holland, all but assured the Royals would win any game in which they led by the sixth inning.

“Dayton said we couldn’t spend a lot of money on starting pitchers,” Yost said. “He said, ‘I’m going to try to build the best bullpen that I can for you.’ ... I didn’t realize how big an advantage that would give us.”

Eventually, all but Perez and Gordon moved on to other clubs, some landing huge contracts.

After 2017, Cain signed a five-year $80 million deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. Hosmer signed a club-record eight-year, $144 million contract with the San Diego Padres. And Moustakas’ four-year, $64 million deal for 2020 was the richest in Cincinnati Reds history.

These days, the former Royals are keeping a close eye on the current club, which takes a 26-19 record into a three-game series starting Friday against the A’s at Kauffman Stadium.

A year ago, the Royals lost 106 games. If these Royals aren’t exactly built like the team of a decade or so ago, there is at least some optimism that hasn’t been felt since then.

“These guys are going to grow and develop, but it takes time,” said Yost, who offered an analogy involving his tomato plants and patience.

“I water them, I take care of them and make sure they’re all doing fine and have enough fertilizer,” he said. “But no matter how hard I try, I can’t walk out there to my garden and start screaming at my tomatoes, ‘I want tomatoes now! Let’s grow!’

“No, tomatoes are going to be tomatoes when they’re tomatoes. Same way with players. They’re going to grow, they’re going to blossom and develop into All-Star-caliber players. But it takes time.”