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By midseason, Gordon was receiving accolades for being one of the best hitting prospects in baseball. He participated in the Texas League All-Star game and was selected for the 2006 All-Star Futures Game. Declining to play for Team USA in 2006, Gordon led the Wichita Wranglers to the Texas League playoffs. He performed well in his first full minor league season, and won the Texas League Player of the Year Award and Baseball America's and Topps Minor League Player of the Year Award after the season ended. He also was named the MLB.com Double-A Offensive Player of the Year.
He had thrown 9 2/3 shutout innings this postseason entering Game 1, tallying five saves. Gordon's home run off Toronto reliever Ryan Tepera broke a mark set in 2000 at the height of the Steroids Era. The drive, which drove in the last run in the Royals' 5-2 loss, was his eighth this season and the 159th of his 11-year big league career.
Alex Gordon hits MLB's record-setting 5,694th HR of season
Gordon had just come off a seven-hit double header the night before against the Rays in which he hit a double and a home run. The injury prevented Gordon from playing in the 2015 All-Star game, being replaced on the All-Star roster by Brett Gardner. At the time of the injury, Gordon had a .280 batting average and had hit 11 home runs. On September 2, Gordon was activated from the DL and went 2-for-3, with an RBI and run scored against the Detroit Tigers .
The Royals remain undefeated this postseason after toppling the Orioles 8-6 in 10 innings in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series. The game marked the fourth time in five games that Kansas City has played into extra innings, with three of them coming on the road, including Game 1 in Baltimore. Five days before Gordon’s ninth-greatest hit, Gordon smacked his fifth-greatest hit.
MLB Home Runs Hit by Alex Gordon | Baseball Almanac
However, Britton and O’Day wriggled out of the jam via ground balls off the bats of Eric Hosmer (a force-out at home) and Billy Butler (an inning-ending double play). Fortunately for the Royals, the relief pitching of Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis, who combined to record 12 straight outs after De Aza’s game-tying single off Finnegan, gave the Royals all the chances they needed to take the lead. Gordon was drafted in 2005 by the Kansas City Royals with the second pick overall, becoming the highest draft pick out of Nebraska since Darin Erstad was selected with the first pick of the 1995 Major League Baseball draft. He hit 29 home runs and stole 22 bases with an on-base plus slugging over 1.000 in his first full season in minor league baseball with the Double-A Wichita Wranglers.
Down 5-4 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, Rick Ankiel and Willie Bloomquist at the corners, and a 1-0 count, Gordon came through. Orioles pitcher Alfredo Simon tossed a mistake pitch up in the zone. He sent it into the home bullpen, ending the game 7-5 in favor of the Boys in Blue. The uptick in home runs began in the second half of 2015 and led to much speculation as to what has caused the barrage of home runs.
Gordon Hits MLB Season's Record 5,694th Home Run
Without it, Royals fans wouldn't have hung around for more than five hours of baseball, and left Kauffman Stadium both exhilarated and exhausted. "I didn't know he had a quick pitch until he did it to Salvy," said Gordon. To ground out leading off the inning, Gordon picked up on Familia's tendency to use a quick pitch. "You're not going to make a whole lot of money hitting the ball on the ground in this league because the defenders are so quick and athletic. You've got to get the ball in the air, I think, if you're going to be successful." Holding the ball he hit over the right-field wall, Gordon said he didn't plan to keep the historic memento or anything else from the game. Gordon said he heard talk of the record on a clubhouse television after Toronto's Darwin Barney homered in the sixth.
On Opening Day, 2008 , Gordon hit a two-run home run off Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander. During his teen years, Gordon played American Legion Baseball. He won the organization's Graduate of the Year award in 2015. They were bad, yes, but they were interesting and full of future playoff stars. Unfortunately, the bullpen malfunctioned in this one, and Omar Infante hit a weak popup to end the game as a 4-3 loss.
Gordon won eight Gold Glove Awards, four Fielding Bible Awards, and a Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award, all after the move to the outfield. On January 22, 2020, he signed a one-year, $4 million contract to remain with the Royals for the 2020 season. On September 24, Gordon announced that he would retire from baseball at the conclusion of the 2020 season. His final career game was on September 27 against the Detroit Tigers, and received one at-bat in which he struck out to lead off the bottom of the first inning, his first leadoff appearance since April 2017.
Gordon finished the season with a .260 batting average and 16 home runs and led the Royals with 66 walks. However, he made the most errors and had the lowest fielding percentage (.955) of all American League third basemen in 2008. Gordon attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, majoring in criminal justice and playing third base for the university's baseball team. He was also an ESPY Award Finalist for the Best Male College Athlete. Over the course of his collegiate career, he posted a .355 career batting average, with 44 home runs and 189 runs batted in and finished in the top ten in eight different offensive statistical categories at Nebraska. Additionally, Gordon was named the Big 12 Conference Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005 and was named to the First Team All-Big 12 Team in 2004 and 2005.
I would like to make a formal complaint to MLB Video at this point. Their older video content no longer exists, and as a result you are unable to witness the event that led to an 80% (!!!!) swing in win probability, a totally insane number. It was Gordon’s first season, and the iPhone had just been released. Additionally, there is no video of this, so you’re just gonna have to close your eyes and picture it in your mind’s eye. KANSAS CITY -- Without it, the Royals wouldn't have been jumping for joy near home plate.
Against a pitcher larger than life, in a moment larger than life. For a moment, it brought back the magic, even against the wizard who calmed it. History has been kind to Gordon and third base coach Mike Jirschele, as Kansas City’s 2015 World Series win has alleviated the “what if” factor of this play. History has also made watching this play more tolerable, letting us focus on just how bonkers it was rather than dwell on the pain of the next plate appearance. WPA is a measure of the difference in win probability before and after an event. If the team’s win probability before a hit is 40% and the win probability after a hit is 50%, for instance, the hit’s WPA is .10, because it added 10% to the overall win probability.
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