Greg Holland arrives late to ALDS after son’s birth, still gets Game 1 save

What a week it’s been for Kansas City Royals closer Greg Holland, who spent Tuesday night running around Kauffman Stadium with a giant Royals flag after his team knocked off the Oakland A’s in the AL wild-card game.

The Royals advanced to the ALDS where they’d play the Los Angeles Angels, but while his teammates traveled to Anaheim, Holland took an overnight flight home to North Carolina. His wife, Lacey, was giving birth to their first child and Greg wanted to be there. Nash Gregory Holland was born at about 9 p.m. Wednesday. Daddy called him a “playoff baby.”

Oh, yeah, the playoffs! Holland got to know his first born briefly, then jumped on a plane Thursday destined for Anaheim. Turned out Holland was late. He didn’t get to ballpark until the sixth inning, so Game 1 going into extras might have helped him a little.

After teammate Mike Moustakas hit a go-ahead homer in the 11th inning to give the Royals a 3-2 lead, Holland got the ball in the bottom of the 11th. He struck out Gordon Beckham and Erick Aybar then got Josh Hamilton to pop out. The Royals won and Holland — a 28-year-old playing in his first postseason — earned his first career save in the playoffs.

To recap: His team won what was probably the most thrilling baseball game on the season Tuesday, he became a dad for the first time Wednesday and he saved his first playoff game Thursday.

Someone get this man a cigar, stat.

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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz