The Royals defeated the Athletics 9-8 in 12 innings in one of the great postseason games in my lifetime.  Kansas City came down from a 7-3 deficit entering the bottom of the 8th to force extras by scoring 3 in the 8th and the tying run in the 9th.  Then, after Oakland scored to take an 8-7 lead in the top of the 12th, the Royals rebounded with 2 runs in the bottom half for the dramatic victory in front of the home fans.

It was a storybook ending for the Royals, but if you clicked on the MLB.com game recap, you saw another story.  A much sadder story if you’re a Royals fan.

MLB.com inadvertently published an earlier version of the game recap that had the game ending with a 7-6 Oakland victory after 9 innings.

A jammed-in crowd shook Kauffman Stadium with blue thunder, releasing its pent-up passion after 28 dry years, trying to push the Royals to another great moment in their return to postseason play. It didn’t happen.

Not that the Royals didn’t give the 40,502 fans jolts of joy, taking an early lead before Oakland’s five-run outburst in the sixth inning pointed the Athletics to a 7-6 victory in the American League Wild Card Game on Tuesday night. Brandon Moss was the main culprit, cracking two home runs for five RBIs. Jon Lester pitched the victory.

The A’s, not Kansas City’s first playoff team since 1985, advance to the American League Division Series against the Los Angeles Angels beginning on Thursday at Anaheim. The Royals’ season is over.

And here it is in screencap form since it’s likely to disappear.

How does that happen?!?!

Yes, it looked like the Royals season was going to be over for a while tonight, but that’s why they play the games on the field and not reporters’ laptops.  Thank goodness the game didn’t end when writers working on deadline and hoping to quickly publish their game stories thought it might.

Here’s the alternate version of the MLB.com recap for Royals-Athletics in picture form, where Bud Selig declares the game a tie because it goes past his bedtime.

bud