KANSAS CITY, Mo. – This is when you know you’ve reached a certain level of reputation: Buck Showalter was at the pitcher’s mound of Detroit’s Comerica Park on Sunday, his team nursing a 2-1 lead with a man on second and one out in the bottom of the ninth. All four of his infielders were there. So was his catcher. And, of course, his closer, Zach Britton.

“We’re going to walk this guy,” Showalter told his troops, as recalled not long after by third baseman Ryan Flaherty, “and the next guy’s going to hit into a double play, and we’re gonna go home.”

Naturally, this is precisely what happened: Britton issued four balls to Nick Castellanos. The “next guy,” pinch hitter Herman Perez, hit into a double play. And the Orioles went home with that 2-1 win and a 3-0 ALDS victory and home-field advantage in the AL Championship Series, which starts Friday at Camden Yards.

And here’s the thing. The first item that was ever etched into “The Book,” that mystical, unpublished tome that legislates the essential do’s and don’ts of the game, is this: Never – ever – willingly put the winning run on base. This is sacrosanct. And yet: There was Showalter, flaunting The Book, all but ditching it in a fire pit.

And even before Perez went 5-4-3, Buck was being praised for it. By the television announcers. By the Twitterati. By everyone. Why? Because he’s Buck Showalter, strategic mastermind, and if he is the one thinking outside the box then of course it’s the right thing to do.

And, not incidentally: It worked.

That’s the funny thing about baseball managers. In any other sport we care about in this country, coaching matters, and it matters either a little (hockey) or a lot (basketball) or in just about every aspect worth mentioning (football). Coaches affect every game in those sports. If you have a good one, if you can check that box in matchup pairings, you have a huge advantage.

And if you have a mismatch?

Then that may well be the fundamental determining factor, the defining difference between teams obviously good enough to reach the same playoff plateau.

The coming ALCS is, being kind, a managerial mismatch. On the one hand is Showalter, who has been the singular driving force behind the Baltimore renaissance, who has managed to shrug off brutal losses to a third of his regular lineup – Matt Wieters, Manny Machado, Chris Davis – and does something every game that puts the O’s in position to win.

On the other is Ned Yost, once fired with less than two weeks to go in a season when his Brewers were in first place, and that may seem like a harsh sentence unless you watch Yost work every day. Put it this way: There are more than a few Mets fans whose eyes are scarred from watching Terry Collins grapple with The Book and other daily items of managerial whim. Collins, who is a fine day-to-day keeper of clubhouses, is less proficient at the in-game moments that occur every day.

And Yost makes Collins look like Muggsy McGraw.

Don’t take my word for it. Go onto any Royals’ fan’s timeline and see the tortured reactions to inexplicable bunts and hard-to-fathom substitutions. Go to YouTube and re-watch Pedro Martinez’ epic takedown after Yost brought young Yordano Ventura into the wild-card game last week after a total of one relief appearance in his career – and that was after the Royals secured their most glorious victory in 29 years.

Yes, for a while last week, to quote an old “M*A*S*H” line: Yost was the toast of the Coast, because it seemed he was helping the A’s more than their own manager was.

Only … look who’s still playing.

And look who’s still managing.

And look, it’s the nature of the beast that when bad managers make bad moves – if it were Yost or Collins walking the winning run Sunday in Detroit – it probably would’ve taken about 20 seconds for that winning run to come frolicking across the plate.

Or maybe it wouldn’t. Baseball is fickle that way. Showalter is smart; what was even more helpful than wisdom Sunday was Nelson Cruz’s game-winning home run. Yost is not-so-smart – but that mattered not a whit when Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas – three building blocks delivered after decades of woe – hit a bases-clearing double, a take-that two-run homer and a start-the-party solo shot, respectively, in the Royals’ Sunday night clincher.

If Showalter were playing Yost in chess, the Orioles would be the no-brainer pick (especially since poor Ned would probably think they were playing checkers). If they were coaching football teams? It would be Lombardi versus Kotite, and as Bum Phillips said: “He can take his’n and beat your’n; and take your’n and beat his’n.”

But it’s not chess. It’s not football. It’s baseball. The O’s get a huge checkmark in that box. They’ll still need a little more than that.