While Cueto was brought in to be the staff ace, he was disappointing until Wednesday. Johnny Cueto came out the gate dealing, retiring the Astros’ best hitters in order on just 11 pitches. “I told my team mates I was going to show up today and get this done today”. “And that’s what (I) did”. The Royals did something that had never happened in a century of playoff baseball twice in 54 weeks.
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Fire Chief Paul Berardi said two other firefighters were injured Monday night as the massive fire engulfed the building comprising businesses and apartments on the city’s northeast side.
At the forefront of that push was Cueto, the 29-year-old Dominican whose free agent season was going swimmingly until he joined Kansas City. Toronto would play the rest of the game under protest, but Bautista’s second home run of the series erased any chance of more complaints from the Blue Jays and their fans. Jose Bautista had two hits with a double and a home run, while Edwin Encarnacion had a home run in the game.
They have relievers named Sipp and Gregerson, which makes me think of taking a sip of Gregerson. “I’m still struggling with that”, said Royals owner David Glass. It was down and he put a good swing on it. He was better than me that at-bat.
Kansas City closer Wade Davis worked a flawless ninth to set up a thunderous roar before 40,566 fans.
As a Cincinnati Red from 2011 through this year’s non-waiver trading deadline, Johnny Cueto posted a 2.51 ERA and 156 ERA+ with both marks second only to Clayton Kershaw among all pitchers with 500 or more innings over that stretch.
On the next pitch, Valbuena sent his two-run homer into the Astros’ bullpen.
The Houston Astros won 86 games, a 16-game improvement over last season, and made the postseason for the first time since 2006. In the bottom of the second, Houston picked up a run quickly. Starter Collin McHugh had struck out just two Royals in 10-plus innings in this series, so Hinch decided he needed to go to his bullpen in that spot. A hit batter, ground rule double from Sal Perez and Alex Gordon. Astros manager A.J. Hinch should have gone with southpaw Tony Sipp to face Rios (.229 average in regular season vs. lefties). Mike Fiers relieved, and Rios sent a double bouncing down the chalk of the third-base line, scoring two.
Royals – Yordano Ventura (13-8, 4.08 ERA in regular season), Cueto (4-7, 4.76 ERA with KC), Edinson Volquez (13-9, 3.55 ERA) and Kris Medlen (6-2, 4.01 ERA). He also got bashed for four runs in six innings by the Astros three games earlier in the best-of-five Division Series.
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“It hurts”, Astros right fielder George Springer said.
