Is Johnny Cueto a polarizing guy with KC Royals fans? Toronto’s offense was simple too much to handle for Cueto.
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ALDS Game 5, October 14, 2015 vs. Houston: 8 innings, 2 hits, 2 runs, 2 earned runs, 0 walks, 8 strikeouts, 1 home run allowed. Really. His track record was great prior to becoming a member of a Kansas City Royals team that is now in a dogfight of an American League Championship Series with the Toronto Blue Jays. He was taken out by manager John Gibbons with a six run lead in the fifth inning.
There were two worse game scores among our original group of starters (seven runs or more allowed, less than three innings completed in a postseason start). “It’s just part of the game and I will be ready for the seventh game”. Nobody would have predicted such a short, and awful outing though.
Just a year ago, while playing for the Reds, Cueto went the distance. His game score was nine. He appeared in a career-high 243 innings, struck out 242, and posted a 2.25 ERA. If Young pitches well and leads KC to the win tonight, the jokes (all with Cueto as the punchline) will never end.
When it comes to the postseason though, when Cueto’s pitching is needed the most, he does not seem to deliver. It was the first time in playoff history a pitcher allowed both eight earned runs and 11 baserunners in two or fewer innings pitched.
If Cueto cannot redeem himself in his next start, it could be very costly for the Royals, if there chance advancing in the playoffs is not already gone.
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Johnny Cueto has struggled with the Kansas City Royals, but that may not keep the Boston Red Sox from making a run at him in free agency this winter. “He was up all night long. They got his pitch count up and he just couldn’t make an adjustment”.
