Volquez said he was in a lot of pain as his eyes welled with tears while he attended his father’s memorial service a day before the funeral. “Last year we took a 2-1 lead in San Francisco and were feeling pretty good about ourselves”.
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Cueto never faltered. And as deGrom wore down, the Royals pounced.
Cueto delivered mediocre results for the Royals and was battered by the Blue Jays on the road in the playoffs, giving up eight runs in two innings.
Royals manager Ned Yost couldn’t have been happier with Cueto’s performance.
Kansas City grabbed a 2-0 lead in Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven final, which shifts to New York for games three and four on Friday and Saturday.
It was the first time deGrom, who was replaced by Hansel Robles in the sixth, had given up more than two runs in a playoff game. Good things have happened for Kansas City by simply putting the ball in play.
Daniel Murphy walked and Yeonis Cespedes advanced him on a fielder’s choice.
“We’re going to ask him to step up and carry us through seven innings and I think he can do it”, Collins said. “You got to move it around, you’ve got to change speeds, you’ve got to give them something else to look at”. “You have got to keep your foot on the gas and keep pushing”. “He’d already showered and I said, ‘What’s going on?’ He told me and I couldn’t put words to it, man”.
Ironically, Cueto has two brothers that look like him.
Out came Johnny Cueto, the toast of this town, and he hopped over the first-base line, did a little shimmy-shake and went out to the mound he had owned for the previous eight innings. “Johnny had done his job at that point”. He kept the ball down. It was just a spectacular performance.
“That’s what they brought me here for, was to help win a World Series”, Cueto said.
Alcides Escobar, Royals Shortstop:”He attacked early”.
“You’ve got to tip your cap”.
The Royals do not strike out much and the Mets pitchers thrive on strikeouts and right now the hitters are winning that battle.
The odds aren’t that bad: In Series history, 53 teams have lost the first two games; 11 of them still went on to take the championship. What he left unsaid was the risk of starting Cueto away from home, where his comfort and focus seem to suffer.
“It’s unbelievable, the way he finished, ” Perez said. “He feels more comfortable at home”.
“I just jumped around like a 12-year-old kid”, he said. Cueto is the first AL pitcher since 1967 to give up only two hits in a complete game. But hours before Game 2 began, Breuer – still groggy from watching all five hours and 14 innings of Game 1 – was understandably optimistic that deGrom would be able to pitch New York right back into this series.
After Zobrist grounded out to first, moving Rios and Escboar into scoring position, Lorenzo Cain lined out to center.
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Eric Hosmer stroked a two-run single in the fifth that broke a 1-1 tie. The inning included Gordon’s run-producing double, an Escobar RBI triple and a Paulo Orlando sacrifice fly.
