Enough of the pussyfooting, the passivity, the willful restraint. Toronto became only the third team to win a best-of-five ALDS after losing the first two games at home. “Tomorrow we will come back and do a lot of prep work for Toronto and they are a great team and we will have to be prepared”.
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And then came Game 5 last night, which would determine whether Game 4 would actually matter or just be a fond memory.
He allowed just two hits, a single by Evan Gattis followed by Luis Valbuena’s second-inning homer, before retiring the final 19 batters he faced.
“He showed up in the biggest moment”, Royals pitching coach Dave Eiland said.
Last night, the Astros had a lead again, 2-0.
Still, the Royals trailed 2-1 in the fifth before Alex Rios led a comeback with a go-ahead, two-run double. “I’m still struggling with that”. “We didn’t get a baserunner after the second, is that right?” Zobrist held up his end.
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. The Royals had every reason to be concerned over whether or not he could be relied upon in the postseason.
Cueto grounded the Astros with a pinpoint fastball and diving slider. This was the old Cueto, the good Cueto, the sort for whom teams earlier this year were clamoring to lavish with more than $100 million come the winter. He knew Rasmus couldn’t. His bullpen fared little better just two days after it blew a four-run, eighth-inning lead to send the series back to Kauffman Stadium for Game 5.
Berardi said the cause of the fire did not appear to be suspicious but that a response team from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would help with the investigation. The Royals had traded three top left-handed pitching prospects for Cueto, who’s a free agent after the season, for precisely a game like this.
“He threw me two good breaking pitches that I should’ve hit out and I missed ’em”, Morales said.
I’m sympathetic to those fans’ position, except for the one key difference between the Royals and Cardinals: This iteration of the Royals hasn’t won a championship yet.
On Monday, ALCS game 3 will be at Rogers Centre in Toronto.
But with Wade Davis available to pitch the ninth, there was no sense in even tempting fate. By my book. I thought the crowd got behind him, and he pitches with emotion. “Joh-nny Cue-to”.
“Games like this is where you see the real Johnny Cueto”, the stocky 29-year-old said through an interpreter.
“Royals players celebrate on the field after their 7-2 win in Game 5 of their NLDS series with the Astros”. And it so happens they’re good at a very fun brand of baseball.
– Cueto, Ventura, and Volquez all have games with at least eight strikeouts this postseason – Kansas City had three such games total in their postseason appearances prior to 2015.
It was vintage Royals offense.
By dominating the regular season in 2015 nearly as thoroughly as they dominated the AL playoffs in 2014, leading the AL Central nearly wire-to-wire and finishing with the best record in the league, they had already proved that they weren’t a one-hit wonder. But their surprise run to the playoffs will provide scant consolation when the sun comes up Thursday and there’ll be no game to play, or workout to attend, or video game competition on the clubhouse sofa.
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What was the deal with the other Johnny Cueto?
