Johnny Cueto’s two-hitter helps Royals take Game 2 from Mets

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kauffman Stadium may never feel better than this, not in 2015, not in a lifetime. For the inhabitants of this ballpark, stocked with a generation of Royals fans choked by 29 years without October and taunted by a silver medal in 2014, the pinnacle may have come in a 7-1 victory over the Mets in Game 2 of the World Series, when the lineup bloodied an opposing ace and incited a slew of standing ovations.

Savor this if you stood among the rain-soaked mass of 40,410 inside the stadium. Savor it if you joined the millions watching on television or huddling near a radio. Savor it if you spent years waiting for a Royals renaissance, because baseball might not be played again in Kansas City this season.

Baseball may disappear for the sweetest of reasons, because the Royals flew to New York on Wednesday night with a chance to spill champagne inside Citi Field for their first championship since 1985. The four-run fifth inning carried Kansas City to a 2-0 lead in this series. The rally acted like a season-long highlight reel in miniature, a collection of good fortune, well-placed hits and tenacious at-bats.

The Royals peppered Jacob deGrom, New York’s long-haired staff leader, with jabs and hooks. In three starts this October, deGrom yielded only four runs. The Royals managed that many in the fifth inning alone.

Trailing by a run when the frame began, Alcides Escobar failed to lay down a bunt, so he responded by tying the game with a two-strike single up the middle. Eric Hosmer pushed his club in front with a two-run knock. Mike Moustakas completed the flurry with an RBI single of his own.

In a fit of brilliance, Johnny Cueto protected the lead with the first two-hit complete game in the World Series since Greg Maddux twirled one for Atlanta in 1995. Cueto retired 15 batters in a row after giving up a run in the fourth. The ballpark showered him with adoration, a far cry from the derision he faced last week in Canada.

The actors are familiar. The events are familiar. It is all so familiar, the story of a juggernaut that rolled through the American League, absorbed a series of lights-out shots from the Astros in the first round, trounced Toronto in the next and now stand two victories away from a title.

To save their season, the Mets will turn to a pair of rookie pitchers. Noah Syndergaard, the Game 3 starter, is 22. Steven Matz, the Game 4 starter, has pitched in eight big-league games. New York must pray the two kids can do what deGrom and Matt Harvey, the relative veterans of the rotation could not: Upend the relentless offensive machine of the Royals.

In the buildup to this series, the marquee matchup appeared to be New York’s gas-wielding starters facing Kansas City’s gang of contact hitters. Neither Harvey nor deGrom missed many bats. Neither could handle the hitters during a third turn through the order. Neither received a lifeline from manager Terry Collins. Both wore losses.

Wednesday night lacked the drama of Wednesday morning, when the Royals finished off their 14-inning victory in Game 1. The contest tested the margins of the Royals roster and the depth of their collective will. The team required eight innings of relief pitching, including three from Game 4 starter Chris Young.

After the game ended, Ned Yost said he could not fall asleep until 4 a.m. He awoke around 6:30 a.m., unable to fall back asleep due to an invasion by his children and their spouses arriving at his home for breakfast.

“It’s kind of exhausting,” Yost said. “But it’s exhilarating at the same time.”

Cueto was one of the few fresh Royals. He watched the 14-inning marathon from the dugout. A few months earlier, when Cueto joined the club, he appeared a lock for the potential first game of the World Series. He tumbled far enough down the pitching hierarchy that the team configured its rotation around Cueto’s perceived weaknesses, not his potential strengths.

In his last two starts, Cueto reached a summit of greatness and followed up with a historic descent into the grotesque. He spun eight innings of two-run baseball against Houston to clinch the American League Division Series. Then he surrendered eight runs and could not collect an out in the third inning in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

The first start occurred at Kauffman Stadium. The second took place at Rogers Centre, where Cueto looked rattled by the relentless horde of Canadian fans. The Royals sensed a connection between the two disparate events, and aligned their World Series rotation so Cueto would not have to pitch at Citi Field.

The concession looks odd for a player of Cueto’s pedigree and resume. Yet it made sense given his enigmatic tenure in Kansas City. The team hoped by affording Cueto a chance to pitch at home, a ballpark he credits as a source of vitality. Perhaps, Kansas City’s reasoning went, spacious confines and a friendly crowd could assuage whatever ails him, be it contractual anxiety, worries about the health of his right elbow or a general lack of comfort.

In deGrom, Cueto found a worthy rival. The duo traded zeros at the start. Cueto faced the minimum through three innings. DeGrom saw 10 batters, but did not allow a hit.

Cueto personified efficiency during those three frames. He lost acquaintance with the strike zone in the fourth. Umpire Mark Carlson ceased giving Cueto the corners. A run resulted from it.

Curtis Granderson led off with a walk. Cueto threw three balls in a row to David Wright before Wright hit a foul pop-up. Daniel Murphy accepted a second walk to set the table for Yoenis Cespedes.

Cespedes sent a grounder hopping toward third base. Mike Moustakas stepped on the bag for one out. He could have ended the inning. But his throw yanked first baseman Eric Hosmer off his bag, his toe just inches away from a third out.

The replay looked inconclusive. Yost peered into his dugout, where bench coach Don Wakamatsu waited on the phone for a decision from the team’s replay coordinator, Bill Duplissea. The Royals decided not to challenge.

At times in Game 1, Kansas City unveiled an exaggerated defensive shift for Lucas Duda, New York’s left-handed, pull-hitting first baseman. Moustakas ventured over to the far side of second base. Duda still pulled a pair of hits through the defense. In the view of some team officials, he capitalized on the awkwardness of the alignment.

The Royals debated the merits of the shift heading into Game 2. Moustakas remained on the left side of third in Duda’s at-bat in the second, but Duda still threaded a single through the area vacated by shortstop Alcides Escobar. In Duda’s next at-bat, he found another way to vex the Royals. He flared a single over Moustakas’ head to score Murphy.

Kansas City answered in the fifth. The first man up was Alex Gordon. The night before, he conquered closer Jeurys Familia with a game-tying homer in the bottom of the ninth. Now he took a walk, and advanced to second on a single by Alex Rios.

Up came Escobar. In these situations, for years, he has dropped down bunts. He believes it is his responsibility to move the runners into scoring position, not to bring them home. But he could not square up deGrom, who fired a pair of fastballs to start.

Down two strikes, Escobar forced himself to hit. It was a wise choice. He rifled a hanging slider into center field and plated Gordon.

The pitch location from deGrom was a harbinger. He could not drive the baseball down toward the knees. The Royals feasted on him. As Mets lefty Jon Niese heated up in the bullpen, Collins stuck with deGrom against Hosmer. DeGrom threw another flat slider. Hosmer punched it into center for two runs.

Moustakas offered an exclamation point. In typical fashion, he did not provide thunder. Instead he pounced on a toothless curveball and threaded it through the infield to score Hosmer.

The Royals tacked on a trio of runs in the eighth, thanks to lackluster defending by the Mets. The fans pumped their fists and shredded their lungs. Inside this park, parties have raged all season long. The franchise shattered their record for attendance. The players overcame the stigma of being a one-year wonder.

So savor this night, just as you savored all the nights before it, through the long years and the lean years, through the heartbreak of last October. Savor the 2015 Royals. Because when the team returns to Kansas City next week, you may not see any baseball. You may have to settle for a parade.

This story was originally published October 28, 2015 at 10:12 PM with the headline "Johnny Cueto’s two-hitter helps Royals take Game 2 from Mets."