Bob Lutz: Johnny Cueto’s critics the only ones silenced in KC’s Game 5 win

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Last year, Kansas City’s resident baseball villain heading into the postseason was Royals manager Ned Yost.

He didn’t have a friend, except for every real-estate agent in town.

But Yost somehow got the Royals through an improbable wild-card win over Oakland and all the way to Game 7 of the World Series. His reward was a white hat to replace the black one he had worn out.

That black hat was later fitted for right-hander Johnny Cueto after a late-July trade with the Cincinnati Reds that brought Cueto to Kansas City to be the Royals’ ace. Cueto hit a rough patch, which isn’t doing justice to rough patches. He looked like he belonged in Triple-A for much of August and September and was just so-so in his first AL Division Series start last Friday against the Houston Astros.

It was with frayed nerves that Royals fans packed into Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday night to watch KC try to build on its miraculous eighth-inning comeback against Houston on Monday and wrap up the series in a deciding fifth game.

Frayed nerves because Cueto was on the hill. And regardless of everything he did with the Reds to become an All-Star and one of the best pitchers in the National League.

Kansas City’s fans don’t trust this guy, who was 4-7 with a 4.76 ERA after the trade.

That was then, this is now.

Cueto pitched one of the best games in Royals history Wednesday. Take away an infield hit that should have been an error, followed by a Luis Valbuena home run, and Cueto might have spun a perfect game.

He was that good.

Cueto made the Astros impotent. He mowed through Houston hitters, walking none and striking out eight. Houston struggled to get a ball out of the infield and when they did, it wasn’t done with much gusto.

And the Royals flashed the leather. Left fielder Alex Gordon made a diving catch of a Jose Altuve pop fly in foul territory for the second out of the sixth inning, and second baseman Ben Zobrist leaped to grab Carlos Correa’s soft liner for the first out in the seventh. With Wade Davis on the mound, Paulo Orlando banged into the right-field fence to catch George Springer’s shot for the game’s final out.

After 29 years of baseball futility in Kansas City, now the fun never stops. The Royals are back in the AL Championship Series and will face Toronto – those offensive monsters from north of the border – in Game 1 on Friday night at Kauffman Stadium.

The Royals have a knack for never being out of a game and had the Astros right where they wanted them by falling behind 2-0 early.

The Royals hitters take good at-bats, and they scored a run in the fourth because Houston center fielder Carlos Gomez fell down after fielding an Eric Hosmer single that allowed Lorenzo Cain, off and running on a 3-2 pitch, to score standing up from first base.

But the party really didn’t start until the fifth, when Alex Rios of all people drove a grounder dowin the third-base line that scored the tying and go-ahead runs. Rios scored on Zobrist’s sacrifice fly and Kendrys Morales’ three-run shot off of Dallas Keuchel – why he was out there we may never fully understand – capped the scoring in the eighth.

But the star of this show was Cueto, whose time in Kansas City started with promise. Through his first four starts for the Royals, he allowed only six earned runs in 30 innings and spun a four-hit shutout against the Detroit Tigers.

Then Cueto mysteriously lost it. Lost it big time.

His ERA ballooned. His pitching persona – all the gyrations and orchestrations – began to irritate people, who expressed their disdain and called the trade, in which the Royals dealt three young left-handed pitchers to the Reds, a botched effort by Royals general manager Dayton Moore.

Cueto, a free agent to be after this season, was not what the Royals expected when they opened the box.

Wednesday, though, those in the loud sellout crowd were chanting his name. “Cue-to, Cue-to, Cue-to.” They would have showered him with gold if they’d had any.

Cueto had retired 19 straight Astros and thrown 91 pitches, 62 of them strikes, when Yost called on Davis to pitch the ninth.

Hard to argue with any decision to bring Davis into a game. But it would have been nice to see Cueto pitch to a batter, then bask in what would have been one of the most incredible ovations in Royals history as he strode to the dugout.

Cueto went from bad to good in the course of eight superb innings Wednesday. He’s a Royal now, through and through.

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 10:49 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Johnny Cueto’s critics the only ones silenced in KC’s Game 5 win."