If you look at the recent trend of world series winning teams, they tend to be led by a strong rotations, not unlike this year's New York Mets. I guess the 2015 Royals didn't get the memo. Despite a regular season rotation ERA of 4.34 which ranked 22nd in baseball, the Royals find themselves up 2-0 in the series on the Mets.
Trade deadline acquisition Johnny Cueto pitched like the ace the Royals have been expecting him to be, tossing a complete game with just one run allowed on two hits and two walks. The Royals needed Cueto to step up this postseason after pitching to a ghastly 5.58 ERA during the final month of the regular season. Aside from one blowup outing at Toronto during the ALCS, Cueto has done just that, turning in his best postseason outing to date in tonight's win.
Needless to say, the Royals hitters have to feel ecstatic that they were able to best Jacob deGrom tonight. DeGrom's lights out performance in the postseason prior to tonight played a major factor in my decision to favor the Mets in this series. I envisioned a similar scenario unfolding as last year's World Series, when the Royals simply could not overcome the sheer dominance of Giants ace Madison Bumgarner.
Through the first four innings, that appeared to be the case, as deGrom cruised into the 5th inning with a 1-0 lead. The Royals hitters wouldn't back down from the challenge he presented though and their aggressive approach at the plate paid off with a big four run inning in the bottom half of the fifth.
Alcides Escobar continued his scorching hot postseason with an RBI single that tied the game. Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas followed with RBI singles to put Kansas City ahead 4-1.
The Royals added three more runs in the eighth but Cueto had more than enough run support by then as he cruised through the final innings to the first World Series complete game since 1995 in dominant fashion. The key to his success tonight was his ability to keep the Mets hitters off balance with his funky stop-start release of the baseball along with consistently pounding the lower half of the zone to induce weak contact. The Royals defense did their part as usual, playing an error free game behind him.
After two games, the Royals find themselves in the drivers seat, especially heading to New York on Friday with a rested bullpen after tonight's complete game effort from Cueto. After 30 years of waiting since their last division title and subsequent World Series win, Royals fans have to be feeling good about their chances this time around. We'll see how the Mets respond in New York.