Written by Ian Caseelberry at Bloguin
Since Johnny Cueto joined the Kansas City Royals after the trade deadline, the team and its fans have been waiting to see the pitcher who was one of the best in MLB during the past four-and-a-half seasons. He finally showed himself when the Royals needed him most, with their season on the line in a decisive Game 5 of the ALDS at Kauffman Stadium.
Cueto hadn’t looked like much of an ace in his previous 14 starts with Kansas City. In the regular season, he compiled a 4.76 ERA with 101 hits allowed in 81.1 innings, along with only 56 strikeouts. In September (and one start in October), Cueto’s ERA was 5.58, including 56 hits and 12 walks allowed in 40.1 innings. The Royals had every reason to be concerned over whether or not he could be relied upon in the postseason.
Those doubts weren’t erased in Game 2 of the ALDS versus the Astros, in which Cueto gave up four runs, seven hits and three walks in seven innings. But Kansas City obviously got Cueto for a reason, to be the man to put on the mound in a do-or-die game, to be the No. 1 guy that could shut down the opposition and carry his team into the next round of the playoffs and beyond.
Early on, it looked as if Cueto might slip up again when Luis Valbuena cranked a two-run homer off him in the second inning. Yet the home team falling behind didn’t take the Kauffman Stadium crowd out of the game at all. And though the Royals were down 2-0, it felt like it was only a matter of time before they came back to tie the score and take the lead (which they did in the fifth inning) because Cueto was invincible from that point on.
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