The Kansas City Royals offense continues to do its damage in bunches. Their latest rally has them just two games away from a World Series title.
After falling behind 1-0 on a Lucas Duda RBI single in the fourth, the Royals put together a four-run burst in the bottom of the fifth to seize momentum right back from the New York Mets and pull ahead to stay in a 7-1 victory in Wednesday's Game 2 of the World Series.
That offensive outburst was backed by a true postseason gem for Kansas City starter Johnny Cueto who went the distance and gave up just two weak hits (both to Lucas Duda) and three walks. Cueto kept Mets hitters off balance all night long, perplexing them with his various wind-up twitches and, more importantly, keeping his stuff down and out of Mets hitters' wheelhouses.
As for the offense, it was left fielder Alex Gordon who opened up the pivotal fifth inning with a walk, followed up by an Alex Rios single. Alcides Escobar would keep the line moving with an RBI single to center, scoring Gordon and squaring things up at one.
After a Ben Zobrist groundout advanced the runners to second and third, it looked like Mets starter Jacob deGrom would get out of trouble by getting Lorenzo Cain to pop up weakly for the second out. However, Eric Hosmer would shift into hero mode, lacing a two-run single to center to give the Royals the lead to stay at 3-1. Mike Moustakas would tack on another run with an RBI single, but both his hit and the team's three-run eighth were nothing more than a luxury considering the way Johnny Cueto tormented the Mets all night long.
Getting back to Hosmer, however -- his 27 RBI through his first 28 playoff games is the second-most by any MLB player in history over such a career-opening span. Lou Gehrig (33) is #1 on that list.
On the other side, Mets starter Jacob deGrom induced just three swings and misses all night long, tying his career low. He was chased after five in the worst start of his short postseason career, giving up four earned runs on six hits while striking out just two. deGrom had given up just two hits with runners in scoring position all postseason long before tonight. He gave up two in the fifth inning alone.
That was the difference for the Mets between keeping things close against Cueto and falling into a 2-0 hole heading back to Flushing for Friday's Game 3.
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