This was the day, or at least one of the few, for which the Royals surrendered a chunk of their potential future for Johnny Cueto.
No, the Royals weren’t facing a “death sentence” if they lost to Houston Friday at Kauffman Stadium, as manager Ned Yost had put it.
Then again, choose your over-the-top sports metaphor for what a loss would mean: Only five of 47 teams that stumbled into an 0-2 ravine in the Major League Baseball’s divisional series have managed to climb back to win those.
So it essentially was fight or flight for the Royals, especially with them facing bleak odds against Houston’s Dallas Keuchel for Game 3 Sunday in Houston — where Keuchel is 15-0 this season.