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SPORTS A19
Thursday 29 October 2015

Cueto’s 2-hitter sends Royals over Mets for 2-0 Series lead

RONALD BLUM Kansas City Royals’ Alcides Escobar, left, scores past New York Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud on a single by Eric Hosmer during the
AP Baseball Writer fifth inning of Game 2 of the Major League Baseball World Series Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2015, in Kansas City, Mo.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) --
Johnny Cueto smothered Associated Press
the New York Mets with an-
other big October outing. season outings, but he got home. by catcher Salvador Perez. before driving and 0-2 slider
And the pesky Kansas City just three swings and misses Cueto struck out four and Cueto pitched the first Se- up the middle for a tying
Royals kept fouling off Ja- against the Royals - his ca- walked three. Both hits off ries complete game by an single.
cob deGrom’s best pitch- reer low. Of his 94 pitches, him were soft singles by Lu- AL pitcher since Minneso- Ben Zobrist’s grounder ad-
es, wearing him down with 23 were fouled off by the cas Duda, an infield hit to ta’s Jack Morris won Game vanced the runners, and
persistence and prowess. Royals. third that took advantage 7 against Atlanta in 1991. Lorenzo Cain fouled off
Cueto never faltered. And Cueto has struggled on of the shift in the second DeGrom, 3-0 in the post- four pitches before a fly-
as deGrom wore down, the the road, where opposing inning and an opposite- season coming in, allowed out to short center. Hosmer
Royals pounced. fans taunt him by repeat- field RBI single to left in four runs, six hits and three singled off the mound into
Eric Hosmer hit a tiebreak- ing his name in a sing-song the fourth. Cueto let loose walks over five innings in a center field for a 3-1 lead,
ing, two-run single with two voice. But since the Royals some emotion at the end of hairy matchup of pitchers and Kendrys Morales’ sin-
outs in a four-run fifth inning acquired the free-agent- the eighth inning, when Al- with contrasting long locks. gled in another run.
that included 14 foul balls, to-be from Cincinnati in cides Escobar made a nifty Pitching with seven days’ Gordon added an RBI dou-
and the Royals rallied to July, he’s been Johnny on play to retire Juan Lagares rest, deGrom held Kansas ble in the eighth off Jon
beat the Mets 7-1 Wednes- the spot at Kauffman Sta- for the final out. As Escobar City to one hit through four Niese, a ball off the glove
day night and take a 2-0 dium. He pitched two-hit sprinted past him, Cueto innings but got in trouble in of shortstop Wilmer Flores.
World Series lead. ball over eight innings to exchanged a flamboyant the fifth, when he walked Paulo Orlando, the first Bra-
Nineteen hours after Hos- win Game 5 of the Division high five with the shortstop. Alex Gordon on a 3-2 slider zil-born player to appear
mer’s sacrifice fly won a Series against Houston, and After Yoenis Cespedes flied leading off. in a Series, followed with
14-inning thriller, Cueto Kansas City lined up its Se- to center for the final out, Alex Rios followed with a a sacrifice fly against Ad-
pitched a two-hitter, vary- ries rotation to have Cueto Cueto pointed to the sky single and Escobar fouled dison Reed, and Escobar
ing his delivery with occa- starting Games 2 and 6 at and was congratulated off a pair of bunt attempts tripled in a run.q
sional quick pitches and
keeping the Mets off bal-
ance. An excited crowd
stood on its feet for long
stretches on the rainy night.
Some fans wore wigs re-
sembling Cueto’s long,
dark dreadlocks - includ-
ing the Royals’ mascot,
Slugerrr. With Kansas City
two wins from its their first
title since 1985, the teams
take Thursday off. New
York’s Citi Field hosts its first
Series game Friday, when
rookie Noah Syndergaard
starts for the Mets and Yor-
dano Ventura for the Roy-
als. Forty-one of the 51
teams to take 2-0 leads in
best-of-seven World Series
have gone on to win the
title, including nine straight
since Atlanta stumbled
against the New York Yan-
kees in 1996.
Kansas City had the best
contact hitters in the major
leagues this season, miss-
ing on just 19.7 percent of
its swings, according to
STATS. The Dodgers and
Cubs swung and missed 58
times in his first three post-