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Kansas City Royals: All Hail Edinson Volquez

By Leigh Oleszczak

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The Kansas City Royals took Game 1 of the ALCS against the Toronto Blue Jays by a score of 5-0.

The Royals were able to take a lead in the ALCS against Toronto thanks in part to the hot hitting on offense and the dominant performance from starting pitcher Edinson Volquez.

Volquez threw 111 pitches in six innings, striking out five batters and not allowing a single run. He only allowed two hits, and you wouldn’t have known how powerful the Blue Jays’ hitters were if this was the first baseball game you’d watched all season. Volquez was that good.

The only time I was worried during this game was during the sixth inning. Volquez walked both Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista with no outs, but was able to get Edwin Encarnacion to strike out, Chris Colabello to line out, and Troy Tulowitzki to strike out to end the threat. It took Volquez over 30 pitches to get out of the inning, but he stayed on the mound and was able to get out of the inning without any damage from Toronto’s powerful offense.

Volquez was great in Game 1, and it was just the type of start the Kansas City Royals needed to kick off the ALCS. The starting rotation has been up and down all season long (which is why the team went and got Johnny Cueto) and appeared to be the team’s biggest weakness heading into the playoffs.

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In the past two Royals playoff games, however, starting pitching has been tremendous. Cueto pitched eight innings and allowed two runs in Game 5 of the ALDS and then of course Volquez had his six shutout innings on Friday in Game 1 of the ALCS.

The other day I mentioned how the newcomers to the 2015 Kansas City Royals team have been huge for this October run, and Volquez’s dominant Game 1 performance solidifies this even more.

Volquez was signed by the Royals during the off season as a replacement for fan favorite James Shields, who departed to San Diego for a gigantic contract. Royals fans were bummed about Shields packing his bags and heading to the west coast, and the signing of Volquez didn’t seem to ease anyone’s pain.

The former Pittsburgh Pirate silenced the critics as the season went along though, and soon became the most reliable guy in the Royals’ starting rotation. Throughout most of the season, it was obvious that Volquez would have been the guy on the mound for the Royals had they been forced to play in a one-game Wildcard scenario.

The Kansas City Royals are cruising at the moment, winning their last three games and outscoring opponents 21-8 during that time, but they can’t get ahead of themselves. Volquez pitched great, but the Royals still have three more games to win if they want to advance to their second consecutive World Series.

Edinson Volquez has been one of the best free agent signings this off season though, and hopefully he can continue to help the Kansas City Royals make it to and win the World Series in 2015.

Next: Ten Greatest Moments in Royals History

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