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KC Royals: Success In World Series Depends On Starting Pitching

By Leigh Oleszczak

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The KC Royals are up 1-0 against the New York Mets in the World Series. Game 2 will take place Wednesday night at Kauffman Stadium.

The Kansas City Royals won Game 1 in dramatic fashion. It was a 14 inning ball game that began with an Alcides Escobar inside the park home run and ended with an Eric Hosmer walk off sacrifice fly to score Escobar from third.

Winning Game 1 was huge for the Royals, and a large part of their success in this one was because of Edinson Volquez. Volquez pitched six innings and allowed six hits and three runs. He struck out three and walked one batter as well.

Starting pitching has been the Royals’ biggest weakness this season by far. Their bullpen and defense have been terrific (even though both faltered a little in Game 1, but still… They’re going to make mistakes from time to time). If the starting rotation for the KC Royals can go at least six innings, they can hand the ball over to the bullpen, and all should be good.

Game 2 is going to be a huge night for starting pitching. The Mets are throwing Jacob deGrom on the mound and he’s notorious for going deep into games. The Royals are countering with Johnny Cueto, who has been a big ol’ question mark since coming to Kansas City in July.

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Cueto has to have a good game on Wednesday night because the Royals’ bullpen is likely completely exhausted after a 14 inning game. deGrom can go deep into games so they have an advantage there for sure.

If Cueto goes out and performs as poorly as he did in Game 3 of the ALCS against Toronto, then Kris Medlen will likely step in for him (just like in the ALCS), but it could be too late by that point for the Royals’ offense to come from behind.

For those of you who don’t remember the stats from Game 3, let me give you a refresher. Cueto only made it through two innings and allowed eight runs. Not good.

The game before that, however, saw Cueto throwing eight strong innings against the Astros in Game 5 of the ALDS. He only gave up two runs in that ball game.

Yordano Ventura is set to take the mound for Game 3 in New York. Ventura has been up and down this postseason, but we’ve all seen what he can do at his best (Game 6 of last year’s World Series). Hopefully if the Royals falter in Game 2, Ventura can pick them up in Game 3.

Chris Young is the Game 4 starter and he actually pitched on Tuesday. He went three innings and didn’t allow a run. Young was phenomenal.

If the Royals’ rotation can match up with the Mets’ scary rotation of deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, and Matt Harvey, then this World Series should most definitely favor the Kansas City Royals. Let’s just hope the Royals get good Johnny Cueto in Game 2.

Next: What a Championship Would Mean to Kansas City

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