Uploaded October 2015 | Updated September 2026, 23 hours ago
Baseball offers redemption like no other sport, its games a daily opportunity to right past wrongs. The Astros fumbled their chance at it after blowing a 6-2 lead in the eighth inning of Game 4. And not only did Cueto compensate for his mediocrity and outfielder Alex Rios render moot a year of middling play with a two-run go-ahead double in the fifth inning that gave Kansas City a 3-2 lead it wouldn't cede, the Royals themselves earned another chance to do what they couldn't last year: win the franchise's first World Series since 1985 after a loss in the seventh game last season.
"I haven't gotten over Game 7 last year," Royals owner David Glass said. "I'm still struggling with that. This year we believed we had a chance to do it and do it right and fix what we didn't get done last year. We collectively said, 'Let's go for it.' "
At the forefront of that push was Cueto, the 29-year-old Dominican whose free agent season was going swimmingly until he joined Kansas City. Every fifth day Cueto looked no better than a mid-rotation starter, home runs soaring often and his comportment more that of someone searching for something than the cocksure ace for whom the Royals believed they'd traded. The deadline deals for Cueto and second baseman Ben Zobrist were supposed to fortify the Royals. Zobrist held up his end. The Royals worried they'd keep waiting until their season was over for Cueto to do the same.
And then came Wednesday, Valbuena's home run the lone scar in a gem. Eiland said he saw a look in Cueto's eyes during a flat-ground session Tuesday and the type of finish on his delivery that had been missing since he joined the Royals. This was the old Cueto, the good Cueto, the sort for whom teams earlier this year were clamoring to lavish with more than $100 million come the winter.
When Cueto struck out Astros cleanup hitter Colby Rasmus, he yelled in Spanish: "Hit it!" He knew Rasmus couldn't. None of the Astros could, his mixture of fastballs and changeups and cutters bewitching, his command of each beguiling. The Cueto who gave up four runs in the series' second game, who faltered in the 2013 National League wild card game, transformed into someone who dared the Astros to hit him knowing they couldn't.
"It was just a matter of time," Royals general manager Dayton Moore said.
Moore had given up three young, hard-throwing left-handed pitchers to rent Cueto with nights like this in mind. Game 5 made him look like a player-procurement savant, with Cueto being J.F. Cueto and Zobrist making a leaping catch and free-agent acquisition Rios stepping up and another big free agent pickup, Kendrys Morales, gut-shotting the upstart Astros with a three-run home run in the eighth inning off presumable Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel, whom Houston manager A.J. Hinch inserted in a desperation move.
"He threw me two good breaking pitches that I should've hit out and I missed 'em," Morales said. "The third one I didn't miss."
Neither did his teammates, the Royals' march back to their second ALCS full of bumps in the road that smoothed out in Game 5. Against the protestations of Cueto, manager Ned Yost lifted him before the ninth inning to led closer Wade Davis finish off the Astros, which he did summarily. Not before the crowd that had turned on Cueto in previous weeks did a 180 and serenaded him with a worthy chant. "Joh-nny Cue-to," they yelled. "Joh-nny Cue-to."
"Tonight," Hinch said, "was Johnny Cueto's night."
It was Johnny Cueto's, yes, and it was the Kansas City Royals', too, and it was that of the city that long ago recognized giving up on this team is folly. The Royals seem to play their best from behind, coming back in each of the three division series victories and preparing to host a Blue Jays team with whom they tussled the last time they saw in August.
The Royals then were the best team in the AL, a title they nearly frittered away until a final-week push. Toronto accordingly will travel here Thursday and play Game 1 Friday, facing Edinson Volquez, Yordano Ventura and Cueto in the first three games after themselves escaping from near-defeat with a comeback win against Texas on Wednesday.
Kansas City didn't slither out of its Game 5 with nearly as much trouble. This was vintage Royals, all-around dominance from a team that inspires high praise from the franchise's icon.
"They were good last year," George Brett said. "But they're better."
It's easy to claim as much on a night like Wednesday, though Brett isn't just playing horn-tooting games. The Royals are better, especially when Johnny Cueto is Johnny Cueto, a man who made a promise and kept it when the team that believed in him and the city that yearned to needed it most.
Baseball offers redemption like no other sport, its games a daily opportunity to right past wrongs. The Astros fumbled their chance at it after blowing a 6-2 lead in the eighth inning of Game 4. And not only did Cueto compensate for his mediocrity and outfielder Alex Rios render moot a year of middling play with a two-run go-ahead double in the fifth inning that gave Kansas City a 3-2 lead it wouldn't cede, the Royals themselves earned another chance to do what they couldn't last year: win the franchise's first World Series since 1985 after a loss in the seventh game last season.
"I haven't gotten over Game 7 last year," Royals owner David Glass said. "I'm still struggling with that. This year we believed we had a chance to do it and do it right and fix what we didn't get done last year. We collectively said, 'Let's go for it.' "
At the forefront of that push was Cueto, the 29-year-old Dominican whose free agent season was going swimmingly until he joined Kansas City. Every fifth day Cueto looked no better than a mid-rotation starter, home runs soaring often and his comportment more that of someone searching for something than the cocksure ace for whom the Royals believed they'd traded. The deadline deals for Cueto and second baseman Ben Zobrist were supposed to fortify the Royals. Zobrist held up his end. The Royals worried they'd keep waiting until their season was over for Cueto to do the same.
And then came Wednesday, Valbuena's home run the lone scar in a gem. Eiland said he saw a look in Cueto's eyes during a flat-ground session Tuesday and the type of finish on his delivery that had been missing since he joined the Royals. This was the old Cueto, the good Cueto, the sort for whom teams earlier this year were clamoring to lavish with more than $100 million come the winter.
When Cueto struck out Astros cleanup hitter Colby Rasmus, he yelled in Spanish: "Hit it!" He knew Rasmus couldn't. None of the Astros could, his mixture of fastballs and changeups and cutters bewitching, his command of each beguiling. The Cueto who gave up four runs in the series' second game, who faltered in the 2013 National League wild card game, transformed into someone who dared the Astros to hit him knowing they couldn't.
"It was just a matter of time," Royals general manager Dayton Moore said.
Moore had given up three young, hard-throwing left-handed pitchers to rent Cueto with nights like this in mind. Game 5 made him look like a player-procurement savant, with Cueto being J.F. Cueto and Zobrist making a leaping catch and free-agent acquisition Rios stepping up and another big free agent pickup, Kendrys Morales, gut-shotting the upstart Astros with a three-run home run in the eighth inning off presumable Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel, whom Houston manager A.J. Hinch inserted in a desperation move.
"He threw me two good breaking pitches that I should've hit out and I missed 'em," Morales said. "The third one I didn't miss."
Neither did his teammates, the Royals' march back to their second ALCS full of bumps in the road that smoothed out in Game 5. Against the protestations of Cueto, manager Ned Yost lifted him before the ninth inning to led closer Wade Davis finish off the Astros, which he did summarily. Not before the crowd that had turned on Cueto in previous weeks did a 180 and serenaded him with a worthy chant. "Joh-nny Cue-to," they yelled. "Joh-nny Cue-to."
"Tonight," Hinch said, "was Johnny Cueto's night."
It was Johnny Cueto's, yes, and it was the Kansas City Royals', too, and it was that of the city that long ago recognized giving up on this team is folly. The Royals seem to play their best from behind, coming back in each of the three division series victories and preparing to host a Blue Jays team with whom they tussled the last time they saw in August.
The Royals then were the best team in the AL, a title they nearly frittered away until a final-week push. Toronto accordingly will travel here Thursday and play Game 1 Friday, facing Edinson Volquez, Yordano Ventura and Cueto in the first three games after themselves escaping from near-defeat with a comeback win against Texas on Wednesday.
Kansas City didn't slither out of its Game 5 with nearly as much trouble. This was vintage Royals, all-around dominance from a team that inspires high praise from the franchise's icon.
"They were good last year," George Brett said. "But they're better."
It's easy to claim as much on a night like Wednesday, though Brett isn't just playing horn-tooting games. The Royals are better, especially when Johnny Cueto is Johnny Cueto, a man who made a promise and kept it when the team that believed in him and the city that yearned to needed it most.
