Facing 2-0 deficit, New York Mets glad to be heading home

It was late afternoon at Kauffman Stadium, dimmed by dark clouds on this overcast day in Kansas City, and even his New York teammates wanted no part of 6-foot-6 Noah Syndergaard.

CITY-Kansas City’s Johnny Cueto pitched a two-hit, complete-game masterpiece Wednesday and the Royals ripped the New York Mets 7-1 to seize command of the 111th World Series.

Rather than look ahead and anticipate a celebration, Hosmer thought back to Kansas City’s crushing seven-game loss to the Giants in 2014. “There’s still a lot of work yet to do”, Hosmer said. And since we’re nearly 12 hours after the end of Game 2, here’s guessing the interview has already been taken down, which is probably a good thing.

Kansas City wore down Jacob deGrom with persistence and prowess Wednesday night, then pounced.

The hits from Hosmer, Morales and Moustakes came with two outs and produced three of the runs. An excited crowd stood on its feet for long stretches on the rainy night. He had two home runs in the NL Division Series against the Dodgers, but he has only one other extra base hit in the postseason. 83 per cent of teams that lead 2-0 in a best-of-seven series go on to win that series.

“As soon as I got to the bullpen I was feeling good, feeling aggressive”, Cueto said via an interpreter in an on-field interview. “I want to finish it there”.

Kansas City had the best contact hitters in the major leagues this season, missing on just 19.7 per cent of its swings, according to STATS.

The trade deadline came and went in 2014, with the Kansas City Royals reaching for their first postseason trip in 29 years, and the front office brought in Jason Frasor, a fourth or fifth option for the bullpen. My main concern was just to keep us in the game.

Of deGrom’s 94 pitches, 23 were fouled off.

Cueto has struggled on the road, where opposing fans taunt him by repeating his name in a sing-song voice.

In a short time, Johnny Cueto will be a free agent. But his last start was his best, allowing one run in 5.1 innings if the American League Championship Series clincher, and Royals manager Ned Yost is confident in his Game 3 starter.

The former All-Star pitched a complete game, giving up just two bloop hits to Lucas Duda, the rest of the team was 0-for-25.

“We’ve got to pick it up offensively”, Collins said. When Yoenis Cespedes flied to center for the final out, Cueto pointed to the sky, kissed his hand, tapped his chest softly twice and hugged catcher Salvador Perez. Because if the Mets win Game 3, they’ll be down two games to one, with the series again very much up for grabs. The Mets were up by a run but deGrom walked Alex Gordon leading off. Then Alex Rios singled followed by a single by Alcides Escobar and most sensed the wheels were coming off the Mets.

Gordon added an RBI double in the eighth off Jon Niese, a ball off the glove of shortstop Wilmer Flores.

“When you make bad pitches against a team that can hit”, Mets manager Terry Collins said, “you’re going to get hurt”.

Johnson said he sees the World Series as “a toss up”, but if listened closely you would think he was leaning toward the Mets. New York was 1-3-2 in series against AL opponents during the regular season.