6th Shut Out to a Standing "O"!!!!!

6th Shut Out to a Standing “O”!!!!! That is right, a standing ovation after each inning pitched last night!

Sports fan alert! Sorry for you non-sports fans… as this is the second post this week about Baseball. 🙁 🙂

Last evening, it was so exciting to watch the Kansas City Royals Baseball team win the first game of a 3 game series against the Detroit Tigers

So you are probably asking…what is so special about that game?

Since you asked, I will tell you! teehehe!

Ok, you didn’t ask, but I will tell you anyway. You know how excited I get about sports!

Background: The Royals acquired a pitcher from the Cincinnati Reds last month and his name is Johnny Cueto. (#47) He has shown in the last couple seasons that he is a pretty consistent (necessary in pitching)…..pretty accurate (even better than consistent) pitcher.

Of course, many teams have acquired players who end up joining the new team and promptly go on the Disabled List (DL)….with some injury that keeps them out of the line-up for several weeks, months or seasons. Then the new player becomes a pig in a poke! 😉

Johnny Cueto has already pitched a couple games for the Royals…. away from Kaufman stadium and he had a good showing…but he did not pitch a full 9 innings. Actually, very few pitchers go the full 9 innings. That is why there are “Relievers” and “Closers” (Pitchers) to assist in keeping a great pitcher’s arm refreshed.

Lots of wear and tear on those pitching arms, so managers try to take a pitcher out of the game, once he has thrown 90 pitches, which is usually about 6 or 7 innings.

Last night, Johnny Cueto pitched for the first time in front of a 36,000 home (sell-out) crowd at Kauffman Stadium! And he didn’t disappoint the fans. Johnny pitched the full 9 innings throwing only 116 pitches! The win over the Tigers was his sixth career shutout.

Johnny threw 60 fastballs, 24 sliders, 19 cutters and 13 changeups, from his arsenal of pitches! AND he threw 8 strike outs!

He put on such a show with his twists and turns in his delivery making him one of the game’s best pitchers. And most importantly, he wore a big smile which made fans love him even more. He was having fun and so were the fans, who refused to leave the stadium well after the game was over! It was exciting! And particularly, this fan was very excited and happy from her Florida living room!

True, tis only one game, but what a spectacularly played game it was…by both offense and defense!

At this point in the season, the Royals remain the leader of the American League, 12 games ahead of the Minnesota Twins and just 4 games behind the leader of the National League, which is…wait for it….wait for it….

another Missouri team, the St. Louis Cardinals, just 4 hours across the state!

Woohoo!!!!! for the Midwest and the state of Missouri! Quite different from years past when baseball was dominated by teams in the East…such as the New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates and at one time the Brooklyn Dodgers…who are now on the West coast!

However, there are still many games to play and anything can happen…..Toronto Blue Jays have started playing extremely well as well as the Los Angeles Angels and other teams. But for this day…the Kansas City Royals Rule!