KC Royals pitcher proves again why he's so valuable

Like all regular members of major league rotations, KC Royals starter Seth Lugo always knows, with only rare exceptions, when and where he'll pitch next. Managers tend never to deviate from their set sequences of starting pitchers, the predictability of which allows those hurlers to prepare adequately for the challenges of their next outings.

So it is that Lugo almost certainly knew days ago that he'd start Friday night in Houston, at a ballpark that famously collaborates with its resident team to inflict various indignities on visiting clubs. And the gravity of the game, one of four the playoff-chasing Royals have at Minute Maid Park before heading home for next week's incredibly important three-game sets with Cleveland and Minnesota, would have been on Lugo's mind well before his first Friday pitch.

But as vital to Kansas City's cause as Friday's contest already was, what happened in Houston Thursday night made it even more important. In one bizarre moment, the unfortunate details of which are presented here for those who somehow missed the incident, the Royals lost slugging first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino to a broken thumb, and standout reliever Lucas Erceg to a hand injury that, unlike Pasquantino's, hasn't required assignment to the Injured List.

Because Lugo didn't start that game, he wasn't involved in the play. But the seriousness of the event and its potential consequences can't be lost on any Royal, so Lugo carried, without as much informed preparation as the club's set rotation typically provides him, an extra burden to the mound Friday.

The Royals needed him to be great. They needed him to shut down the Astros, to help them bounce back from Thursday night's devastating blow, to help lift them and get them back on track.

And from the start, it seemed Lugo, who signed a three-year free agent deal in December to come to Kansas City and help turn the Royals around, would succeed.

Seth Lugo pitched masterfully for the KC Royals Friday night

Crystal clear from the beginning was that Lugo was "on". He retired the first half-dozen Astros he faced before giving up a leadoff homer to Ben Gamel in the third; after that, and until his night came to and after the seventh, he held Houston scoreless on five harmless hits, pitched his third three-up, three-down inning, and struck out five over the fourth and fifth frames. For the night, he fanned nine and walked only one.

Lugo was everything he needed to be. And on any other night, his effort would have been enough. But Friday, due to circumstances over which he had no control, it wasn't. A Houston pitcher and the Royals' bullpen, the team's consistently troublesome homegrown nemesis, made sure of that.

Houston starter Framber Valdez so owned Lugo's teammates that he no-hit them for seven innings; that he threw 98 pitches during that span undoubtedly explains why Astros manager Joe Espada decided against giving him a shot at history and pulled him before the eighth. It's hard to fault Kansas City for buckling at the plate when the opposing pitcher is so good and unforgiving.

Espada's decision to pull Valdez paid off for the Royals when Paul DeJong, the July trade deadline acquisition who's performed so well since the White Sox sent him to Kansas City, tied the game 2-2 with a ninth-inning homer off Josh Hader. But the game was deadlocked only because KC reliever Carlos Hernández gave the Astros a run in his two-thirds share of the eighth. Mercurial James McArthur handed a run-scoring walk-off double to Jose Altuve in the ninth to give Houston its 3-2 win.

The bullpen didn't do its job. Again.

Lugo, however, did. He pitched more than well enough to get his 15th win, a victory that would have tied him with Atlanta's Chris Sale and Detroit's Tarik Skubal for the major league lead. He remained at 14-8 and lowered his already good ERA to 3.12. And he continued to make the Royals glad they brought him to Kansas City, and that he's signed for at least two more seasons.

Lugo is someone these Royals can't do without if they're to realize their postseason dreams this year. He's that valuable, that resilient. Fortunately, he'll get a few more starts this season, including a big one against Cleveland next Wednesday unless manager Matt Quatraro alters his rotation.

Chances are good that he'll be ready for the Guardians, just as he was for Houston Friday night.

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