Royals double World Series lead over Mets

The Kansas City Royals backed the superb two-hit pitching of Johnny Cueto with a relentless attack to rout the New York Mets 7-1 and take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven World Series.

Cueto, painting the corners and showing off his wide variety of deliveries, went the full nine innings in posting the first complete game in the World Series by an American League pitcher in 24 years in windy, chilly conditions at Kauffman Stadium.

Not since the Minnesota Twins’ Jack Morris beat the Atlanta Braves in a 10-inning, Game Seven victory in the 1991 World Series, had an American League hurler turned in such a performance.

“He was electric tonight,” said Eric Hosmer, who supplied a clutch two-out, two-run single in the fifth inning to give the Royals their first lead of the game.

“It was the type of outing we needed, especially after the way we used our bullpen last night. So just a huge outing from a big time player.”

Kansas City used seven pitchers in the 14-inning, 5-4 Royals victory in Tuesday’s Game One, but Cueto gave the entire bullpen the night off with his dominant performance.

The victory took the Royals, who lost last year’s World Series in seven games to the San Francisco Giants, halfway to winning their first Fall Classic crown in 30 years with the series shifting to New York for Game Three on Friday.