Stats matter, but the Royals are a different animal. Yeah, we won with McHugh but there's also a chance he stinks the bed. We need to jump on the Royals early and have McHugh go deep into the game. If Cueto performs like the man they traded for we are done. The Royals haven't performed up to their level all series. We need big innings.
Hinch obviously should approach this with caution. See how his arm feels before the game, tell him to be ready if it feels ok, and then if you do get him going in the bullpen you make sure that he is throwing and feeling ok before going in. He'd probably be limited to one inning but that could make the difference. Last year Madison Bumgarner threw 5 innings of relief in game 7 of the WS on two days rest. Granted, he had a whole offseason to recover, but this situation isn't much different. Anyone is a contender in October and we should treat it as such.
Fair enough, respect the opinion. Regardless of our promising future, you never know when these opportunities are going to come again, especially in baseball, and I think that we have as good of a shot as anyone with our starting pitching and hot bats of late. I'm not saying DK should throw 3 or 5 innings, maybe just an inning in the 7th or 8th if the situation calls for it.
