Bossier’s Seth Lugo Dominates as Royals Make Playoff Push

Last season, the Kansas City Royals looked like a team desperate for change. They lost 100+ games. Despite stars like Salvador Perez and Bobby Witt, the team just looked lost. But, man, what a difference a year makes.

Not only are the Royals currently in playoff position, but they're within striking distance of winning of the American League Central. This team, simply put, went from pretender to contender seemingly overnight.

And, one of the biggest reasons for that - the off-season acquisition of Louisiana native Seth Lugo. The 34 year old right handed pitcher from Shreveport-Bossier (I put both cities since MLB lists him as a Shreveport native, even though he grew up in Bossier City), is having a career year. He's currently leading the league in wins, games started, innings pitched and batters faced. And, despite a rocky second half, has an outside shot of winning the American League Cy Young Award.

Seth Lugo Turned in An Amazing Performance Against the Yankees

Whether anybody likes it or not, the Yankees are the Yankees again. They're currently leading the AL East and are among the top teams in baseball. Despite the team being really good, Seth took the mound last night (September 10th) in Yankee Stadium and absolutely dominated.

He went 7 innings - allowing only 3 hits, no runs and racked up 10 strike outs. The Royals are in the playoff hunt and with only 20 or so games left in the season against some really good teams, they're going to need to keep to hold onto a playoff spot. And, despite a rocky couple of starts since the All-Star Break, Seth Lugo has done just that - gone out and given the team a chance to win.

Could Louisiana's Seth Lugo Win the AL Cy Young?

While most people are ready to give the award to Detroit's Tarik Skubal, I don't think he's got this locked up just yet. Despite the fact the Tigers are battling for a playoff spot as well, the organization said they're going to start limiting Skubal's innings and appearances. Thus far, it hasn't impacted his performance, when you start messing with a guy's routine, sometimes it can ruin his mojo.

Meanwhile, while Skubal is getting restrictions added to him, Seth Lugo is once again finding his form. He had a few really bad starts in July & August, but seemingly he's found his rhythm again. In his last 3 starts against division leading teams (the Astros, Guardians, and Yankees), he's been nothing short of incredible. 3 straight quality starts where he went 7 innings in all of them. 2 runs total allowed in those 3 games. With 23 strikeouts. In short - there's not a team in baseball that wouldn't take that especially against high quality opponents that you're likely to see in the playoffs.

He's eating innings. He's striking people out. He's picking up wins. And he's got his ERA below a 3. All those are indicators of a Cy Young type year. Whether he wins any hardware or not remains to be seen, but, regardless, he's having the type of year pitchers dream about. He's been elite. And if he keeps this up, he might help push the new look Royals deep into the playoffs.