'That was special': Lugo uses nine-pitch mix to deal 1st CG

KANSAS CITY -- As the Royals put together a three-run eighth inning en route to their 4-1 win over the White Sox on Sunday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium, manager Matt Quatraro was thinking ahead to the ninth and who he was going to send out to the mound.

Starter Seth Lugo had completely dominated for eight innings and was only at 89 pitches. But he had never thrown a complete game, the Royals had a well-rested ‘pen and the White Sox had the top of their order due up.

In the end, Quatraro stuck with the veteran, his rotation’s leader both on and off the field. Lugo rewarded Quatraro with a 1-2-3 inning to earn his first career complete game and the first nine-inning complete game by a Royal this season. Lugo is the first Royal to record a nine-inning complete game with no more than one run allowed since Brad Keller shut out the Pirates on Sept. 13, 2020.

“The way he controlled that game, I thought it was the right decision,” Quatraro said.

Chants of “LUGO, LUGO” filled Kauffman Stadium after the Royals finished their sweep of the White Sox and improved to 55-45 through 100 games of the season.

“I had chills out there,” Lugo said. “The ‘Lugo’ chants, that was special. It’s something I won’t forget.”

Lugo has wanted a complete game since he was in college, back before the Mets selected him in the 34th round of the 2011 Draft. He threw one seven-inning complete game in the Minors during a doubleheader. But it hadn’t happened in his nine-year Major League career, partly because of opportunity: Lugo was a reliever for many of his seven seasons in New York.

But Lugo has always believed he could be a starter. He proved he could be a valuable piece of a rotation with the Padres last year. This year, he’s been even better with the Royals, earning his 12th win on Sunday (tying him with Grayson Rodriguez for the American League lead) and lowering his season ERA to 2.38.

With how good Lugo has been -- 16 of his 21 starts this year have been quality starts, and he’s pitched into the seventh in 11 starts -- maybe a complete game only seemed like a matter of time.

“For me, with my mindset over my career, I’ve always said I want to play every inning of the game,” Lugo said. “So, I finally got to do that today.”

Lugo’s reasoning for why complete games are important speaks to how he approaches pitching.

“It means you’re doing some stuff right,” Lugo said. “You’re getting ahead of hitters, attacking hitters, not throwing many balls. Getting weak contact or letting them hit it at somebody. Keeping [runs] off the scoreboard.

“It’s a product of execution.”

That certainly was the case Sunday. Two of the White Sox three hits came in the sixth, when they scored their lone run. Otherwise, Lugo cruised through the White Sox lineup, striking out six and walking none.

He was at 41 pitches through four innings, 89 through eight. He finished with 103.

“I saw him go back out, and I was like, ‘Man, how many pitches is he at?’” Royals center fielder Kyle Isbel, whose safety squeeze bunt in the seventh inning tied the game, said. “I looked up and it said 89. I was like, ‘All right, here we go.’”

Before Lugo could take the mound for the ninth, the Royals needed to take the lead. Bobby Witt Jr. -- who went 9-for-11 this series -- led off the eighth inning with his third hit of the day, and Hunter Renfroe came through with the go-ahead RBI single.

“I was going up to lead off that inning, and [Lugo] said, ‘Get me a run,’” Witt said. “At that point, I was like, ‘Oh, he’s going back out there.’ We had to scrap out a run.”

Witt calls Lugo the “surgeon” because of his ability to dissect hitters using nine pitches, the most in the Majors, although Lugo says he has more. He has two sweepers, for example, a “carry” sweeper and a regular sweeper. Which is different from his traditional slider. Add in three different fastballs, his signature curveball, a splitter, a cutter, a slurve, a changeup and who knows what else, it’s not surprising to see hitters be off balance.

Because Lugo pounds the zone, hitters have to be aggressive, which leads to early contact and quick innings. Because of his vast arsenal, Lugo’s also not going to attack hitters the same way later in the game.

“My mindset is, we’re going to pick a spot for every pitch where it fits,” Lugo said. “Really, each time I get an out or a swing or a guy misses a ball, or he squares it up, that tells me a lot. I get a lot of reactions after contact, guys cussing or yelling at themselves around the bases.

“... There’s a lot that goes into it. I’m always thinking.”