An evolved Danny Duffy, Cheslor Cuthbert help Royals beat White Sox, snap losing streak

There were no bottles of champagne on Saturday, no toasts to mark the occasion, no wild spectacle to celebrate a victory on a humid afternoon at U.S. Cellular Field.

Inside the Royals’ clubhouse, there was only the sound of pulsating music and cackling laughter. Edinson Volquez shouted above the Fetty Wap track playing on the stereo. Eric Hosmer wore a look of relief. And in the middle of the scene, a starting pitcher in a Kobe Bryant T-shirt and Royals hat moved through a cluster of bodies and sidled up to his locker.

For nine straight days, the Royals had suffered through the Road Trip from Hades, losing eight straight games and falling back to .500 for the season. On Saturday afternoon here in Chicago, Danny Duffy made sure the losing streak did not hit nine.

In a 4-1 victory over the White Sox, Duffy tossed six scoreless innings and recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts. In a rotation that had crumbled during a long three-city trip, Duffy asserted himself as the unlikely rock.

“It’s big,” Duffy said. “But it was a team effort.”

That was true enough. Cheslor Cuthbert clubbed two solo homers and played sterling defense at third base. Designated hitter Kendrys Morales blasted an opposite-field shot from the right side. The back end of the bullpen was deployed again, closing out the win in the final three innings. The Royals handed another loss to White Sox left-hander Jose Quintana, who dropped to 1-8 in his career against Kansas City.

Yet the most intriguing performance belonged to Duffy, the once promising starter who was shuttled to the bullpen, the once-excitable left-hander who returned to the rotation and learned to evolve. On Saturday, Duffy lowered his season ERA to 2.94 in 49 innings. In 31 innings since re-joining the rotation in mid May, he has racked up 38 strikeouts and allowed just five walks.

Perhaps more impressive: In six innings against the White Sox, he joined Paul Splittorff as the only southpaws in Royals history to record 10 strikeouts in a scoreless outing.

“I was throwing everything off my fastball,” Duffy said. “And Salvy was putting down good fingers. I’m continuing to just keep it simple, and it’s been working.”

In the minutes after the victory, Duffy found his cell phone in the clubhouse and fired off a text message to Royals pitcher Kris Medlen, his close friend and confidante, who was in Arizona on a rehab assignment. The text chain was trivial yet telling.

In the third inning Saturday, Duffy had pitched around White Sox third baseman Todd Frazier and issued one of his three walks. The moment excited Duffy. Never before in his career, he said, had he felt confident enough in his command to intentionally pitch around someone. In that moment, he felt in control. He wanted to share the feeling with Medlen.

“I just feel like my command is at the point where I can start to do that,” Duffy said. “I can throw a pitch in a spot where it might not be a strike, but they might swing at it.”

The story of the New Duffy begins with a simple adjustment. After years of grinding through short and inefficient starts, Duffy has eschewed his old windup. He ditched his slow, over-the-head start. He forgot the delivery that produced inconsistent results and earned him a spot in the bullpen. With his future as a starter uncertain, he began pitching solely out of the stretch.

The move came as he began the 2016 season in the bullpen, but it remained when he replaced Medlen in the rotation in May. Duffy began studying pitchers who have pitched primarily from the stretch, including Cleveland’s Carlos Carrasco. There was no shame in the adjustment, he said.

The motion felt cleaner and simpler. The results have been clear. For his career, Duffy has averaged 3.6 walks per nine innings. In 2016, he has shaved his walk rate in half, issuing just 1.83 walks per nine.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever throw another pitch out of the windup, to be honest with you,” Duffy said. “It’s very simplified; it’s very nice.”

It’s also exactly what Kansas City needed. Three weeks ago Sunday, the Royals watched their season change in a moment when Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas clipped each other in foul territory here at U.S. Cellular Field. The collision ended Moustakas’ season and sidelined Gordon for a month, and in the weeks since, the Royals have been hitched to the back of a proverbial roller coaster. In the nine games after The Collision, they won eight times, surging back into first place after a 6-0 home stand at Kauffman Stadium. In the nine games since, they stumbled to a 1-8 mark, opening a 10-game road trip with a brutal eight-game skid.

As the losses piled up, it was easy to wonder about the missing pieces. Salvador Perez had missed six games during the stretch. The club lost outfielder Brett Eibner to an ankle sprain. In one game in Baltimore, Duffy took a bullet line-drive off the calf and Cuthbert suffered a bruised elbow after a freakish spiked ball at second base. For moments, it seemed like the offense may never score another run. The Royals have forged on.

“If I was going to worry about the guys I didn’t have, I’d be thinking about, ‘OK, why don’t I have Babe Ruth?’” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “What’s the difference. I don’t have them.”

The Royals do not possess The Great Bambino, but they do have Duffy. That's a start. They still own one of baseball’s best bullpens, which was unleashed on Saturday. And among a lineup of Hosmer, Cain and Perez, they do have Cuthbert, who broke through with the first two-homer game of his career.

“It feels really good,” said Cuthbert, who lifted one homer to right field and clubbed another to left-center. “But I think the win feels a lot better.”

The sentiment permeated the clubhouse on Saturday afternoon. The Royals will conclude the road trip here on Sunday before returning home to face the first-place Cleveland Indians at Kauffman Stadium. After a woeful trip, they remain in contention. As the music blared, the relief poured out.

“Am I relieved?” Yost said. “I mean, it’s great to get a win. We’ve had a rough road trip.”

This story was originally published June 11, 2016 at 3:58 PM with the headline "An evolved Danny Duffy, Cheslor Cuthbert help Royals beat White Sox, snap losing streak."