Royals need Chris Young's baffling resurgence to continue in World Series Game 4

NEW YORK -- If you are baffled by the continued success of Royals pitcher Chris Young, the scheduled starter for Game 4 of the World Series, you're not alone.

It confused Ned Yost for years, as well.

“I never could figure out why we couldn't hit Chris Young,” Kansas City's manager said prior to his team's 9-3 Game 3 loss on Friday . “We faced Chris Young in Seattle, and the first time you look at everything he's throwing, 88-mile-an-hour fastball, his slider doesn't look anything special, his change-up doesn't look anything special. Then after seven innings we've got two hits and no runs. Then the next time, okay, we're going to get him this time. Seven innings, one run. And I never could figure out why nobody could hit this guy.

“Once we got him, I started watching behind home plate and see with the deception of a guy that's 6'10" with his fastball, his slider the bottom drops out of it, and the change-up is invisible at times. So when there was an opportunity to start, we put him in the starting rotation and he did great.”

Through the regular season alone, Young provided surplus value to the Royals. For a base salary of just $675,000, Young pitched to a 3.06 ERA over 123 1/3 innings, collected in 18 starts and 16 relief appearances.

But Young managed to reach another level this October. A pitcher whose fastball rates among the lowest in velocity in the league, around 86 miles per hour, has touched 90 eight times in the playoffs, a level he hasn't reached in years.

Accordingly, the ability to get weak contact up in the zone hasn't disappeared for Young, but what has improved is his ability to strike out hitters. He's never been a hard thrower, but he missed enough bats to strike out eight hitters per nine or better in each of his best three seasons with the Padres from 2006-2008, also his three best seasons as a pro.

It all informs his current October run —11 2/3 innings over three series, 15 strikeouts, a 2.31 ERA — which the Royals need to continue to avoid letting a 2-0 series lead slip away to even.

“I’m so pumped to watch C.Y. pitch tomorrow," Royals pitcher Danny Duffy said. "He’s a stud, the ultimate competitor. Whenever he’s called upon, it always seems like he comes through for us. I’m looking forward to watching him do what he does."

Added Lorenzo Cain: "He’s been stepping up all year. He’s been pitching in some huge games, stepped up big in this first game he pitched in this World Series, and we don’t expect anything less."

Young doesn't believe there's a single, silver bullet reason why he's found this renaissance at 36.

“Oh, I don't know if there's one specific answer,” Young said Friday afternoon. “And I don't know if I know the answer to that. I just know that physically I feel good. I can say, from a physical and mental standpoint, I prepare and I put in the work, I put in the effort. Last year when the season ended I was extremely disappointed with the ending of the season, and I went home and I got to work immediately. I said this isn't going to happen again. Two bad starts last September, and I felt like it hurt our team's chances in Seattle of making the playoffs, and that motivated me all offseason. And maybe that's why.”

It's striking that Young, every bit the Princeton-educated tinkerer, found a season in which he threw 165 innings and won the American League Comeback Player of the Year as a template to scrap, even after failing to reach that season over the past six years, or even in the past four seasons combined.

“Maybe it's the extra training,” Young said. “It was the first offseason in a while where I was able to actually train and not rehab, per se. And so maybe -- there are probably a lot of combinations that are in play here that I can attribute to that. But ultimately I think some of it is just the adrenaline of pitching for something that I've strived to do my entire life. When you get in that situation the emotion, the adrenaline and everything, you know, it takes you to maybe levels you haven't seen in a while.”

His manager, too, had an eye on October when it came to managing Young's workload this season, a reason he said he removed Young from the rotation in late July.

“I think it was the rest more than anything, that we didn't burn him out early, even though we really could have, because he was pitching really, really well as a reliever," Yost said. “[Kansas City Star Royals reporter] Andy [McCullough] couldn't figure out why we would take him out of the rotation, but it was just for this. It was just for this time. We wanted Chris Young to be strong, healthy and ready for the playoffs. Sorry, Andy.”

The Mets are sorry, too, but only to a point. It was Young's three scoreless innings, complete with four strikeouts, that allowed the Royals to break through in the 14th inning of Game 1, earning Young a win prior to his first World Series start.

Then again, the Mets know Young well from a pair of seasons he spent in New York, during a time when both Young and the Mets were feeling their way forward from past success to a future they hoped would someday lead back to this moment.

“Well, if you know Chris Young, you root for him,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “Unfortunately I'm on the other side of the field, so I don't want to root hard for him. He's one of the best people you'll ever meet. He's worked very, very hard to come off the different injuries he's had, his shoulder, his back, but you cheer for him. He's a tremendous guy, a great family man.

“I'm not surprised. This guy is extremely intelligent when he pitches. He knows what he wants to do. He writes up his own game plan how he's going to attack the hitters, and everybody is excited that knows him that he's had success. I hope tomorrow night he makes a few mistakes, but you've got to be on his side.”

PHOTOS: Best of the World Series -- Mets vs. Royals