Johnny Cueto spins a big win for Royals in Game 2

— -- KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The complete game has become an endangered species in baseball. So when Johnny Cueto ran out of the dugout to finish off a 7-1 victory over the New York Mets in Game 2 of the World Series, the 40,410 fans in attendance at Kauffman Stadium greeted him with a rousing and prolonged ovation.

Cueto's personal fan club included a bunch of professional peers spitting sunflower seeds and chewing gum behind a fence in front of a big red "StateFarm Neighborhood'' sign near the left-field corner. Wade Davis, Kelvin Herrera and the rest of the Kansas City Royals' relievers weren't bold or imaginative enough to expect a full night off. But after sucking it up for eight innings and dozens more warmup tosses in a 14-inning victory Tuesday, they certainly appreciated the gesture of solidarity.

"I said, 'When he goes back out there, the crowd better go nuts,'" reliever Ryan Madson said. " Luke Hochevar was sitting next to me and he just said, 'Yeah.' When they did, we both just looked at each other. That was a cool moment."

Cueto has gone through multiple incarnations since coming to Kansas City from Cincinnati in a late July trade-deadline deal. He was first hailed as the missing piece at the top of the Royals' rotation, and the ace who could stare down David Price or Cole Hamels in the playoffs or Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Jake Arrieta or whomever Kansas City went on to face in the World Series.