Cain is thriving on October stage

— -- BALTIMORE -- How has your past October gone? Nice? Good? Great? Well, unless you won the state lottery -- hell, even if you won the state lottery -- your month does not match  Kansas City Royals outfielder  Lorenzo Cain's.

Barely 10 days ago, Cain made two game-saving catches in Kansas City's Game 1 victory in the division series against the  Los Angeles Angels. A couple of days later, he made two diving catches on back-to-back batters in the clinching game of the series. Saturday, he made two more superb catches, scored two runs, doubled, drove in an insurance run and stole a base in the Royals' 6-4 Game 2 victory over Baltimore to join the legendary George Brett as the only Kansas City players with four hits in a postseason game.

"It's hard to describe,'' Cain said. "Between my son being born and the playoff run and the things we're doing now, going 6-0 [in the postseason]? It's hard. But we're going to enjoy it for now. We have a day off and we'll bounce back and get our focus and excited to get back in front of the home crowd.''

They ought to be. The Royals are the 12th team to win the first two games of a league championship series on the road. The previous 11 all reached the World Series. Royals fans can't get too carried away when two more victories are needed, but a World Series definitely appears within their grasp because their team is winning just about every way imaginable now. After winning three of its past four postseason games with extra-inning home runs, Kansas City won Saturday's game the old-fashioned Royals way of small ball.

Small ball, long ball ... it doesn't matter right now.

"We can win ballgames a ton of different ways,'' third baseman Mike Moustakas said. "We can go out there and pitch and play defense. We can go out there and score a bunch of runs and if we need to, we can drag [bunt], we can push [bunt], we can hit and run, and we can push a couple runs across the plate.''

Moustakas was proof of that. He hit a home run in the fourth inning and laid down a bunt in the decisive ninth inning.

With the game tied 4-4, Omar Infante led off the ninth with a 50-foot dribbler between the mound and third base for an infield single. After Moustakas bunted pinch runner Terrance Gore to second, Alcides Escobar smacked a grounder inside the first-base line for a double that scored Gore easily and gave the Royals the lead. Jarrod Dyson followed with high chopper that was bobbled for an error. And then Cain singled to make it the 6-4 final score.

Cain has six hits in eight American League Championship Series at-bats, plus four runs scored, but it again was his fielding that really stood out Saturday. And for good reason -- he is one of the best outfielders in the game, whether he is playing in center or right field. After making four Web Gems in the division series, Cain raced halfway across the outfield to make a diving catch off  J.J. Hardy's line drive in the sixth inning Saturday, then covered nearly as much ground to grab a slicing liner down the right-field line in the seventh.

Cain covers more territory than Christiane Amanpour.

"Nothing surprises me,'' Billy Butler said of Cain and the Royals' outfield, "but every once in a while they do something and I'm like, 'Did he really just make that kind of catch?'"

Cain said that he always had speed and range since the day he stepped on a baseball field. "I always had that gift to be able to run,'' he said. "I had to work on the other tools. Start swinging the bat. Bat, steal bases, work on the defense -- it's been a lot of work. I'm still a work in progress, but I feel I've done a great job as of late.''

"He's basically stayed healthy all year,'' Butler said. "He's been battling injuries in the past few years. We always knew what type of a player he was. He just had to stay healthy, and he did this year. He hit .300 and played Gold Glove defense.''

And now with the Royals finally back in the October spotlight for the first time since 1985, people everywhere are noticing his talent.

"That's always great,'' Cain said. "That's always been one of my strengths. For people to recognize it now, to actually see it, that's a great feeling.''

Whether they keep winning or wind up fighting deep in this series, one issue for the Royals is the health status of Yordano Ventura, whose 100 mph velocity was down a bit before he left the game in the sixth inning due to shoulder tightness. Manager Ned Yost and Ventura both said after the game that the shoulder is fine and that he should make his next start.

Kansas City has strong pitching, but losing Ventura would be quite a setback, Then again, having Cain roaming the outfield could make up for any pitching drop-off. He's already given his newborn son plenty of YouTube highlights to watch for many years to come.