Royals expect Volquez to return today

NEW YORK -- The Royals expect right-hander Edinson Volquez to be back with the team sometime on Saturday, and they also believe he'll be ready to pitch Game 5 on Sunday.

"He's still slated to pitch Game 5," manager Ned Yost said before the Royals lost Game 3 to the Mets, 9-3, on Friday night at Citi Field, cutting their World Series edge to 2-1. "He texted [pitching coach] Dave [Eiland] yesterday that everything was going good, and hopes to see him Saturday. We should see Eddie tomorrow. He'll be ready to go."

Volquez's father, Daniel, died from heart complications on Tuesday, hours before Volquez started Game 1 -- a 5-4 win in 14 innings for the Royals. Volquez returned to the Dominican Republic on Wednesday to be with family and attend the funeral.

KC more attractive
Winning certainly has helped the Royals land some free agents lately, particularly Volquez, Kendrys Morales, Chris Young and Alex Rios.

:: World Series: Mets vs. Royals -- Tune-in info ::

"Yeah, I think everyone wants to go with a winner," Yost said. "I think that's an attractive thing. Before, we had trouble attracting free agents because we weren't winning. We were winning 72, 74 games a year. Free agents that can take their pick ... they want to go to a winner. So I think definitely we're more attractive."

Not a fan of win stat
Young, the Game 1 winning pitcher and the scheduled Game 4 starter, has mentioned before how much he doesn't like or trust the "win" statistic for pitchers. He reiterated that stance on Friday.

"I don't really get caught up in the statistics," Young said. "There are a number of pitchers that deserved to win in that [Game 1] the other night. I just happened to get it.

"Individual wins and losses are somewhat -- I don't know -- it's crazy for me to think that a pitcher gets an individual win and loss. When the Cleveland Cavaliers win a game, LeBron James doesn't get the win. Tony Romo doesn't get it for the Dallas Cowboys; it's the team. Baseball is the same way. It's a team sport. It's an individual team sport, but collectively it takes everybody to win these games.

"So I don't really look at it -- I'm just happy to be part of a great team, a winning team and for the opportunity they've given me. And all the statistics, maybe one day I'll look back on it and appreciate it. But if a win was defined a different way 150 years ago, I probably wouldn't have had it."