Royals played their first spring training game today, unfortunately, the Royals couldn’t pull out the win.
Royals started off early with a Salvador Perez walk and Jorge Soler moonshot which made the game 2-0. Ryan O’Hearn also homered in the bottom of the 6th which was good to see from the player that struggled in 2019. The Royals had the Rangers down 3-0 until Rob Refsnyder hit a 2 run home run off of Eric Skoglund in the 7th inning. In the bottom of the 8th, Nick Heath doubled and was driven in by Khalil Lee who was thrown at trying to stretch his single into a double that made the game 4-3 Royals. Royals had the Rangers down to their final strike but Kelvin Guttierez missed a ball then tried to throw out runner Henry Ramos but shortstop Jeison Guzman made an error allowing the 2nd runner to score. Chance Adams was able to get the 3rd out on a popout.
The Royals were still pretty good on the pitching side. Jorge Lopez put up 2 scoreless. Stephen Woods Jr the Rule 5 pick had a 1-2-3 inning while hitting 95 on the radar gun. Trevor Rosenthal struck out 2 while hitting 99 MPH on his best pitch. Braden Shipley had a scoreless inning. Staumont struck out the side while hitting 102 on the radar gun. Jake Newberry pitched pretty well too over his 1.1 innings.
The Royals had almost rallied in the bottom of the 9th in which Nick Heath walked and Khalil Lee hit a ball that would have ended the game with a HR if not for the wind.
It is the first game of spring training there you like to see the good things but not dwell on the bad ones. Tomorrow the Royals are scheduled to take on the Angels at 2:10 PM CST.
