The Royals lose their 2nd spring training game to the Indians by a score of 9-5. There were some positives and negatives including Brady Singer and Jackson Kowar. The pitching had its ups and downs including a 1-2-3 inning with 2 strikeouts. Scott Blewett, who got the start went 2 scoreless with 1 strikeout but didn’t surrender much hard contact.
The Royals struck first in the bottom of the 2nd with a Bubba Starling homerun. The Indians at the top of the 3rd tied the game at 1-1 on an RBI double by Kungkuan Giljegiljaw. In the top of the 5th, the Indians struck again with a 2 run single by Mike Freeman. In then 6th, Franmil Reyes homered off of Jesse Hahn. In the bottom of the 6th, Kelvin Guttierez cut the Indians lead to 1 on an RBI single that scored Nick Heath and Khalil Lee. in the 7th Jackson Kowar allowed a homerun to Gavin Collins. Cleveland added 2 more runs off of Kowar on an RBI single and error by Kelvin Guttierez. The Indians scored 2 more in the top of the 9th, on a Ka’ai Tom single. Royals showed some life in the bottom of the 9th with a Kelvin Guttierez double and MJ Melendez pop fly which made the game 9-4. Then Matt Reynolds reached on a throwing error and Kyle Isbel scored but unfortunately, the Royals rally ended after that.
Positives
Nicky Lopez looks like he added some more pop this offseason after just missing a home run. Brady Singer looked like he was ready he was pitching with authority and was getting out major league players. Even though Kowar allowed 3 runs he showed so good off-speed and was just really unlucky that inning hopefully he bounces back next time. Speedsters Khalil Lee and Nick Heath perfectly executed a hit and run which led to both eventually scoring. In today’s B game vs. the Rangers Kris Bubic and Daniel Lynch, both pitched really well. Bubic was even making Rangers hitters look bad because of his stuff.
Negatives
Kyle Zimmer did not look very good. He got two outs but then struggled with command walking 2 straight. Kevin McCarthy also struggled in the top of the 9th. Jackson Kowar allowed 3 runs but he’ll hopefully come back stronger. But I’m not going to dwell on the negatives just because it is spring training.
The Royals look to get their first win @2:05 tomorrow vs. the Padres. Brad Keller will be getting the start.
