Daily Clips
May 4, 2018
LOCAL
4 Duda RBIs, 3 HRs power KC past Tigers
May 3, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Gordon regains confidence with hot run at plate
Royals outfielder notches three hits, including homer, in win over Tigers
May 3, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Alex Gordon stays hot as Royals get rare series-opening victory over Tigers
May 3, 2018By Blair Kerkhoff/KC Star
Jorge Soler obliterated a baseball. MLB hasn't seen this sort of turnaround in a while
May 3, 2018By Sam Mellinger/KC Star
A short history of oddities that have happened at Royals' ‘School Day at The K’
May 3, 2018By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
Ned Yost pranked his wife into believing he was caught in a tornado on Wednesday
May 3, 2018`By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
Ned Yost says mechanics to blame for Danny Duffy’s disastrous outing against Red Sox
May 3, 2018By Blair Kerkhoff/KC Star
Alex Gordon stays hot and builds confidence at the plate with a home run against the Tigers
May 3, 2018By Rustin Dodd/The Athletic
MINORS
Chasers Take Series with 6-4 Win
Omaha win 3rd in a row, return home tomorrow
May 3, 2018By Omaha Storm Chasers
Naturals Bounce Back Behind Sparkman
RHP Glenn Sparkman fired 8.0 innings of two-run baseball in the 9-2 win over the Springfield Cardinals
May 3, 2018By Northwest Arkansas Naturals
Rocks Drop Series Finale Against P-Nats
Blue Rocks Offense Held in Check in Setback
May 3, 2018By Wilmington Blue Rocks
Lexington Legends Have First Taste Of Extra Innings and Fall to Columbia Fireflies, 4-3
May 3, 2018By LEX18 Lexington KY News
NATIONAL
KC’s Scott Barlow on His MLB Debut
May 3, 2018By David Laurila/FanGraphs
These are the AL Central's best pitches
May 3, 2018By Jordan Bastian/MLB.com
Ichiro transitioning from field to front office
Iconic outfielder 'not retiring'; return next season possible
May 3, 2018By Greg Johns/MLB.com
MLB TRANSACTIONS
May 4, 2018 •.CBSSports.com
LOCAL
4 Duda RBIs, 3 HRs power KC past Tigers
May 3, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Over the past week, Royals manager Ned Yost has said repeatedly that he is seeing his offense methodically come out of its season-long funk.
On Thursday against Detroit at Kauffman Stadium, the Royals' offense surfaced in a big way in a 10-6 win over the Tigers. The 10 runs were the most Kansas City has scored since April 9.
Alex Gordon and Jorge Soler homered to continue their hot streaks, and catcher Salvador Perez also hit a two-run shot, while Lucas Duda had three hits and four RBIs.
"We just knew it would be a matter of time before we got the offense a little on track," Yost said. "It's definitely trending that way for us."
Added Duda, "I like where the offense is right now."
Gordon also recorded three hits to raise his batting average to .303, while Soler, whose home run traveled a projected 441 feet per Statcast™, now has a nine-game hitting streak.
"When I hit it, I took my eyes off it," Soler said through interpreter Pedro Grifol. "But [my teammates] told me where it landed. Over the [fountains]."
The Royals needed as much offense as they could get on a day in which starter Eric Skoglund struggled, giving up five runs on eight hits over 4 2/3 innings.
"He threw some really good curveballs and some rollers," Yost said. "Just wasn't exceptionally sharp like last time but competed well enough to get us into the fifth. He was starting to hit a wall to me then."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Reliever Kevin McCarthy gave the Royals three scoreless innings late in an extra-innings win over Boston on Tuesday, and he came through again on Thursday. McCarthy came into the game with the Royals clinging to a 7-6 lead with one out in the sixth and runners on first and second. McCarthy got JaCoby Jones to hit a soft liner to shortstop Alcides Escobar, who flipped back to second base for an easy double play when Tigers pinch-runner Niko Goodrum strayed off the bag. McCarthy then pitched a 1-2-3 seventh.
"McCarthy … did a great job," Yost said. "We were just trying to get through it with our bullpen, and he came in and did a great job."
ROYALS OUTRIGHT MAURER
After the win, the Royals announced they have outrighted reliever Brandon Maurer to Triple-A Omaha. The move creates an open spot on Kansas City's 40-man roster.
UP NEXT
Right-hander Ian Kennedy (1-3, 3.48 ERA) takes the mound for the Royals in Game 2 of the series with the Tigers at 7:15 p.m. CT on Friday. Left-hander Francisco Liriano (3-1, 3.38) pitches for Detroit. Kennedy gave up two runs on two walks and five hits over five innings while striking out six on Sunday in a no-decision against the White Sox.
Gordon regains confidence with hot run at plate
Royals outfielder notches three hits, including homer, in win over Tigers
May 3, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Something has gotten into Royals outfielder Alex Gordon lately. Always known for his Gold Glove Award-winning defense, Gordon is suddenly hitting like it's 2015, and he's providing a big boost to the bottom of the Royals' lineup.
After two disappointing offensive seasons, Gordon has been on a tear since coming off the disabled list on April 24. Since then, Gordon is slashing .372/.426/.558 with two home runs and two doubles.
Gordon notched three more hits in the Royals' 10-6 win over the Tigers on Thursday. His solo home run traveled a Statcast-projected 422 feet over the right-field fence on a changeup from Tigers right-hander Mike Fiers.
After helping the Royals to a World Series championship in 2015 with an .809 OPS, Gordon slumped to a .692 OPS in '16 and a .608 OPS last year.
Asked if his confidence offensively is near where it was in 2015, Gordon said, "It's been awhile. Obviously, performance is a result of confidence. And when performance is down, your confidence is down. And that's one thing I've tried to work on this year, to keep believing in yourself the whole year even if things don't go well. I kind of started slow and then went on the DL, and when I came back, I'm staying positive."
Gordon's first home run of the season came in the ninth inning on Tuesday against Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel, a clutch shot that tied a game the Royals won in extra innings.
"He feels really good right now, and I feel really good for him," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "He works so hard. He grinds it out so hard. You'll never know it, but [his offensive slump from past two years] wears on him too. We need his offense. We have to have it."
Gordon's .303 season average following Thursday's win is his highest mark since April 30, 2015. He is vowing to mentally flush the last two seasons.
"I don't really care," Gordon said. "Right now, I just really feel good. I don't care what happened last year or the year before. I'm trying to play hard for the team right now. You can't dwell on negative things from the past."
Alex Gordon stays hot as Royals get rare series-opening victory over Tigers
May 3, 2018By Blair Kerkhoff/KC Star
Of all the positive offensive developments for the Royals in their 10-6 victory over the Tigers on Thursday, three hits by Alex Gordon, including a homer, might be the most significant.
The production pushed Gordon’s batting average to .303 and the three-hit game was his first since last August.
“One thing I wanted to work on this year was just believe in myself the whole year even if things weren’t going well,” Gordon said.
Things haven’t gone well for Gordon at the plate on a consistent basis since 2015. He followed that season by hitting .220 in 2016 and .208 last year. He won his fifth Gold Glove in 2017 but the feeling in the batter’s box was off.
This from a player who ranks in the team’s top 10 in several major career offensive categories.
“Overall I just feel more comfortable right now,” Gordon said. “Short, quick, not trying to do so much. Trying to beat the shift too.”
Beating the shift is important for Gordon, who often finds three infielders on the right side when he steps in the box.
Thursday, he collected two shift-beating singles through the middle, and when he did pull a pitch it landed 422 feet away from the plate for his second homer of the season.
How hot is Gordon? He got off to a slow start this season, hitting .208 before a left hip labral tear. Since his return, Gordon is hitting .372/.426/.558.
The production has been felt throughout the lineup. The Royals remain at the bottom of the AL Central at 9-22, but they’ve won four of six and have averaged six runs per game during that span.
“He feels really good right now I feel good for him,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He works so hard, he grinds it out so hard. You’d never know but it wears on him too. We need his offense. We have to have it. But you feel good for him, too.”
Gordon’s fourth-inning solo home run came during a stretch when both teams scored in every inning from the third to the sixth.
After Royals had taken a 2-0 lead in the first inning, the Tigers responded with two in the third. Salvador Perez’s two-run homer in the bottom half was the answer.
Then Gordon’s blast in the fourth, and Jorge Soler’s 441-foot solo moon shot in the fifth were the responses.
The knockout blow didn’t come from a bomb but from a base hit by Lucas Duda in the sixth.
The Tigers had sliced the Royals' lead to 7-6 when Duda ended a three-run frame by delivering the final two of his four RBIs on the day with a single.
Twice Thursday, Duda came up with two outs and runners in scoring position. Twice, Duda delivered run-scoring singles.
“It’s about making hard contact,” Duda said. “But first you have to give credit to guys getting on base.”
Royals starter Eric Skoglund battled but couldn’t duplicate the effort of his previous outing when he surrendered two hits in seven innings in beating the White Sox.
Skoglund lasted 4 2/3 innings and turned it over to a bullpen that came up with some big moments, perhaps none more so than Blaine Boyer against Nicholas Castellanos, who had a homer and double in his first four plate appearances.
But with two on for the Tigers in the eighth, Boyer got a called third strike from umpire Manny Gonzalez to end the inning.
The victory was a rare in this sense: The Royals had only won one series opener in 10 attempts before Thursday. That helps explain why they haven’t won a series all season.
Getting this one off to a good start, and with the way the Royals have been swinging the bats lately, bodes well.
“This is a bit of confidence for us,” Duda said. “We got off to a slow start. It’s an uphill battle. But we’ll keep playing hard.”
Jorge Soler obliterated a baseball. MLB hasn't seen this sort of turnaround in a while
May 3, 2018By Sam Mellinger/KC Star
Happened again. Jorge Soler is what happened again. This used to be a bad thing, you know. Meant he was injured, or demoted, or misplayed a ball in the outfield or made another out. A year ago, few made outs more consistently.
Now, only eight big leaguers are making outs less consistently. The pitch wasn't bad. Change-up, outside corner. But it was just a touch too high. The ball had the severe misfortune of catching the barrel of Soler's bat. He was expecting a fastball, but when it hung up, he kept his weight back just a tick longer and swung the swing of someone who doesn't just want to hit a home run but is playing some sort of side game. Extra points are awarded for distance.
The ball hit the fourth step up behind the fountains in left field at Kauffman Stadium, then bounced over the railing, settling in a strip of grass not far from where the broadcasters do the postgame show. They used to have a pickup truck there. Nobody ever hit it.
"Above the water," Soler said through an interpreter.
The ball left Soler's bat at 108 mph and traveled 441 feet. No Royals player has hit a ball so far. Only 3 percent of the 995 home runs hit before Thursday went farther. He is hitting .312 with a .435 on-base and .538 slugging percentage. He is 26 years old, so this should be the beginning of the best years of his career, and it's hard to watch without contrasting it to tire fire of 2017.
Soler was so unplayably awful last season that you are tempted to overplay the adjectives, so let's start with something that's true: last season, his first with the Royals, he hit .144 with a .245 on-base percentage and .258 slugging percentage across 110 plate appearances. One-hundred forty-four men have hit that poorly in 100 or more plate appearances this century.
Fewer than 10 percent of them managed even a .700 OPS the next season. Fewer still became consistently productive, and, perhaps most descriptively, 50 did not play a single big-league game the next year. Most never played again.
None of the 144 has hit as well as Soler has managed through the season's first five weeks. Still a long way to go, but what we're seeing here so far has no real precedent this century, and perhaps even further back, a guy going from that bad to this good.
"I'm not sure I've seen it," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Not on any team that I've had."
The Royals are 9-22, even after beating the Tigers on Thursday. The compartmentalizing has begun, about who is doing well and can be flipped at the July 31 deadline (Mike Moustakas and Kelvin Herrera) and who is struggling but irrelevant to the future (Blaine Boyer and Lucas Duda).
Of the guys most likely to be around if the Royals start winning again, nobody is having a better start than Soler. His first season will always be part of his story here, because he came in the trade for Wade Davis that perhaps more than any other move demonstrated the Royals' reluctance to choose between trying to win or trying to build.
Soler was injured, demoted, recalled and then demoted again. When he played, he stunk, and everyone knew it. Internally, the Royals always had modest expectations for Soler in 2017. But they didn't think he'd be that bad.
He started over in the offseason, rebuilding his swing and confidence. Internally, the Royals always had higher expectations of what Soler could be in 2018. But they didn't think he'd be this good.
"For me, that guy's incredible," shortstop Alcides Escobar said. "He changed everything. Changed his approach, his defense, changed everything."
Entering Thursday's games, only five American League hitters had a higher walk rate. Only 17 were hitting the ball hard more consistently, per FanGraphs.
Bad enough to be demoted twice last year. Good enough to be a real part of the future this year.
Soler is a noticeably better defender than a year ago. Better reads, particularly at the point of contact. He's better coming in, and better with his feet. He made a diving catch on a ball to his right on Sunday. The day before, he misplayed a ball into a triple. He is far from perfect. Still below average. But closer to it than before.
"He's growing," Alex Gordon said. "He's put a lot of work into it. Constant work, and preparation has helped. He's really taken a lot of pride in getting better at it."
He's growing. That's a good way to put it. After the home run on Thursday, they were laughing in the dugout. Soler really has come a long way in his study of baseball. He was once a grip-and-rip slugger, trying to make everything a highlight, but this year he is essentially attached to an iPad to scout opposing pitchers.
They want him to do his own scouting reports. There's value in the process, in being the one to come up with the answers instead of the one given the answers. The other day in Boston, he presented what he found to coach Pedro Grifol, about how the starting pitcher attacked with various pitches in various situations.
"That's really, really good," Grifol said, in Yost's telling of the story. "There's only one thing wrong. You did it for a left-handed hitter, and you're a right-handed hitter."
Yost said Soler's shoulders dropped, but he did the report for right-handed hitters, too, and on Tuesday night hit the winning home run in the 13th inning. The goof on the scouting report is a point of laughter now, and Soler is in on the joke, a wide smile across his face when you ask if it was just a rookie mistake.
"Sí," he said.
He's learning. He's not all the way there. But so much closer than he used to be.