Daily Clips
April 15, 2018
LOCAL
Royals, Junis' scoreless streak fall in snow
April 14, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Salvy sent out on Double-A rehab assignment
April 14, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Jakob Junis falters as frigid Royals fall 5-3 to Angels
April 14, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
Cold Front: In midst of April tailspin, Royals try to remain in good spirits
April 15, 2018By Rustin Dodd/The Athletic
MINORS
Chasers Blank Sounds for 1st Road Win, 5-0
O'Hearn drives in 3; Barlow strong on the mound
April 14, 2018By Omaha Storm Chasers
Five Run Explosion Leads Rocks to Victory
Wilmington Scores Five Runs in Seventh
April 14, 2018By Wilmington Blue Rocks
Lexington Relievers Ensure Game Three Victory Over Augusta
April 14, 2018By Lexington Legends
NATIONAL
There’s a stat for that: Tracking defensive misplays with Sports Info Solutions' supplemental scoring system
April 14, 2018By Mark Simon/The Athletic
Home runs are down — and early data shows changes to the ball may be one reason why
April 12, 2018By Rob Arthur/The Athletic
Jackie's legacy endures on field, in the stands
April 14, 2018By Mike Lupica/MLB.com
MLB batters getting hit by pitches at a historic rate - and tensions are high
April 14, 2018By Scott Boeck/USA Today
MLB TRANSACTIONS
April 15, 2018 •.CBSSports.com
LOCAL
Royals, Junis' scoreless streak fall in snow
April 14, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Royals right-hander Jakob Junis was bound to give up a run at some point this season.
And the red-hot Angels were more than happy to oblige, belting three home runs -- including a mammoth shot by Mike Trout -- on their way to a 5-3 win over the Royals at blistery Kauffman Stadium on Saturday night.
Wind chills dipped below 30 degrees as the game progressed, as a strong northerly wind pushed snow and rain into the area.
Junis was perfect through the first two innings, extending his scoreless streak to 16 frames, the third-longest streak by a Royals starter to open the season. Zack Greinke holds the club record with 20 straight in 2009.
Junis' streak ended in the third when Luis Valbuena ripped a homer run to right on a 2-1 sinker. Justin Upton then smashed a 1-0 curveball into the left-field seats to open the fourth.
And Trout mauled a 2-2 slider with a man on in the fifth, a 439-foot homer off the Royals' Hall of Fame building in left field.
Junis' night ended shortly thereafter, finishing after 4 2/3 innings, allowing seven hits, four earned runs, one walk, and striking out seven.
Mike Moustakas hit his third home run for the Royals amidst the snow in the eighth inning.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
First-pitch swinging: The Royals were threatening to make a game of it in the fifth when Angels starter Garrett Richards lost his arm slot and began bouncing pitches to the backstop. Richards walked Lucas Duda, then threw a wild pitch. With one out, Paulo Orlando got the Royals' first hit, a single to right as Duda advanced to third. Moments later, a wild pitch moved Orlando to second as Duda held at third. Moments after that, a third wild pitch plated Duda and pushed Orlando to third. Ryan Goins then drew a walk. But Escobar helped Richards out and ended the rally by suddenly swinging at the first pitch in his at-bat, rolling into a 5-4-3 double play.
Just missed: The Royals mounted another rally in the seventh. Jorge Soler singled, Orlando walked and Drew Butera drove in a run with a single. A walk loaded the bases and Whit Merrifield drove a deep fly that seemed to die just before the warning track in the midst of a wind-driven snow
Merrifield hit it 90 mph, per Statcast™.
"I've hit balls worse than that that have been homers," Merrifield said. "But a day like today, it's probably going to get held up in the wind."
SOUND SMART
Merrifield made his first big league start in center field for the Royals on Saturday, and became the first player in the Majors this season to start at five different positions, including DH.
HE SAID IT
"Under (Moustakas') leadership, under Lucas Duda's leadership, Jon Jay in there. That locker room -- they're maintaining a very steady amount of level-headedness, if you will. They continue to battle. As long as they continue to push and battle, they're gonna get through it and they know it. It's evident with the way they're competing every single day, at least to my eyes. I still feel like this team is gonna get it together, and we're gonna get on a little bit of a run." -- Royals manager Ned Yost on the team's 3-10 start
UP NEXT
The Royals and Angels wrap up the four-game series on Sunday at 1:15 p.m. CT at Kauffman Stadium and both teams will honor the 71st anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball. All players, managers, coaches and umpires will wear Robinson's No. 42. Left-hander Eric Skoglund (0-1, 9.64 ERA) will start for the Royals and be opposed by right-hander Shohei Ohtani (2-0, 2.08 ERA).
Salvy sent out on Double-A rehab assignment
April 14, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
On Saturday, the Royals sent catcher Salvador Perez out on a rehab assignment to Double-A Northwest Arkansas, which is currently playing in San Antonio, Texas.
Perez was put on the 10-day disabled list on March 29 with a Grade 2 MCL tear in his left knee. He suffered the injury when he took a misstep at his home while carrying his Spring Training luggage up a flight of stairs.
Royals manager Ned Yost did not offer a time frame for Perez's rehab assignment.
"Probably won't be that long," Yost said. "I know he's anxious to get back."
It's possible Perez could be ready for the Royals' next homestand, which starts April 24.
Yost indicated that Perez will catch for 3-5 innings on Sunday, then serve as the designated hitter on Monday, and go 3-5 innings again at catcher on Tuesday. If all goes well, Perez then will possibly progress to back-to-back games at catcher.
Mondesi, Starling getting closer
Infielder Adalberto Mondesi (shoulder impingement) began playing games in the field in extended spring training on Saturday, club officials said.
Outfielder Bubba Starling (oblique strain) is expected to begin extended spring training games in 3-4 days.
Both players would need about 30-40 at-bats in extended spring training before being activated and sent out to Triple-A Omaha.
Jakob Junis falters as frigid Royals fall 5-3 to Angels
April 14, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
Royals starting pitcher Jakob Junis snatched a baseball out of the air right after he watched a different one slice through the rain-thick sky at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday evening.
Angels center fielder Mike Trout had barely begun his trot around the bases, but there was no doubt about the ball Trout hammered to left field in the fifth inning. In a span of 5.5 seconds, it had vanquished the gusting wind, cleared the fence and dumped into the porch above the visitors' bullpen.
The 429-foot blast was Trout's sixth homer of the season, the 207th of his career.
And it was the final of three home runs relinquished by Junis on a miserably cold night in which Junis wobbled on the mound for the first time all month. Instead of ending the Royals’ losing streak, Junis allowed his first runs of the season and the Royals lost 5-3.
Mike Moustakas tried to spark a rally in the eighth, leading off with his third homer of the year. But the Royals didn't capitalize on the momentum. They lost a fifth straight game and fell to 3-10 to start the season.
Yet as the Royals secured their worst 13-game start since 2012, when they were also 3-10, panic has not set in.
"They continue to battle," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "As long as they continue to push and battle, they’re gonna get through it and they know it. It’s evident with the way they’re competing every single day, at least to my eyes."
In only 18 career starts, Junis had made a reputation for himself as the Royals’ stopper — the pitcher in their rotation who can buck a losing trend. The Royals were 8-2 when he started a game after a Royals loss, and he posted a 2.83 ERA in those games.
If the Royals needed to shake off a slump, Junis was their guy. He was that guy in his season debut in Detroit, when he battled cold rain through seven-plus scoreless innings and earned the victory in the Royals’ first win of the season. And he was that guy on Monday, when he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and gave the Royals their third — and most recent — victory.
Without agonizing over the pressure to perform after a Royals loss, Junis thrived. He amassed a 5-1 record and allowed 19 earned runs over 60 1/3 innings.
But after two perfect innings on Saturday, Junis crumpled.
A Luis Valbuena leadoff homer in the third inning snapped Junis’ season-opening scoreless-inning streak at 16. The Angels scored again when Justin Upton homered leading off the fourth.
By the time Yost removed Junis from the game in the fifth, Junis had walked Zack Cozart on four pitches and lost control of the sixth pitch of Trout's at-bat.
"I was trying to go away from Trout," said Junis, who was charged wiith four runs on seven hits. "And it snuck in on him. It was a good at-bat. He fouled off a lot of heaters. Fought off a lot of pitches. Tried to mix it up with the slider and missed my spot."
The Royals threatened Angels starting pitcher Garrett Richards’ lead in the bottom of the fifth. Richards struggled to find the zone in the inning — he threw three wild pitches and another that chopped high above the plate and was saved by catcher Rene Rivera — and the Royals drew two walks. Lucas Duda scored on one of the wild pitches.
Before the Royals could wreak further havoc on Richards, who had been working on a perfect game until he issued a leadoff walk to Duda, Alcides Escobar grounded into an inning-ending double play.
But the Angels' top-ranked offense, which entered Saturday with a major-league best .294 batting average and 98 runs, went cold as the steady rain at Kauffman Stadium turned into a light snow shower.
Royals relievers Brian Flynn and Burch Smith combined to hold the Angels to just one unearned run on two hits in 4 1/3 innings.
They made it possible for the offense to chip at the Angels' lead.
For Yost, the effort was enough of a silver lining.
"I still feel like this team is gonna get it together and we’re gonna get on a little bit of a run," Yost said.
Cold Front: In midst of April tailspin, Royals try to remain in good spirits
April 15, 2018By Rustin Dodd/The Athletic
A day before their latest low on the season, before an outfielder dropped a routine fly ball, before a shortstop grounded into another double play and the Royals remained winless in games in which their opponent scores, Kansas City pitcher Jason Hammel stood near the corner of the clubhouse in deep thought late Friday night.
He had just watched the bullpen blow its third save. He had witnessed his team’s fourth straight loss. He had suffered through an April that has been defined by miserable weather and frigid temperatures and a toothless attack.
“There should naturally be some frustration,” he said. “[We’re] just not quite getting it done.”
If the Royals’ frustrations had begun to surface on Friday, they spilled over on Saturday night in a 5-3 loss to the Angels at Kauffman Stadium, giving Kansas City a 3-10 start to the season. Starting pitcher Jakob Junis was bombarded for four runs in 4 2/3 innings after opening the season with 16 clean frames. The offense was dormant for four innings before managing its first hit in the bottom of the fifth against Angels right-hander Garrett Richards. The night — a brutal April evening fraught with swirling snow and a wind chill that dipped below freezing — was low-lighted by a soft fly ball from the bat of Angels first baseman Jefry Marte in the sixth.
The bloopers had now seemingly become routine. Royals reliever Brian Flynn was on the mound. The Angels, leading by four runs, had a man on with one out. Right fielder Jorge Soler shuffled toward the right field line, tracking the baseball with his eyes, positioning himself for a catch. Yet as the baseball touched the leather of his glove, his eyes looked back toward the infield. The baseball pop into the air and landed softly on the outfield grass. The error gifted the Angels their fifth run of the game.
“He was running on his heels, probably,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “I got no issue with that all, whatsoever, none, zero. It was a mistake. It happens.”
Soler, once maligned for his defensive performance, had spent all spring smoothing out the rough edges in his game. He had drilled on his routes. He had worked on shoulder turns and hitting the cutoff man. On one morning, Yost said he’d barely noticed Soler’s defense in right field. This was viewed as a positive.
On this night, however, everyone noticed Soler’s gaffe. It was not the only curious moment. In the bottom of the fifth, the Royals threatened against Richards, who had surrendered two walks and a single while flinging three wild pitches. The sequence ended a no-hit bid and a shutout — and featured one pitch that spiked onto the grass in front of home plate.
Yet as Kansas City shortstop Alcides Escobar stepped to the plate with runners at the corners, he saw just one pitch, hacking at a 95-mph fastball and hitting into an inning-ending double play.
These are the day-to-day woes of a struggling team that is struggling. To this point, the Royals have avoided the kind of frustration that can eat at a clubhouse. The room has remained upbeat, players say, as the season is still young. Whit Merrifield, who made his first career start in center field on Saturday, said the team was “in good spirits.”
The starting pitching has been strong. A crew of veterans keeps showing up for work and leading by example. A cast of young pitchers still appreciates the opportunity. The clubhouse has leaned on the leadership of veterans Mike Moustakas and Lucas Duda. Much of the message has been unsaid.
“It’s pretty understood,” Merrifield said. “Guys are in a good place. We know we’re going out there, we’re putting in the work. We’re playing hard, and we’re doing things that we think we need to do to win.”
For now, there is little else to say. The clubhouse was quiet again after Saturday night’s loss. The postgame victory music was canceled for another night. The room has sought to weather the turbulence, and, well, the weather.
Although the Royals’ fifth straight loss did not shake a clubhouse that is stocked with veterans, the numbers are grisly all the same: The bullpen has logged a 6.99 ERA, the worst in baseball. The offense is averaging just three runs per game, also the worst in baseball. This is not a recipe to win.
The Royals have started a season with three wins or fewer in their first 13 games for just the fifth time since 1992. In the moments after the loss, Yost attempted to mask any lingering frustration.
“I’m real pleased with their attitude,” said Yost. “Under Moose’s leadership, under Duda’s leadership, and Jon Jay in there, that locker room [is] maintaining a very steady amount of level-headedness.”
The 1992 season remains the benchmark for April misery: The Royals opened the season with 16 losses in their first 17 games. This is not that. Yet the concern remains: Only four times since then — 2006, 2008, 2012 and this year — has a Royals team started this slowly. In those previous four seasons, the franchise averaged 92 losses. In 2012, the team suffered through 11 straight losses before the momentum started to shift.
“It’s a very long season,” Hammel said. “We got the players here to make it spin. I’m not worried about it. I know the rest of the guys aren’t worried about it.”
So, yes, for the moment, there is more concern outside the clubhouse than in, more panic outside the house than inside the kitchen. The Royals had not lost five straight games since last August. Their home run production is only coming from two players (Moustakas and Duda), and Soler is batting .216 with zero power. And the list goes on.
On Sunday, the Royals will face Angels starter Shohei Ohtani, and will attempt to avoid a four-game sweep.
On a cold, frosty night at Kauffman Stadium, there was but one moment of good news. Catcher Salvador Perez, who had 27 home runs and 80 RBIs last season, left the team to start a rehab assignment for his torn left MCL with Double-A Northwest Arkansas in San Antonio. Maybe he’s back in a week, maybe it’ll take a little longer. Who know? For now, he is one step closer to returning to a roster than is in desperate need of offense. Maybe his return will offer a much-needed spark for Kansas City. At the very least, let’s hope Perez packed light for San Antonio.