Daily Clips
April 8, 2018
LOCAL
Duda's HR enough as KC freezes out Tribe
April 7, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Karns throws side session, still needs DL time
Righty out with elbow injury, headed to Royals 'pen when ready
April 7, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
New Royals reliever Justin Grimm is working himself into Ned Yost's circle of trust
April 7, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
Lucas Duda, Ian Kennedy come through in Royals' 1-0 win over Indians
April 7, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
The Royals' offense has been frozen. Will it heat up with the weather?
April 7, 2018By Rustin Dodd/The Athletic
After being thrown a career curveball, reliever Justin Grimm seeks to settle into a setup role with the Royals
April 7, 2018By Rustin Dodd/The Athletic
MINORS
Omaha, Colorado Springs Split Sat. Twinbill
Dini delivers homer, Arteaga slaps walk-off single in game 1
April 7, 2018By Andrew Green/Omaha Storm Chasers
Naturals fall in finale to Hooks, 8-2
OF Anderson Miller went 2-for-4 with his first home run of the season in the loss to Corpus Christi
April 7, 2018By Northwest Arkansas Naturals
Big Inning Leads Wilmington Past Potomac
Blue Rocks Plate Four in the Fourth to Outlast Nationals
April 7, 2018By Wilmington Blue Rocks
NATIONAL
Flowery Branch grad Brad Keller making most of unexpected opportunity with Kansas City Royals
Rule-5 draft pick has thrown more than 3 shutout innings for Kansas City
April 7, 2018By Sarah Woodall/Gainesville Times
Chisenhall likely needs DL stint for calf injury
Indians right fielder exits in 2nd inning; Naquin a potential callup
April 7, 2018By Jordan Bastian/MLB.com
MLB TRANSACTIONS
April 8, 2018 •.CBSSports.com
LOCAL
Duda's HR enough as KC freezes out Tribe
April 7, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Pitch for pitch, quick out for quick out, Royals right-hander Ian Kennedy said he was matched up as much against Indians right-hander Trevor Bauer as he was Cleveland's hitters.
"We were both making quick outs, same thing back and forth, all game," Kennedy said. "You're not allowing yourself to get too tight in between [innings], and you want to get back out there."
Bauer flinched first, giving up a solo home run to Lucas Duda, which was all the scoring in the Royals' 1-0 win over the Tribe on Saturday at frigid Progressive Field. Game time temperature was 34 degrees with the wind chill at 25 degrees.
"It's hard to get a grip on the baseball," Kennedy said. "The ball feels like it's an ice cube when it's thrown to you. And you start to get a little cold in your bottom half at the end of the game. Your flexibility starts to die down a little bit."
But Kennedy was spot on with all his pitches, especially his four-seam fastball and changeup. He went six innings and gave up four hits while walking none and striking out eight.
Kennedy's biggest scare came in the sixth when Francisco Lindor ripped a curveball off the left-center-field wall. With one out, Lindor stole third, literally with Kennedy's back turned. Kennedy had stepped off the mound for a timeout, but home-plate umpire Will Little ruled Kennedy had his foot back on the rubber and the ball was in play.
Royals manager Ned Yost, who asked for an explanation, said later, "It's hard to argue that because I'm not watching or looking up to see that."
Kennedy came back and struck out Jose Ramirez for the second out, and then got Michael Brantley to fly out, stranding Lindor. But Kennedy still seemed a little annoyed at the ruling.
"There's plenty of times I'm waiting on the hitter to get comfortable," Kennedy said. "Ramirez was back in the box not even a second. That's what aggravated me a little bit that the umpire called it and said as soon as I got back engaged on the rubber, it was all back in play. I'd never heard of that."
Duda's homer, his second, came on a first-pitch four-seamer from Bauer leading off the seventh.
"Just got lucky," Duda said.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Bauer bests Butera: Alcides Escobar snapped Kansas City's 0-for-14 start to the day with a two-out single into right field in the fifth, igniting a brief rally for the Royals.
Bauer wound up with runners on second and third against Drew Butera, who fought back from an 0-2 hole to work the count full. Bauer then fired a low-and-outside two-seamer with late run, and catcher Roberto Perez presented the pitch well enough to net a called third strike. Butera argued the call to no avail, and Bauer walked off the mound with a great escape.
Boyer holds off Tribe: The Indians threatened to tie it in the seventh off Royals reliever Blaine Boyer. After two quick outs, Boyer got Rajai Davis down 0-2, but gave up a single to right. After a stolen base and a throwing error put Davis on third, Boyer walked Perez on a close 3-2 call. Bradley Zimmer followed with a liner right to first baseman Cheslor Cuthbert to preserve Kansas City's lead.
"Pitched him right where we were playing him," Boyer said with a smile.
QUOTABLE
"That's huge. That puts the tying run in scoring position. With his speed, he can score even on a line drive, so that was a huge out for us." -- Butera, on throwing out Lindor on an attempted steal with one out in eighth inning
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
• When Bauer struck out Whit Merrifield in the fourth inning, it was Merrifield's first strikeout since Sept. 25, a span of 50 plate appearances -- it had been the longest active streak in the Major Leagues.
• Perez made a throwing error while trying to nab Escobar on a steal of second in the fifth inning, marking the first error of the year for the Indians. It marked the first time since at least 1908 that Cleveland opened a season with seven straight error-free games.
MITEL REPLAY OF THE DAY
In the home half of the fifth, Davis sent a chopper to second baseman Ryan Goins, who fielded and flipped the ball to first in one motion with his glove. The speedy Davis was called out on the bang-bang play, but the Indians challenged the ruling. After review, the out call stood.
CHISENHALL EXITS
Indians right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall made made three catches in the outfield in the first two innings, but then left the game before batting in the second. He was replaced by Davis. Chisenhall departed with a right calf injury and is likely headed to the disabled list, according to Indians manager Terry Francona. More >
WHAT'S NEXT
Right-hander Jason Hammel takes the mound for the Royals in the series finale against the Indians on Sunday at 12:10 p.m. CT. Hammel gave up seven hits and five runs over five innings in the Royals' 6-1 loss to Detroit on Monday. Right-hander Mike Clevinger is scheduled to take the mound for the Indians. In his 2018 debut, Clevinger held the Angels scoreless over 5 1/3 innings.
Karns throws side session, still needs DL time
Righty out with elbow injury, headed to Royals 'pen when ready
April 7, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
The Royals had held out some hope that right-hander Nate Karns, on the disabled list with elbow inflammation, could have been activated by this weekend. That won't happen.
"He's getting closer," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "He threw on the side today. We'd like to get that fluid out soon, just get him going. We need to get him going."
Yost said he wasn't sure if the cold conditions on the road trip were holding Karns, 30, back from his progression.
"Hard to say but you just have to deal with it," Yost said.
Karns, a longtime starter, will go to the bullpen when he is activated.
Slow start for Soler
The Royals had been hoping to get Jorge Soler somewhere near 500-600 at-bats this season. But Yost also has been trying to get all his position players some playing time early in the season, which is why Ryan Goins started at second base, pushing Whit Merrifield to right field in Soler's spot.
Soler also has yet to get his first hit in 2018, going 0-for-11. Yost said he hasn't seen any specific issues in Soler's swing.
"I haven't seen anything [offensively] from anyone," Yost said. "You can't even answer that question with what we've been through, with the weather and [postponements] and everything."
But, Yost has been impressed with what he has seen from outfielder and leadoff man Jon Jay, who was hitting .333 through five games and had drawn four walks.
"You go back and look at his track record and most of [what we heard] is right on," Yost said. "He's always been a .280 or .290 hitter [.289 lifetime]. He gives you what's called a solid professional at-bat."
New Royals reliever Justin Grimm is working himself into Ned Yost's circle of trust
April 7, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
When general manager Dayton Moore and the Royals front office discussed improving their bullpen this spring, they went down the line of relievers and took stock of what those relievers offered.
They hoped Tim Hill’s funky, side-winding delivery would confuse hitters — at least for a while. They hoped left-hander Brian Flynn, who was injured most of last season, would return to his 2016 form and reach back for a sinker that batters had averaged .174 against. They hoped Rule 5 acquisitions Burch Smith and Brad Keller would find ways to command their powerful fastballs against major-league competition, and they hoped Brandon Maurer would throw a change-up like he did when he was with the Padres in 2016.
Outside of the high 90s fastball Kelvin Herrera could be counted on to employ, all the Royals front office staff could do when it came to their bullpen was hope.
So when reliever Justin Grimm was released by the Chicago Cubs — with whom he’d spent four-plus seasons — on March 15, the Royals jumped. They signed the 29-year-old right-hander to a one-year contract within three days of his release, ignoring the four earned runs he’d given up in four Cactus League outings with the Cubs this spring.
They did so because Grimm possessed one thing the Royals bullpen lacked: a curveball, one that few relievers in baseball could match just two seasons ago.
And at its best, it fools hitters straight out of Grimm’s right hand.
“He tries to throw it as hard as he can to get that spin, and that makes that four-seam fastball and curveball even that much better, just because it’s deceptive,” said Royals catcher Cam Gallagher.
In 2016, Grimm threw the best curveball among relievers, according to Fangraphs. The pitch value of 10.5 was one point better than former White Sox reliever David Robertson, now with the Yankees, and almost four points better than Indians reliever Cody Allen (6.6).
Grimm benefited from the arm angle he uses to throw it, the same slot from which he throws his fastball. Batters will take his arm speed at face value and try to square up a heater, only to find their swing bottom out as the pitch drops into the zone. The pitch generated whiffs about 20 percent of the time in 2016.
“When you aim your curveball you’re throwing it (toward) him,” Grimm said. “It probably pops up a little bit. But when you throw through a curveball it doesn’t pop up at all. It looks (like a) heater out of the hand coming at you and then falls off.”
Grimm was erratic last season, and he finished the year with a 5.53 ERA in 50 games. The value of his curveball tanked to 6.2 in 2017.
Yet batters still found the pitch hard to hit; they hit .155 against it.
The pitch continues to be one of the best facets of his game. It’s the one he goes to for ground-outs and that at its best induces swings and misses 25 percent of the time. It’s a wipeout pitch that typically ranges from 82 to 85 mph. Grimm struck out 40 batters on the curveball last year.
Grimm, who was demoted and appeared in 10 games at Class AAA Iowa last season, still struck out 59 batters in 55 1/3 innings with the Cubs.
“His breaking ball is a hammer breaking ball,” Royals manager Ned Yost said this week. “I mean his breaking ball reminds me of Don Sutton’s breaking ball. And by that I mean, if you can get to two strikes without using that breaking ball, you’re done.”
This early in the season, it’s too soon to predict how well Grimm will do. In 2015, he ranked fifth among National League relievers with a strikeout-per-nine-innings rate of 12.14 and posted a career-best 1.99 ERA. So far in his first four appearances with the Royals, he’s shown glimmers of potential.
Last Saturday, he took the ball from starter Ian Kennedy in the seventh inning and struck out the first White Sox batter he faced on an 81 mph curveball that dropped right above the bottom of the strike zone. Although he then allowed a single to Tim Anderson and watched him steal second base, Grimm got a ground-out and a struck out a batter, stranding Anderson at third.
In a relief appearance against the Tigers on Tuesday, Grimm inherited a leadoff runner from Jakob Junis and promptly retired three batters on five pitches.
On Saturday in Cleveland, he worked around Francisco Lindor’s leadoff single in the eighth inning without allowing a run. He recorded his third hold.
Grimm’s performance in high-leverage situations has gradually propelled him into Yost’s circle of trust. And if Grimm continues on this path, it may be hard for Maurer — who figured to be the Royals’ setup man — to break back in.
“If you succeed in that opportunity, your leverage situations are going to increase until you get to the point where I set in my mind you’re my eighth-inning guy,” Yost said. “Is he working that way? Yeah.”
Lucas Duda, Ian Kennedy come through in Royals' 1-0 win over Indians
April 7, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
Royals catcher Drew Butera stood underneath a heat lamp in the visiting dugout at Progressive Field on Saturday afternoon, his arms extended toward the ceiling to absorb the warmth. He had pulled off his batting gloves and was holding them between his fingers, as though to warm them up, too.
“I’ll try anything,” he said.
The average temperature across the Royals' first five games of the season was 41 degrees. The game-time temperature here on Saturday for their sixth game of the season ended up being 34 degrees.
So Butera and the Royals needed to thaw out.
Not only because of the cold, but also because in the week since pitcher Ian Kennedy had made his first start of the year, the Royals only scored four runs in three games. With a pair of games postponed because of snow and two off days, there had been no time for the Royals to get into any kind of rhythm.
The thawing had to come now, in the middle game of the first series of the season they will be able to complete — the weather on Sunday, despite being chilly, should permit it.
The thawing had to be efficient.
"It felt like again runs were going to be hard to come by," manager Ned Yost said.
They were. But it was the Royals who got the only run of the game: They beat the Indians 1-0.
The de-icing wasn’t storybook economical. The Royals stranded four runners. They didn't take advantage of Alcides Escobar and Alex Gordon stealing bases in the fifth inning. Instead, Butera fell victim to a strike called just off the right corner of the zone by home-plate umpire Will Little.
But what the Royals did, especially when held to three hits over Indians starter Trevor Bauer's eight innings, was enough.
With a swing on Bauer’s first pitch of the seventh inning, Lucas Duda cranked the Royals’ hardest-hit ball of the game 408 feet to right field for a home run. It was all the Royals needed to enter the win column for just the second time this season. The Royals improved to 2-4.
In getting there, the Royals got another stellar performance from Kennedy, who continued a string of 11 scoreless innings dating to last Saturday, when he allowed one run in the first inning and blanked the White Sox the rest of the way in what became a no-decision.
Kennedy struck out eight Indians on Saturday, scattered four hits and located 75 of his 101 pitches for strikes over six innings.
"The pitching on both sides was tremendous," Yost said. "Bauer was really sharp, spotting his fastball. It seemed like he could throw that breaking ball for strikes any time he wanted to. But Ian matched him. Threw good breaking balls, spotted his fastball."