Daily Clips
April 23, 2017
LOCAL
Kennedy's strong start isn't enough vs. Texas
April 23, 2017By T.R. Sullivan and Dave Sessions/MLB.com
Royals' bats don't pitch in to back Kennedy
April 23, 2017By Dave Sessions
Hammel aiming to shake road woes in Texas
April 23, 2017By T.R. Sullivan/MLB.com
Soler begins injury rehab; Salvy scratched
April 23, 2017By Dave Sessions/MLB.com
Royals’ woes in Texas continue in 2-1 walk-off loss to Rangers
April 23, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
Royals catcher Salvador Perez is scratched from lineup with ‘neck stiffness’
April 23, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
A closer look at the hitch that was causing Matt Strahm’s command issues
April 23, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
MINORS
Chasers Shut Down in New Orleans, 6-0
Omaha's 3-game winning streak ends in series opener
April 23, 2017Omaha Storm Chasers
Naturals sweep Drillers in Doubleheader
The doubleheader sweep of Tulsa gives Northwest Arkansas their first series victory of the 2017 season
April 23, 2017Northwest Arkansas Naturals
Saturday's Game Against Winston-Salem Postponed
Rocks and Dash to Play Doubleheader on Sunday
April 23, 2017Wilmington Blue Rocks
Legends win 4-0; Vines, Davila combine on 4-hitter
April 23, 2017Lexington Legends
MLB TRANSACTIONS
April 22, 2017 •.CBSSports.com
LOCAL
Kennedy's strong start isn't enough vs. Texas
April 23, 2017By T.R. Sullivan and Dave Sessions/MLB.com
Elvis Andrus singled home the winning run in the ninth to give the Rangers a 2-1 walk-off victory over the Royals on Saturday night at Globe Life Park. The Rangers have won three straight in this series -- including two in walk-off fashion -- and nine straight over the Royals dating to last season.
"We feel good," Andrus said. "We were playing good baseball even before these last three games. We knew that as a team, we were going to get back on track, especially our bullpen. We know it's a long season and they're going to do their job. They're too good, too talented for whatever was happening. It's pretty big for us mentally. We're grinding every inning, every at-bat. That's what you want to see as a team."
Royals left-hander Travis Wood entered the game in the ninth and Rougned Odor led off with a single to left. Right-hander Peter Moylan came in to face Andrus and Odor stole second on a 1-0 pitch. Andrus then lined one down the left-field line for the game-winning hit.
Rangers starter Nick Martinez, filling in after A.J. Griffin was placed on the disabled list on Friday night, also went seven innings and allowed just one run on four hits. He walked one and struck out three. Rangers starting pitchers now have a 2.47 ERA in their last 13 games, and have allowed just two runs in 21 innings in three games the Royals.
"I felt great," Martinez said. "Had good rhythm with my mechanics and we had a good game plan."
Royals starter Ian Kennedy held the Rangers to one run -- Mike Napoli's opposite-field homer that traveled a projected 353 feet, according to Statcast™ -- for seven innings, allowing four hits and walking three. Kennedy lowered his ERA to 2.08 in four starts this season, but the Royals have scored only two runs during his 26 innings, a run support average of 0.69.
"I made one mistake today," Kennedy said. "It might have been a little more plate than I wanted, I was trying to get a first-pitch out, trying to go down and away and it maybe ran back a little bit. It's gonna happen, the shortest part of that corner over there [in right field]. He's strong enough to get the barrel on it."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Butera breaks up no-hitter: Martinez took a 1-0 lead and a no-hit bid into the sixth. But with one out, Drew Butera smacked a ground ball through the left side, just beyond the reach of third baseman Joey Gallo and shortstop Andrus for a single. Butera went to second on Alex Gordon's weak grounder to third and scored when Mike Moustakas grounded a two-out single through the middle.
"It creeped in there a little bit ... right around the time I gave up the hit," Martinez said.
Andrus makes terrific play: Royals right fielder Whit Merrifield led off the fifth with a hard grounder to the left side. Andrus made a backhanded play on the grass, jumped in the air and made a strong accurate throw to first. Merrifield was out by a half-step.
QUOTABLE
"I didn't notice the no-hitter. I was just watching the game. Tremendous job by Nick." -- Rangers reliever Matt Bush
WHAT'S NEXT
Royals: After earning the loss in his first three starts, Jason Hammel will face the Rangers in the finale of the four-game series on Sunday at 2:05 p.m. CT. Hammel got scarce run support in his last loss, a 2-1 defeat against the Giants in which he threw six innings and allowed one run and six hits.
Rangers: Right-hander Yu Darvish will get the start for the Rangers in the finale against the Royals on Sunday. Darvish is 1-3 with a 5.93 ERA in his last five starts at Globe Life Park dating to last year.
Royals' bats don't pitch in to back Kennedy
April 23, 2017By Dave Sessions
After another seven strong innings, Royals starter Ian Kennedy's ERA dipped to 2.08, not much more than half the American League average. Unfortunately for him, the Royals have scored a total of three runs over Kennedy's four starts, including Saturday's 2-1 loss to the Rangers.
All Kennedy has to show for his 26 deft innings of work this season is an 0-2 record with two no-decisions. He left Saturday's game with the score tied at 1, having thrown 95 pitches. He allowed four hits, walked three and struck out three, and the only run the Rangers scored off him was Mike Napoli's opposite-field solo homer that barely cleared the right-field wall in the second inning.
Kennedy, of course, is not the only Royals starter receiving minimal run support. Their starting rotation has an MLB-best 2.29 ERA -- nearly a run better than the second-place Twins, who entered Saturday at 3.15. But the Royals are 7-10 and their starters, despite their phenomenal ERA, are only 5-4. The Royals have scored just 44 runs (2.6 per game).
"I can't control that," Kennedy said of the offense, which is hitting .209 as a team with a .274 on-base percentage and a .324 slugging percentage. "They've been struggling, we know that, and we're just trying to carry them as a starting staff, keep us in ballgames and hand the ball over to our relievers.
"If we can scratch a couple runs while this little drought passes … for me personally, you don't try to pay attention to that, you just go out there and give up the least amount of runs and grind through your start. I'll take my chances as long as I've been throwing like I have been."
Alex Gordon and Eric Hosmer, two of the Royals' key offensive producers during their recent World Series runs, are hitting just .176 and .185, respectively, after going a combined 0-for-8 on Saturday. The hitters are keenly aware that they are wasting excellent performances from their starters.
"Everyone's frustrated," Hosmer said. "You want to use every good outing you can as an offense. We obviously haven't been doing our part, so we've just got to do what we can to break out of it. It motivates you as an offense to realize we've just to scratch a couple across right now. The pitching's definitely doing a good job of keeping us in these games, but it's on us as an offense to do our part and pick up the slack."
Long after Kennedy left, the Rangers walked off in the ninth on Elvis Andrus' RBI single. In the previous two games this series, the Royals were shut out 1-0 in 13 innings on Thursday and lost 6-2 on Friday. The Royals have dropped nine in a row to the Rangers dating to July of last year.
Hammel aiming to shake road woes in Texas
April 23, 2017By T.R. Sullivan/MLB.com
Royals right-hander Jason Hammel will try to get his fortunes turned around on the road when he faces Yu Darvish and the Rangers in the finale of a four-game set on Sunday afternoon at Globe Life Park.
Darvish has his own issues to deal with as he makes his fifth start of the season as the Rangers look to make it 10 in a row over the Royals dating to last season.
Hammel is 0-4 with a 9.82 ERA in his last five road starts and 5-8 with a 5.34 ERA in his last 16 starts dating to the beginning of last season when he was with the Cubs. He is winless in his last 16 road starts against American League teams since his last victory against the Angels on May 5, 2013.
Hammel is 0-2 with a 5.60 ERA in three starts and one relief appearance in his career at Globe Life Park. He did beat the Rangers, 3-1, last year at Wrigley Field, holding them to one run in six innings.
Darvish has struck out 23 and walked 12 in 24 2/3 innings over his first four starts. His 1.92 strikeouts per walk is down from 4.26 last season. Statcast offers some evidence as to why.
Opponents are chasing slightly fewer pitches out of the zone from Darvish than last year. They've swung at 26.1 percent of Darvish's out-of-zone pitches this season compared to 30.2 percent in 2016.
He's also been in more 3-ball counts as 9.8 percent of his total pitches so far have come on 3-ball counts compared to 7.1 percent last year.
Darvish is also generating fewer whiffs with his breaking balls. Opposing batters have missed on 26.8 percent of their swings against Darvish's curves and sliders this season, well down from his 36.6 percent whiff rate on those pitches last year.
Things to know about this game
• Royals designated hitter Brandon Moss has four career home runs off Darvish, tied for the most by an opponent with Mike Trout and Brett Gardner.
• Robinson Chirinos is expected to be back behind the plate for the Rangers. He hit two home runs on Friday night. Manager Jeff Banister said the reason Chirinos started on Friday was because Jonathan Lucroy had caught 13 innings the night before. Chirinos was already scheduled to catch on Sunday.
• The Royals are hoping to have catcher Salvador Perez back on Sunday. He was a late scratch on Saturday because of stiffness in his neck.
Soler begins injury rehab; Salvy scratched
April 23, 2017By Dave Sessions/MLB.com
Royals right fielder Jorge Soler, who has been sidelined since near the end of Spring Training with a left oblique strain, started his rehab assignment off on a positive note on Friday night.
Soler started in right for Triple-A Omaha and went 2-for-3 with three RBIs against Round Rock.
The Royals could certainly use Soler's bat in a lineup that entered Saturday's action hitting just .210, which ranked as the second worst average in the Majors behind the Rangers. Soler hit 12 homers and logged 31 RBIs in 86 games for the Cubs last season before being traded to the Royals for Wade Davis in the offseason.
"If he's swinging the bat well, he could be a big boost," Royals manager Ned Yost said.
Soler was slated to DH for Omaha on Saturday in New Orleans, then start in right again on Sunday and DH on Tuesday before the team's off-day on Wednesday. After that, the timetable for his return to the Royals is fluid, Yost said.
"When he's ready, when's he's producing and feeling good," Yost said.
The 25-year-old Cuban had an underwhelming Spring Training, batting .143 (7-for-49) with two homers and five RBIs, but he was nonetheless expected to be the Royals' starting right fielder before he sustained a Grade 1 left oblique strain in his final at-bat in a Minor League game on March 26.
In Soler's absence, the Royals used Paulo Orlando as their everyday right fielder, starting him in 13 of the first 15 games before demoting him to Omaha on Friday and starting rookie Jorge Bonifacio at right that night. Bonifacio went 0-for-3 in the Royals' 6-2 loss to the Rangers.
Orlando was hitting .149, with one walk and no extra-base hits, and all Royals right fielders combined were hitting .158 with a .211 on-base percentage and .436 slugging percentage. In 211 MLB games, Soler's career numbers are .258/.328/.434.
Salvy scratched from lineup
• Catcher Salvador Perez was scratched an hour before Saturday's game against the Rangers with neck stiffness, and he is considered day to day. Perez had started the 16 previous games for the Royals this season -- 13 at catcher and three at DH -- and is hitting .258 with five homers and eight RBIs. Drew Butera started behind the plate on Saturday.
Royals’ woes in Texas continue in 2-1 walk-off loss to Rangers
April 23, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
They reside near the top of the lineup for a reason. They have track records of success and moments etched in franchise lore. They have stories so familiar, interwoven into this era of Royals baseball.
Alex Gordon is the quiet warrior, the player whose own story mirrors that of his team, a busted-up prospect who learned a new position, found his swing and became a star. Eric Hosmer is the face of the franchise, a genial, charismatic talent whose biggest moments have always come on the grandest stage.
They are two reasons why there is a 2015 World Series championship flag hanging inside Kauffman Stadium. And yet now, in the opening month of this season, a year that could shape the future of this organization, they are two reasons why a baseball team cannot hit.
The Royals lost again on Saturday night, falling 2-1 to the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park. The end came when Elvis Andrus drilled a walk-off RBI single into left field off reliever Peter Moylan in the bottom of the ninth. A second walk-off loss in three days was set up by a Rougned Odor single off Travis Wood and a steal of second base. The final moments did little to convey a baseball team’s biggest weakness.
Here was Hosmer, finishing 0 for 4, another night spent pounding baseballs into the ground. Here was Gordon, hitless in four at-bats, his batting average falling to .176. Together, they represent two of five players that manager Ned Yost identifies as the club’s top run producers. For now, they are the most alarming trouble spots in an offense that has produced just seven runs in its last 60 innings.
“Everyone is frustrated,” Hosmer said. “Myself individually, and as a team, you want to get something done, and it’s not happening right now.”
Hosmer is 27 years old now, just 18 months removed from a World Series, poised to enter free agency for the first time this winter. As the 2017 season approached, he appeared ready for his finest season to date. Hardened by the lessons of the past, steeled by the experience, maturing into his prime, he seemed ready to help lift an offense that was plagued by injuries last season.
For now, the Royals are still waiting on Hosmer. His average dipped to .185 on Saturday night. He left two men on base. The struggles manifested into a third loss in three days and a ninth straight loss against Texas.
A similar story could be written about Gordon, who batted just .220 last season while battling through a broken bone in his hand. For now, the Royals are waiting on Gordon, too.
This time, the Royals were flummoxed for seven innings by Rangers starter Nick Martinez, who had been relegated to Class AAA Round Rock for much of the month. For another night, the offensive story remained the same.
“Yeah,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.
The meek production rendered moot another strong start from Ian Kennedy, who allowed one run across seven innings. The onus for a resurgence could fall on the shoulders of Hosmer and Gordon, who are now a combined 2 for 23 over the last three games.
“The only thing we can do is continue to play and you hope to get out of it,” Hosmer said.
On Saturday, Martinez was only on the mound because Rangers starter A.J. Griffin was placed on the 10-day disabled list Friday after complications from gout, a form of inflammatory arthritis that had weakened his ankle. The Rangers needed a starter on short notice, so they turned to Martinez, a 26-year-old with a 4.77 ERA in 50 career major-league starts.
Five days earlier, Martinez had allowed five earned in four innings while starting against the Iowa Cubs in Des Moines, Iowa. On Saturday, he opened the evening by retiring 16 of the first 17 men he faced.
The first crack came in the top of the second, when designated hitter Brandon Moss watched a 3-2 fastball move out of the strike zone. The walk represented the only base runner until Drew Butera blew up the no-hit bid with a sharp single to left field in the sixth.
Butera advanced to second on a slow chopper from Gordon. Moments later, Mike Moustakas pounced on a 1-0 changeup and tied the score at 1-1 with an RBI single to center field.