Daily Clips
April 11, 2018
LOCAL
Royals place Gordon on DL with hip issue
April 10, 2018By Robert Falkoff/MLB.com
Moose takes Felix deep for 2nd homer of '18
April 10, 2018By Robert Falkoff/MLB.com
Skoglund labors for Royals in season debut
Lefty attacks zone, but Mariners' bats do early damage
April 10, 2018By Robert Falkoff/MLB.com
Royals' Eric Skoglund stumbles in first start, but why Ned Yost liked what he saw
April 10, 2018By Sam McDowell/KC Star
Royals put Alex Gordon on disabled list, call up Abraham Almonte
April 10, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
Five questions with ... Royals left-hander Danny Duffy
April 10, 2018By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
Why former Royals Greg Holland and Lorenzo Cain treasure KC even as they move forward
April 10, 2018By Vahe Gregorian/KC Star
As Alex Gordon goes down, Royals face a tough question: Who's in center?
April 10, 2018By Rustin Dodd/The Athletic
MINORS
Redbirds Blank Chasers 7-0
Omaha's bullpen strong in road defeat
April 10, 2018By Omaha Storm Chasers
Naturals Shutout Missions In Finale Behind Griffin
LHP Foster Griffin tossed 6.0 scoreless innings and struck out five in the 4-0 victory over San Antonio
April 10, 2018By Northwest Arkansas Naturals
Blue Rocks Outhit Red Sox, But Can't Outscore Them
Wilmington Drops Third Straight Game
April 10, 2018By Wilmington Blue Rocks
Legends Take Down Drive in 5-4 Victory
It was a close game throughout all nine innings between the Lexington Legends and the Greenville Drive, but another Legends home run secured their fifth win of the season with a 5-4 victory
April 10, 2018By Lexington Legends
NATIONAL
Cubs place Anthony Rizzo on disabled list
April 10, 2018By Carrie Muskat/MLB.com
MLB TRANSACTIONS
April11, 2018 •.CBSSports.com
LOCAL
Royals place Gordon on DL with hip issue
April 10, 2018By Robert Falkoff/MLB.com
The Royals have placed outfielder Alex Gordon on the 10-day disabled list, retroactive to Monday, with a left hip labral tear. In a corresponding roster move, outfielder Abraham Almonte was called up from Triple-A Omaha before Tuesday night's game.
Gordon last played on Sunday at Cleveland. He was hitting .174 in 23 at-bats through seven games while playing left and center field.
"He just woke up [Monday] really sore," manager Ned Yost said. "Nick [Kenney, trainer] said the timeline would probably be 10 days to two weeks, hopefully. But we still have to get seven days down the road and see where we are."
Almonte, 28, was claimed off waivers from the Indians on April 2, and he expressed excitement about having the opportunity to join the Royals.
"You have to have a strong mind and believe in yourself," Almonte said. "I always think that I belong here. It's a good chance for me in my career. I want to take advantage and give it everything I have."
Yost said he'll mix the versatile Almonte, who said he's comfortable playing any of the outfield spots.
"He's an athletic switch-hitter who gives us depth and can roam the outfield pretty good," Yost said. "When we played against him in Cleveland, he was always a tough out. He gives you good at-bats"
In 2009, Gordon missed 79 games after undergoing surgery to repair a labral tear in his right hip.
Moose takes Felix deep for 2nd homer of '18
April 10, 2018By Robert Falkoff/MLB.com
Mike Moustakas is back to his home run ways.
After hitting a career-high 38 last year to set the Royals' single-season record, Moustakas blasted his second in two games in Tuesday night's 8-3 loss off Mariners ace Felix Hernandez.
The two-run homer in the fourth inning traveled a projected 419 feet with an exit velocity of 106 mph, according to Statcast™. Last year, Moustakas homered in three straight games against the Mariners at Safeco Field from July 3-5.
Moustakas finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs, while raising his batting average to .306.
"I'm feeling good at the plate," said Moustakas, whose RBI single in the sixth capped the scoring. "We battled and tried to make a comeback, but fell a little short tonight."
Skoglund labors for Royals in season debut
Lefty attacks zone, but Mariners' bats do early damage
April 10, 2018By Robert Falkoff/MLB.com
Royals left-hander Eric Skoglund finally has something to build on.
Because of off-days and postponements, the club's No. 5 starter took the mound for his season debut on Tuesday night having not pitched since March 17 in Spring Training. The result wasn't what Skoglund was hoping for, as the Mariners got to him for six hits and five earned runs over 4 2/3 innings en route to an 8-3 victory. But considering how much rust there was to knock off, Royals manager Ned Yost was left to feel there are much brighter days ahead for Skoglund.
"I was really pleased to see the action on his fastball," Yost said. "After two innings, he got on the attack in the zone instead of trying to be too perfect."
The Mariners got a run in the first and three in the second before Skoglund settled in with two scoreless innings. He allowed a solo homer to Guillermo Heredia in the fifth and left with the Royals in a 5-2 hole.
"I felt better as the game went on," Skoglund said.
Skoglund didn't use his 23-day layoff as an excuse.
"It is what it is, man," Skoglund said. "That's baseball. It's part of it."
Skoglund will be able to get back in a starter's routine now. He'll get the ball again on four days' rest on Sunday against the Angels.
"I made better pitches [as the start continued]," Skoglund said. "I made some foolish pitches early that cost us."
Skoglund wound up hitting three batters, which was particularly irritating for him.
"That gets me fired up, because it's just not me," Skoglund said. "I can't wait to get back out there."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Can't turn two: With runners at first and second and one out in the second, Skoglund induced a ground ball. The only problem was the Royals couldn't turn a double play on the fleet-footed Dee Gordon, and that forceout kept the inning alive. Jean Segura followed with a two-run triple and Robinson Cano added an RBI double that gave the Mariners a 4-0 lead.
Moose tracks: His two-run blast in the fourth served notice that Mike Moustakas is primed for more homer heroics this year. His first of the season on Monday came off position player Taylor Motter. But Tuesday's jack, which traveled a projected 419 feet, according to Statcast™, came off the celebrated Felix Hernandez and prompted the biggest roar of the night from Royals fans. Moustakas has now homered in consecutive games 13 times in his career.
QUOTABLE
"I like the plane of the [Skoglund] fastball. Last year, he was underneath pitches and his pitches were flat. He was staying downhill [on Tuesday]." -- Yost, on Skoglund's outing
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
With his two-hit game on Tuesday, Whit Merrifield extended his career-high home on-base streak to 19 games.
MITEL REPLAY OF THE DAY
The Mariners lost their first challenge of the season when Mike Marjama was thrown out trying to steal second to end the fifth inning. The call was ruled to stand.
WHAT'S NEXT
Left-hander Danny Duffy (0-2, 7.45 ERA) will be looking to avoid the big inning when he starts the series finale at 1:15 p.m. CT on Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium. The eight runs he has allowed this year have come in just two innings. The Indians got to Duffy for three runs in the first on Friday en route to a 3-2 victory.
Royals' Eric Skoglund stumbles in first start, but why Ned Yost liked what he saw
April 10, 2018By Sam McDowell/KC Star
Eric Skoglund had gone more than three weeks without throwing a baseball in an actual game, his last 12 days spent as a spectator in the Royals dugout. And so 24 hours before he was set to return to the mound and open his 2018 season, he walked toward his locker and uttered one word.
“Finally,” he said.
The long wait left more rust than sharpness.
The Mariners pounced on Skoglund in the opening two innings, the impetus for an 8-3 victory Tuesday in front of an announced crowd of 14,850 fans at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals fell to 3-6.
A day after right-hander Jakob Junis took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, the Mariners (5-4) scored four runs against a well-rested Skoglund in the initial two innings. The tall, lanky left-hander did not make it through five. The final line — 4 2/3 innings, five runs, six hits — resembled the statistics with which Skoglund concluded 2017.
The life on his pitches did not. At least according to his manager. A year ago, Ned Yost said, Skoglund had a tendency to overstride, causing him to get underneath the baseball and leave his fastball flat as it journeyed toward home plate.
That was absent in his first appearance of 2018.
“He had great downhill action on his fastball,” Yost said. “I really liked the action on his fastball.”
It was the command that hurt Skoglund. Three pitches into the game, he plunked Dee Gordon with a two-seam fastball. In his first navigation through the Mariners’ order, Skoglund hit two batters and walked two more. He hit three in the game.
The Seattle lineup turned over before the second inning had concluded, with Jean Segura sending a two-run triple into the left center-field cap and Robinson Cano following with an RBI double to center. The lead was 4-0.
“I don’t hit guys, and I hit three tonight,” said Skoglund, who plunked three batters in a total of 122 innings between stops in Omaha, Kansas City and Northwest Arkansas last season. “Especially lefties, man. God, it gets me fired up. That’s not me.
“But it’s something I can build off of, definitely. I made some good pitches as the game went on. I felt strong. I felt good. I can’t wait to get back out there.”
He’s accustomed to that — waiting.
While his counterpart Tuesday, Felix Hernandez, improved to 2-1 in his third decision of the season, Skoglund was making his first start. He completed his final Cactus League outing on March 17. After Nathan Karns opened the season on the disabled list, Skoglund moved into the fifth spot in the rotation.
He wasn’t needed until Tuesday. The ineffective start, he said, was unrelated to the layoff.
“He's gonna be OK,” Yost said, adding, "His pitches had a downhill angle to (them), which are really, really difficult to hit. For the most part, I don't remember him getting under any pitches. So I was really pleased to see the action on his fastball. It was just the command."
Hernandez allowed three runs in 5 2/3 innings. He received the most significant pushback from Mike Moustakas. The Royals’ third baseman drove in all three runs, two with a fourth-inning homer and the third in the midst of a sixth-inning rally that failed to take full flight.
On Monday, Moustakas launched his first home run of the season against Taylor Motter, a Mariners infielder asked to toe the rubber in mop-up duty of a 10-0 game. His second homer came against a pitcher with a better resume. Moustakas redirected a Hernandez hanging curveball 419 feet off the Pepsi sign that loiters in the outfield fountains. The hit cut the Mariners’ lead to 4-2 in the fourth.
“Feeling good at the plate, feeling comfortable, seeing the ball pretty good,” Moustakas said.
The lead had expanded to 8-2 before the sixth inning arrived, when Moustakas hit a one-out single that scored Jon Jay. Lucas Duda and Jorge Soler followed with walks to load the bases and provide the Royals with an opportunity to claw their way back into the game, but Dan Altavilla struck out Paulo Orlando with the bases loaded to end the threat.
Royals put Alex Gordon on disabled list, call up Abraham Almonte
April 10, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
The Royals on Tuesday placed outfielder Alex Gordon on the 10-day disabled list because of a labral tear in his left hip and recalled outfielder Abraham Almonte from Class AAA Omaha.
Gordon, who was hitting .174 (4 for 23) with a double through seven games, was held out of the lineup Monday after he woke up with what he described as groin soreness. Since Gordon missed two months of the 2015 season because of a Grade 2-plus strain of his left groin, the Royals chose to be cautious and give him a few days to recover.
He'll need more than that. The Royals training staff determined the labrum in Gordon's left hip had torn just enough for the joint to become inflamed and cause the soreness in his groin. They caught the problem in time to prevent further wearing of the cartilage, which lines and helps to cushion the hip joint. If the tear doesn’t improve with rest, surgery would become an option.
Gordon underwent surgery in 2009 when he experienced similar discomfort in his right hip. Marc Philippon of Vail Valley Surgery Center in Colorado repaired the labral tear by manipulating the cartilage and reattaching it to the hip socket, according to ESPN.
For now, surgery doesn’t seem likely.
The news of the hip injury caught manager Ned Yost by surprise. The first time he said he heard of any discomfort was in Monday's text message, which arrived the morning after a weeklong road trip that saw the Royals play five games in frigid conditions.
But Yost is encouraged by the early prognosis, which does not include a month-long recovery.
“I was thinking a month, six weeks. I was relieved to hear that it could be a lot less than that,” Yost said. “But you never know. It’s like we talked about with Salvy (Perez). Four to six weeks. Well, it’s probably going be closer to the four than the six (for him) — but you couldn’t tell going into it.”
Yost said the injury nagged Gordon for a couple of years. Yet it wasn’t until recently that it bothered Gordon enough to prompt the Royals to temporarily shut him down.
The Royals will re-evaluate Gordon’s status in about a week.
In Gordon’s absence, outfielder Paulo Orlando will slide into an everyday role. He played in five of the Royals’ first eight games, making four starts, and was in Tuesday’s lineup.
He started the season in a 1 for 12 rut, but busted out of it with a pair of hits, including a double, in Monday night's 10-0 win over the Mariners at Kauffman Stadium.
This isn't the first time the Royals have turned to Orlando in the wake of an injury.
Already a reserve outfielder in 2016, Orlando saw his playing time increase further when Lorenzo Cain strained his hamstring. He ended the season with a .302 batting average over 457 at-bats.
But he didn’t get the time to continue building on his breakout season last year. Despite winning a starting job in the outfield out of spring training, he was demoted to Class AAA Omaha within a few weeks. Then he was sidelined for more than two months as he recovered from a fractured shin, an injury he suffered in May.
Outside of missing about a week of spring training last month because of a Grade 1 hamstring strain, Orlando has been healthy.
“I feel good with Paulo,” Yost said. “Being that guy that is that fourth guy, you try to give him as much playing time as you can. It’s hard to get consistent. But that’s the goal, trying to keep it consistent for him so that he can get consistent and stay swinging the bat well.”
Almonte, meanwhile, will feature most often in a relief role.
Almonte, 28, was claimed off waivers from Cleveland on April 2 and took the roster spot of pitching prospect Miguel Almonte, who was designated for assignment and traded to the Angels last week.
In parts of three seasons with the Indians, Abraham Almonte hit .254 with 37 doubles, nine triples, nine home runs and 56 RBIs. He was suspended 80 games for testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug Boldenone in 2016, when he hit .264 with 22 RBIs in 67 games. Almonte hit .233 with 14 RBIs in 69 games last season.
Almonte has played 122 of his 302 major-league games in center field.
“He gives us depth,” Yost said. “Can roam the outfield pretty good.”
Five questions with ... Royals left-hander Danny Duffy
April 10, 2018By Pete Grathoff/KC Star
This is the first in a series of short question-and-answer chats with Royals players.
The hope was to get to know a little bit more about each player beyond their performance on the field.
Up first is Royals left-hander Danny Duffy, who was taken in the third round of the 2007 draft. Duffy, 29, has a career record of 45-45 with a 3.78 ERA and 678 strikeouts in 779 career innings.