It&rsquo;s the kind of thing that&rsquo;s easily missed, but the kind of thing that could end up changing Luke Hochevar&rsquo;s career.</p><p>Hochevar is tinkering with a split-finger fastball, using it sparingly, he said, in each of his last three starts for the Royals.</p><p>&ldquo;I feel like I have a good feel for it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s going to be a big pitch for me down the road, especially next year.&rdquo;</p><p>Hochevar said he began working on a splitter because he&rsquo;s unhappy with his change-up. With that in mind, Hochevar&rsquo;s pitch will be more of a split-change than split-fastball, but either way it&rsquo;s a pitch that comes in like a fastball before diving down just before reaching home plate.</p><p>Various data from Hochevar&rsquo;s recent starts indicate he&rsquo;s throwing it in the low-to-mid-80s, which gives him a nearly 10-mph difference with his fastball.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s starting to come along,&rdquo; Hochevar said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s starting to be a pitch I can go to, where before (I didn&rsquo;t have) a change-up or anything that looked remotely like a fastball. So it&rsquo;s starting to be a good pitch for me.&rdquo;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Control key for Davies</span></strong></p><p>Kyle Davies makes his second start since being promoted from Class AAA Omaha tonight, and he says his success depends primarily on controlling his fastball.</p><p>&ldquo;It gets better in stints, but I&rsquo;ve gotta be more consistent with it, and that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re going for,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a fact of throwing it for strikes as much as it is throwing it down in the zone for strikes, being able to throw it in and out instead of center cut.&rdquo;</p><p>Davies is 3-8 with a 6.37 ERA, which is the fourth-worst mark among the 103 pitchers in baseball with at least 15 starts.</p><p>He&rsquo;s walked 42 in 83 1/3 innings, a rate per nine innings that works out as the ninth worst in baseball.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Betancourt flashing leather</span></strong></p><p>Shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt continues to struggle offensively, hitting just .198 with two walks in 23 games since joining the Royals.</p><p>But he did make three highlight-worthy plays in the field Sunday &mdash; a leaping catch of a line drive that ended up saving at least one run, an over-the-shoulder catch on a pop-up in shallow center field, and a diving stop to his left where he flipped the ball from his glove to second baseman Willie Bloomquist for a force-out.</p><p>&ldquo;Showed some athleticism,&rdquo; Royals manager Trey Hillman said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve liked the way he moves his feet, liked his hands and exchange and arm from day one. I think there&rsquo;s still more that can be gotten out of him as far as his range, but that&rsquo;s probably the best play he&rsquo;s made to his left.&rdquo;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Etc.</span></strong></p><p>&bull;Lenny DiNardo gave up just one run, one walk and six hits in eight innings for Class AAA Omaha on Sunday. DiNardo, 7-5, took the loss but lowered his ERA to 3.31.</p><p>&bull;Class AA Northwest Arkansas shortstop Jeff Bianchi had two more hits Sunday, raising his average to .333 since his promotion and .315 overall.