Battle for fifth spot in Royals’ rotation remains unsettled after 7-3 loss to Reds
A dozen Cactus League contests have been played, but the competition for the fifth spot in the Royals rotation remains wide open.
Left-hander Travis Wood and right-hander Chris Young each made their second appearances of the spring in the Royals’ 7-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday. There was good to go with the bad in both outings.
Wood made his first spring start and cruised through the first two innings, allowing a single in the first inning. But the Reds opened the third with a single, triple and another single, although the last one came when Wood slipped after fielding a chopper by the fleet-footed Billy Hamilton.
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After a sacrifice fly brought home a run, Wood got Joey Votto to ground out, but Adam Duvall drew a walk and Wood’s day was done.
Andrew Edwards came on and struck out Eugenio Suarez to end the threat for the Royals.
Wood allowed two runs on four hits in 2 2/3 innings with a walk and no strikeouts.
“It went good, felt good,” Wood said. “The pitches were doing pretty much what I wanted. I left a couple of pitches up in the zone that they hit. Other than that, felt good.”
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Cincinnati’s Ryan Rayburn greeted Young with a home run that cleared the the bullpen in left-center field to start the fourth inning. Young also gave up a two-run homer to Eugenio Sanchez in the fifth that gave the Reds a 5-3 lead.
The homers are an unpleasant memory of a year ago, but Young also struck out five in his three innings as Reds batters flailed at his slider, which manager Ned Yost raved about after the game.
“There were some good ones today,” Young said. “I was able to throw it to both sides of the plate. It had really good depth to it. In Arizona, it’s hard to judge sometimes, because of the dry air and the conditions, you don’t know if it’s going to go across or if it’s going to go down, especially the breaking balls.
“Today it was good. I’m just trying to stay on top of it and for the most part it was pretty good.”
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The Arms
Lefty Scott Alexander gave up an unearned run in the seventh after allowing two hits and two errors were committed.
The Regulars
Mike Moustakas clubbed a one-out homer in the first inning off Sal Romano. ... Alex Gordon, who played right field, had a single and lined out hard to left field in his three at-bats. ... Paulo Orlando went 2 for 3.
The Young Guys
Raul Mondesi started at shortstop and was zero for three. ... Jorge Bonifacio lined a double to left in his lone at-bat.... Outfielder Billy Burns hit a solo home run to right field. “It was cool to see Billy hit a home run ... ” Yost said. “He smoked it.”
REDS 7, ROYALS 3
Kansas City AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO | Avg. | |
Mondesi ss | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .450 |
Arteaga ss | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .091 |
S.Duenez ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .250 |
Moustakas dh | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .111 |
Fernandez ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
A.Gordon rf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .400 |
Bonifacio rf | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .500 |
Orlando lf | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .333 |
C.Colon lf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .235 |
Cuthbert 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .125 |
Cecchini 3b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .100 |
Merrifeld 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .158 |
R.Torres 2b | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .267 |
D.Butera c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 |
O’Hearn ph | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .222 |
H.Dozier 1b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .429 |
O’Brien 1b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .227 |
B.Burns cf | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .250 |
Starling cf | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .385 |
Totals 34 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
TableStyle: SP-basebattersCCI Template: SP-basebatters
Cincinnati AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO | Avg. | |
Hamilton cf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .250 |
Guerrero cf | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .267 |
Z.Cozart ss | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .300 |
Z.Vincej ss | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .278 |
J.Votto 1b | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .250 |
Wallach 1b | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .300 |
A.Duvall lf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .143 |
J.Winker lf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .300 |
E.Suarez 3b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .400 |
T.Renda 3b | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .529 |
R.Raburn dh | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .200 |
Herrera ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .467 |
Jennings rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .188 |
Kivlehan rf | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .556 |
Barnhart c | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .214 |
S.Turner c | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .400 |
Alcantara 2b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .174 |
Iribarren 2b | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .421 |
Totals 35 | 7 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 6 |
TableStyle: SP-basebyinningsCCI Template: SP-basebyinnings
Kansas City | 100 | 110 | 000 | — | 3 | 9 | 2 |
Cincinnati | 002 | 120 | 11x | — | 7 | 12 | 1 |
E: Alexander (1), Torres (1), Cozart (1). DP: Kansas City 1, Cincinnati 1. LOB: Kansas City 7, Cincinnati 7. 2B: Bonifacio (2), O’Hearn (1). 3B: Alcantara (1). HR: Moustakas (1), Burns (1), Suarez (2), Raburn (2). SB: Kivlehan (1). SF: Cozart (1).
TableStyle: SP-basepitchersCCI Template: SP-basepitchers
Kansas City | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
Wood | 2 2/3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3.86 |
Edwards | 1/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
Young L, 0-1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 5.40 |
Alexander | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
Almonte | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5.40 |
TableStyle: SP-basepitchersCCI Template: SP-basepitchers
Cincinnati | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
Romano | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1.29 |
Lorenzen | 1 2/3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5.79 |
Chacin W, 1-0 | 1/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
Wood | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
Cingrani | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
Ogando | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10.13 |
Bonilla | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6.00 |
Blown saves: Lorenzen (1). Holds: Cingrani (2), Ogando (1), Wood (1). PB: Butera. Umpires: Home, Toby Basner; First, Jeff Nelson; Second, Alan Porter; Third, Stu Scheurwater. Time: 2:42. Att: 2,752.
This story was originally published March 7, 2017 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Battle for fifth spot in Royals’ rotation remains unsettled after 7-3 loss to Reds."