Joakim Soria has a rough return to the Royals

This wasn’t the reunion that relief pitcher Joakim Soria envisioned.

In his first game back with the Royals in Sunday’s season-opener, Soria allowed three runs on three hits with two walks while recording just a pair of outs in the eighth inning.

The Royals, who seemed to be on their way to an easy win, held on for a 4-3 victory over the New York Mets.

“It’s one of those days that you kind of want to forget,” Soria said. “I didn’t feel really good out there. I didn’t hit my spots well.”

The Mets didn’t exactly light up Soria, either.

Juan Legares singled sharply to open the eighth inning, and Soria followed by walking Curtis Granderson. After striking out David Wright, Yoenis Cespedes walked to load the bases.

Lucas Duda’s soft liner to left field wasn’t particularly well struck, but it fell in for a hit and pulled the Mets within 4-2. Neil Walker also didn’t make solid contact, and it again was a benefit for the Mets. Walker’s ground ball to second baseman Omar Infante resulted in a force out instead of an inning-ending double play.

Michael Conforto followed with another soft liner to left that scored a run and made it a 4-3 game. Luke Hochevar was called in to put out the fire, which he did by striking out Asdrubal Cabrera.

Soria’s ERA is a bloated 40.50, but manager Ned Yost wasn’t concerned.

“The two walks definitely hurt him,” Yost said, “but he just couldn’t get them to hit the ball hard enough.

“He had good stuff, threw the ball better than his line shows.”

It was a different outing than what Royals fans had grown accustomed to in Soria’s first go-round with the club.

Soria collected 160 saves and was twice an All-Star for the Royals during 2007-2011.

After suffering an elbow injury in spring training in 2012, Soria missed that season. He was granted free-agency that fall. He signed with Texas and later played with Detroit and Pittsburgh, again becoming a dominant relief pitcher.

But when he signed a three-year, $25 million contract to return to the Royals in early December, Soria knew he wouldn’t be the closer on a team with Wade Davis.

But Soria did expect better than what transpired Sunday. No that he was going to bother Soria for long.

“We have 161 games to go, so there’s plenty of baseball and there will be plenty of outings,” he said, “so I can pitch better.”

Pete Grathoff: 816-234-4330, @pgrathoff

This story was originally published April 3, 2016 at 11:03 PM with the headline "Joakim Soria has a rough return to the Royals."