Daily Clips
April 10, 2018
LOCAL
Junis takes no-no into 7th; Royals rout Mariners
Righty fires 7 shutout innings for 2nd straight start
April 9, 2018By Robert Falkoff/MLB.com
Injury updates: Salvy, Gordon, Karns
April 9, 2018By Robert Falkoff/MLB.com
Phenom Shohei Ohtani, streaking Robinson Cano visit the Royals in KC this week
April 9, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
Royals pitcher Jakob Junis almost unhittable in 10-0 win
April 9, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
Salvador Perez on his timeline to return; Gordon out of Royals lineup with injury
April 9, 2018By Sam McDowell/KC Star
How the Royals' flourishing analytics department convinced Ned Yost to shift on defensive shifts
April 9, 2018By Rustin Dodd/The Athletic
The quick, quiet brilliance of Jakob Junis is on display in the Royals' 10-0 victory over the Mariners
April 9, 2018By Rustin Dodd/The Athletic
MINORS
Naturals Fall To Missions In Game 2 Of Series
First baseman Samir Duenez delivered a two-run double in the 5-2 loss to San Antonio
April 9, 2018By Northwest Arkansas Naturals
Rocks Drop Series Opener in Salem
Wilmington Loses Back-to-Back Games for First Time in 2018
April 9, 2018By Wilmington Blue Rocks
Legends Double Up Drive in Game One Victory
The Lexington Legends opened game one of their series with the Greenville Drive with a statement 8-4 victory.
April 9, 2018By Lexington Legends
NATIONAL
Red Sox's Xander Bogaerts put on DL with cracked bone in ankle
April 9, 2018AP
MLB TRANSACTIONS
April10, 2018 •.CBSSports.com
LOCAL
Junis takes no-no into 7th; Royals rout Mariners
Righty fires 7 shutout innings for 2nd straight start
April 9, 2018By Robert Falkoff/MLB.com
Jakob Junis finished last season strong, and he's beginning 2018 even stronger.
The Royals right-hander surrendered just one infield hit in seven innings of work Monday as Kansas City rolled to a 10-0 victory over the Mariners. With one out in the seventh, Daniel Vogelbach's smash up the middle was knocked down by Alcides Escobar. But the shortstop, who was shifted to the right side, couldn't make a play and the bid for a no-hitter was over.
In two cold-weather starts, Junis has delivered 14 scoreless innings, becoming only the second Royal to start a season with back-to-back scoreless outings of seven innings or more, joining Danny Jackson. In 1985, Jackson had back-to-back shutouts to open the year.
The Royals have had visions of grandeur for Junis dating back to the end of the 2017 season, when he went 5-0 with a 2.42 ERA from Aug. 6 to Sept. 20. Showcasing a slider with violent movement, Junis joins David Price as the only pitchers to post scoreless outings of seven innings in back-to-back starts this season.
"Until the fourth, he was spot on with everything," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "He started laboring with his command in the fourth, but still found ways to get those outs."
Junis hit three batters, and Yost was thinking about taking him out if he struggled in the sixth. But at that juncture, Yost said he was oblivious to the fact that Junis was still working with a no-hitter.
"I said, 'Maybe I'll change my mind a little bit,'" said Yost.
By the time Junis gave up the seventh-inning hit, the Royals were coasting.
Junis got plenty of offensive help, as the Royals (3-5) tallied a season-high 10 runs after totaling just nine in their previous six games. Mike Moustakas went 3-for-5 with a double and a home run, with the long ball coming in the eighth off Mariners utility man Taylor Motter, who pitched an inning.
Mariners lefty Marco Gonzales couldn't follow up on his solid season debut, lasting just 2 1/3 innings while allowing eight hits and four runs in a 64-pitch struggle. Chasen Bradford threw three scoreless innings in his Seattle debut as Seattle's second reliever on the night, then Motter became the eighth Mariners position player to pitch in a game, allowing a run in the eighth.
"Definitely not my best stuff tonight, by any means," Junis said. "You've got to battle and get through it. The offense did great tonight."
Junis said he has no regrets about the infield single that ended his no-hit bid.
"If we were playing straight up, that's a no-doubt hit," Junis said. "I wasn't disappointed. Just wanted to get out of the inning. Vogelbach and I played summer-league ball together in high school. .So if if anybody was going to do it, I was glad it was him."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Royals rediscover runs: After totaling just six runs over their last five games, Kansas City jumped on Gonzales for three tallies in the first inning, with Moustakas delivering the big blow with a two-run double over the head of Seattle center fielder Dee Gordon. The Royals racked up five hits and a walk, as Gonzales needed 43 pitches to get out of the frame.
Little things add up: Paulo Orlando beat out a fielder's choice grounder in the fourth inning, just touching the bag before Robinson Cano's relay throw on an attempted 6-4-3 double play that would have ended the inning for Seattle reliever Casey Lawrence. Instead, a run scored as Orlando was safe at first, and that opened the door to a five-run frame that broke the game open for Kansas City. Cam Gallagher followed with an RBI double,Escobar singled in a run, and Drew Butera ripped a two-run double to make it 9-0.
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
Jorge Soler singled twice on Monday and is 5-for-7 in his past two games. Prior to that, he was 0-for-34 in the Majors dating back to July 2 last season.
MITEL REPLAY OF THE DAY
The Royals challenged an out call at first base in the second inning after a Moustakas bouncer caromed away from Cano. The second baseman retrieved the ball and threw quickly, but the out call was overturned.
WHAT'S NEXT
Left-hander Eric Skoglund will make his first start of 2018 on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m. CT against the Mariners. Because of off-days and postponements, Skoglund, the No. 5 starter, will be appearing in a game for the first time since March 17. He was 1-2 with a 9.50 ERA in seven outings (five starts) with the Royals last year.
Injury updates: Salvy, Gordon, Karns
April 9, 2018By Robert Falkoff/MLB.com
Royals All-Star catcher Salvador Perez went through a full workout on the field Monday and remains confident he'll return on the low end of the four-to-six week timeframe laid out for him after he suffered a sprained left knee two days before the March 29 regular-season opener.
"I feel pretty good," Perez said. "Starting to feel a lot better. I don't think it's going to take the time that people said as soon as it happened. It's going to be sooner."
Perez ran the bases, threw from home to second and took batting practice. The plan calls for him to continue that schedule over the next two days.
Manager Ned Yost has been encouraged by Perez's progress.
"The initial timeline was four to six weeks, and I think it's going to be closer to the four than the six," Yost said. "We evaluate every day."
Injury updates
• Outfielder Alex Gordon was not in the lineup Monday due to left groin stiffness, and Yost said he may give Gordon an additional day of rest Tuesday.
"It might be a day or two with Alex," Yost said.
• Yost said right-hander Nate Karns, who has been on the 10-day disabled list with right elbow inflammation, may throw a simulated game Tuesday.
"Throw to some hitters and see where he is," Yost said.
Phenom Shohei Ohtani, streaking Robinson Cano visit the Royals in KC this week
April 9, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
The Royals are back in Kansas City for their first extended homestand of the season. They’ll host the Seattle Mariners at Kauffman Stadium for a three-game set (7:15 p.m. Monday and Tuesday and 1:15 Wednesday, all on FSKC). Then they will welcome the Los Angeles Angels for four games (7:15 Thursday and Friday on FSKC, 6:15 Saturday on FS1 and 1:15 Sunday on FSKC).
Here are a few things to know about these opponents as the Royals (2-5) attempt to balance their record.
Ohtani mania
If you haven’t caught up on The Saga of Shohei Ohtani, now would be a good time. The two-way rookie from Japan, billed as the next Babe Ruth, won AL player of the week honors Monday and is on schedule to pitch against the Royals on Sunday. In his most recent start for the Angels, Ohtani retired the first 19 batters he faced, striking out 11, but fell eight outs shy of becoming the 24th major-league pitcher to throw a perfect game.
Before Marcus Semien of the Athletics caught a 96 mph fastball on the end of his bat for a single to break up Ohtani’s bid in the seventh inning, Ohtani had thrown 79 pitches. He had induced contact so weak that of the eight groundouts, lineouts or flyball outs the Athletics made, none exceeded an exit velocity of 89 mph. Semien’s hit up the left side of the infield traveled at a speed of 101.1 mph. Another batter reached base, but Ohtani escaped the inning without allowing a run. Of the 91 pitches he threw in seven innings, 59 were strikes.
In his first start, which also came against the Athletics, Ohtani allowed three hits and three runs, all of which scored on a homer by Matt Chapman in the second inning of the game on April 1. Only one of the next 15 batters he faced reached base, on a walk in which the fifth pitch was a 98 mph fastball that ran high out of the zone.
While the right-handed Ohtani has wrecked opposing batters using a nightmarish splitter that breaks sharply and dishing out a curveball that clocks about 30 mph slower than his four-seam heater, he’s also batted .389 (7 for 18) with three home runs and seven RBIs through four games as a designated hitter.
Ohtani, 23, became the third major-leaguer to record two wins and hit three homers in his team’s first 10 games since Jim Shaw of the Washington Senators in 1919, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
Hot-hitting Cano
Last week’s frigid conditions in Detroit and Cleveland froze the Royals offense, which scored only six runs and amassed 30 hits during a weather-shortened five-game road trip.
But when the Mariners and second baseman Robinson Cano ran into chilly temperatures of their own in Minnesota this weekend, Cano continued to hit at a clip matched only by the Phillies’ Rhys Hoskins. Cano has batted .440 with an on-base percentage of .517 through the Mariners’ seven games. He hit three triples, drove in three runs and slugged .560 over 25 at-bats.
Cano, who has a hit in all seven games, is tied with Hoskins for the best batting average in baseball.
In 94 career games against the Royals, Cano has hit 13 home runs and logged 56 RBIs. He owns a career batting average of .315 at Kauffman Stadium.
Although he hasn’t seen much of Monday’s starter, Jakob Junis, Cano has six hits, including a home run, and four RBIs in 21 plate appearances against Danny Duffy, who is slated to start Wednesday afternoon.
Angels starters
The Angels’ starting rotation as a whole hasn’t performed as well as Ohtani, who has a 2.08 ERA. LA's 4.99 ERA ranks 23rd in the major leagues.
Yet Angels starters went 5-2 in 48 2/3 innings over 10 games and have held opponents to a .211 batting average, the fourth-lowest mark in baseball. They haven’t even played in conditions like the Royals have endured in the last week, which has helped the Royals to limit opponents to a .205 clip that ranks second in baseball.
The Angels bullpen has been about as effective. Opponents batted .194 and struck out 46 times against Angels relievers to start the season.
The Angels, who entered Monday with a 7-3 record and in second place in the American League West, will play three games against the Rangers before traveling to Kansas City.
Miscellaneous
The Angels scored 60 runs and batted .264 in their first 10 games — marks that rank second and fourth in baseball. They also ranked second with a .469 slugging percentage.
The Mariners lead the American League with an on-base percentage of .340.
Royals pitcher Jakob Junis almost unhittable in 10-0 win
April 9, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star
For once, this is not a baseball story about the cold or its chilling effects on offense. Nor is it about winds that knock down balls that might have dropped for hits.
This story is unlike the ones written about the Royals in the last 10 days.
Because on Monday night at Kauffman Stadium, the day after they played a game in which the first-pitch temperature was the lowest ever recorded at Cleveland’s Progressive Field, the Royals matched their run total from the previous six games and scored nine runs in just four innings.
And because on Monday night at Kauffman Stadium, where the temperature was 42 degrees at the beginning of the game, what the offense accomplished barely mattered.
Jakob Junis, the right-handed pitcher the Royals selected in the 29th round of the 2011 draft, dazzled the Seattle Mariners for 6 1/3 no-hit innings in front of a small portion of the 12,324 fans who bought tickets to the game. He threw 90 pitches, pushed his season-opening, scoreless-inning streak to 14 and allowed just one hit in seven innings in the Royals’ 10-0 win.
“He’s gonna plateau out where he’s gonna be good every time,” manager Ned Yost told a gaggle of reporters before the game.
Although only time will tell if Yost’s prediction resonates, at least on this night his declaration held some weight.
Junis faced 23 batters before Daniel Vogelbach sent a groundball up the middle. Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar, shifted to the right side of the infield, dived to his right to knock the ball down behind second base. But he couldn’t get to his feet quickly enough to attempt throwing out Vogelbach, who cruised into first base with the Mariners' first hit of the game.
The play barely elicited a reaction out of Junis, whose composure Yost has raved about since the 25-year-old made his major-league debut last April.
As a portion of the 12,324 fans who purchased tickets to this game rose to their feet for an ovation, Junis focused on retiring the next two batters. Guillermo Heredia, who in the fifth inning was the third batter Junis hit with a pitch, whiffed on an 82 mph slider for Junis’ third strikeout of the night. Then Ichiro Suzuki lofted a fly ball to right field for the final out.
Junis returned to the dugout the same as he always does — straight-faced and with no gripes to make.
“Even to get a glove on that and almost make a play on that was really nice,” Junis said. “I wasn’t disappointed or anything. I just wanted to get out of that inning, really. I was still struggling with my command then.”
Stop the tape here. Those were the words of a second-year pitcher who fell eight outs shy of throwing the first no-hitter in Royals’ history in nearly 27 years.
In his postgame interview, Junis did little gushing about his performance — for good reason. He expressed frustration with his command of the strike zone. He threw 62.2 percent strikes. In his first start of the season against Detroit last week, he threw 71.2 percent strikes, allowed one walk and three hits and struck out six batters in seven-plus scoreless innings.
On Monday, he issued two walks and collected just three strikeouts. He hit three batters, tying a Royals record he also matched when he hit three Angels players on June 17, 2017.
“Had a couple of pretty suspect innings,” he said.
Junis presented such an even-keeled front — “There’s just nothing (in his expression),” Yost said — that his 62-year-old manager didn’t cotton on to the no-hitter until well after Junis hit Heredia to start the fifth inning.
“I was so focused (that) when he started laboring in the fourth and really started laboring in the fifth, when he came in, I told Dale (Sveum), ‘If he labors in the sixth, I’m getting him out. You know, I’m gonna get him out of there,’” Yost said. “Then I looked up and saw that he had a no-hitter, which I was completely oblivious to at that point. … Dale thought I was kidding.”
In the end, Junis didn’t become the first Royals pitcher to throw a no-hitter since Bret Saberhagen pitched one on Aug. 26, 1991.
Maybe one day.
“He’s finally realizing what type of pitcher he is and how to hone his own craft,” said catcher Cam Gallagher, who had one of the Royals’ 13 hits.
“He could be throwing a no-hitter, striking out 15 guys or he could be out there giving up 10 runs and you couldn’t tell the difference. He handles himself very well.”
Salvador Perez on his timeline to return; Gordon out of Royals lineup with injury