Royals versus Rangers: 200 to 457

Considering I don’t exactly have a rosy outlook for the Royals in 2010, what happened today in Surprise, Arizona amounted to getting punched in the gut.  Okay, maybe that’s a little strong.  After all, it is only one game, and the first spring training game at that.

I know spring training games don’t mean much, but I can’t shake the feeling that we are going to see today’s events unfold before us several times during the spring and summer months to come.

Today’s final score?  Texas 13, Kansas City 3

The Rangers collected 21 hits in 46 at bats and as an added bonus drew 5 walks.  They hit 0.457 off Royals pitching on this fine day.  In a study of contrasts, the Royals went 7 for 35 with 1 walk on their way to a stellar 0.200 average for the day.

14 out of the 18 Rangers who stepped to the plate got a hit.  Six Texas players had more than one.  Again, in a study of contrasts, 19 Royals recorded an at bat with only seven players getting a hit.  Seven hits for seven players.  At least that’s easy math.

Jason Kendall actually hit second in the Royals order.  I’ll let you go all Mad Lib up in here and fill in the expletive for me on this (just don’t actually write on your monitor) _______________!

As for the pitching, WHIP it (not so) good!

3.0  Kyle Davies (2.0 IP, 5 H, and 1 BB)
3.0  Robinson Tejeda (2.0 IP, 4 H, and 2 BB)
2.5  Philip Humber (2.0 IP, 4 H, and 1 BB)
2.5  Anthony Lerew (2.0 IP, 5 H, and 0 BB)
4.0  Matt Herges (1.0 IP, 3 H, and 1 BB)

At least they were consistent.

I don’t want this to be completely negative so in the spirit of positive thinking I will say that this might be the worst game they play all year.  If you’re going to drop a complete clunker, you may as well do it in spring training and do it early.

I will leave you with a poem titled simply, Smile:

Scott Podsednik stole a base,

Jason Kendall got a ground-out RBI

Yuniesky Betancourt tripled

13-3?  Doesn’t matter

Somewhere Dayton Moore smiled

(Wally Fish is the lead blogger for Kings of Kauffman and FanSided’s MLB Director.  Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)