Royals Report: KC Rally Falls Short In 6-4 Loss To Texas

The Royals dropped their first game in spring training, suffering a 6-4 loss at Surprise, Arizona on Sunday afternoon.

Kansas City Royals prospect Chase Vallot slammed a ninth inning triple to plate two runs, followed by an RBI double from Billy Burns to pull within two. But, first baseman Samir Duenz ground out to end the rally. In the end, the Royals still lost 6-4 despite scoring three runs in the ninth.

The KC Royals only scored one run in the first eight innings on Hunter Dozier‘s third inning triple.

On the mound, former top prospect Kyle Zimmer suffered through a rough 1.1 innings. He allowed three total runs, and two earned runs, which included a two run shot from 1B Ryan Rua in the first inning.

Scott Alexander, Kevin McCarthy, Miguel Almonte, Brandon League, Bobby Parnell, Malcom Culver, and Peter Moylan followed Zimmer to the mound. McCarthy allowed an unearned run in the fourth. Almonte gave up a home run to Andy Ibanez in the fifth and Brandon League surrendered an RBI single in the sixth to finish the scoring for Texas.

More from Kings of Kauffman

• KC Royals Rumors: Is a monster move in the cards?
• KC Royals Free Agent Hunt: 3 Tampa Bay pitchers
• Grading the 2022 KC Royals: The $25 million man
• KC Royals Winter Meetings Tracker: Expectations met
• KC Royals Winter Meetings Tracker: Day 3 update

Of the sixteen pitchers that have seen action for the KC Royals in the last two games, only three threw a pitch for Kansas City last season. Ned Yost apparently is trying to get a feel for the horde of veteran reclamation projects and bullpen long shots that opened camp with KC this spring.

The game outcomes are far less important than finding a couple of arms that can help fill out the bullpen in 2017. Al Alburquerque is the player that stood out among the group, showing good movement while striking out two in a clean inning on Saturday. AAA closer Andrew Edwards also had a nice showing. Of course, there’s a long way to go before Yost can pare down the options to a 25-man opening day roster.

Next: Now Or Never For Infielder Christian Colon

Ned Yost has a lot of pitchers to sort through before deciding on a bullpen to take to Kansas City in April. Let’s hope some of the reclamation projects can, indeed, revitalize their career in 2017.