By Fred Liggett
FredL@lstribune.net

On Monday, Apr. 9 the Kansas City Royals returned home to begin a week long home stand against the Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The week began with a three game series against the AL West member Mariners.

Monday night the Royals got the home stand started off with a 10-0 shutout of the Mariners thanks to the pitching performance of Jakob Junis. Junis had a no-hitter going into the seventh inning to aid the Royals winning efforts. Tuesday the Royals were the ones on the wrong end of a lopsided score as they lost 8 to 3. All three Royals runs were due to third baseman Mike Moustakas who hit a two run home run in the fourth and an RBI single in the sixth. Wednesday the series came to an end with a close game that the Mariners won 4-2 thanks to a two run home run in the top of the eighth inning. The loss gave the Royals a 3-7 mark at the time.

All this leads into a weekend series against the Angels who are expected to bring the “Sho” to the K for the first time. Sho is new MLB phenom Shohei Ohtani who came to the states from Japan during the off season. Ohtani has pitched and hit his way to the honor of American League player of the week after the first week of the 2018 season. Ohtani has been used as a designated hitter and a pitcher so far to equal success.

The Angels and Royals will play a four game series Thursday through Sunday. Royals’ fans can expect a busy weekend at Kaufman Stadium. Saturday night’s game is set for national television as the contest will be seen on FS1 starting at 6:15 p.m. Then on Sunday Ohtani is expected to get the start on the mound for the visiting Angels. Game time is set for 1:15 p.m. Sunday’s game has been set aside as the annual Jackie Robinson Day.

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