May 18, 2019
By Fred Liggett
FredL@lstribune.net
The Kansas City Royals began the week with a day off allowing the team to enjoy some rest and relaxation during a home stand. On Tuesday it was time to return to the field as the Royals continued a six-game home stand with a three-game series against the Texas Rangers.
Tuesday night offered Royals fans many opportunities to enjoy being at Kaufman stadium. A few of them occurred before the first pitch as the team promotion that night was a t-shirt that read “Always Royal” the team’s 2019 slogan. Royals fans were also excited to get to the ball park to witness the first Major League Baseball game of Nicky Lopez’s career. Lopez, a 24-year-old top prospect, was called up from Omaha during the day to take over as the team’s starting second baseman.
Royals starter Danny Duffy breezed through the first inning of the game, then fans were excited about what happened on the field as the Royals bats took over. Whit Merrifield began the game with a leadoff double, he scored later thanks to an Alex Gordon double. Gordon scored when Hunter Dozier provided an RBI double giving the Royals a 3-0 lead after just one inning. The next inning saw the Royals bats hit some more doubles as they scored six times to make it a 9-0 game. Both Jorge Soler and Ryan O’ Hearn provided the RBI doubles in the second. That was all the scoring the Royals needed as they opened the series with a dominating 11-5 win. Capping a memorable night for the Royals was Nicky Lopez whose first career hit was an RBI single in the seventh inning. Just before Lopez’s at bat Royals right fielder Whit Merrifield got his 500th career hit which was an RBI double. Duffy got the win to improve to 2-1 on the season.
The Royals and Rangers met again on Wednesday night where the Royals bats went silent as they fell 6-1. The two teams wrapped up the series with a day game on Thursday and turned out to be bad day for the host Royals. Royals starter Homer Bailey was hammered by the Rangers bats in a game that saw Chris Owings a Royals utility infielder pitch the ninth inning. The Royals drop the series to the Rangers 2-1 after suffering through a 16-1 loss.
Now it’s the time for the Royals to head out on the road to play in California against the Angels this weekend to be followed by a return trip to Missouri to play in St. Louis. Royals players will not be traveling alone as this road trip is the seventh annual father-sons trip where Royals players enjoy playing baseball while talking baseball with their fathers when off the field. Saturday’s game with a 9:07 p.m. first pitch will be seen nationally on FS1 television network. The Royals after a 2-4 home stand left Kansas City with a 15-29 record so far in 2019.
