ST Game #12

Game Date: March 10, 2008
Royals 15, Giants 6 / Box Score
Royals Spring Training Record: 6-6

What a difference a day makes, huh?

The Royals pummeled Barry Zito yesterday and had an 8-2 lead after the fourth inning. When you score 15 runs, nearly everybody is in on the act, but I want to talk about two aspects of the offense yesterday.

First, Mark Teahen his his second home run of the spring and Ryan Shealy hit his third home run. Nobody seems to know what to expect from either player this season, although certainly, expectations run higher for Teahen, but if these two guys can re-discover their power stroke, this team is going to be fun to watch because I'm confident that Billy Butler is going to get his hits and Jose Guillen is expected to do what he's been doing for the past several years. And one can hope that Alex Gordon will be a factor as well.

The other thing to note is the number of walks (8) the Royals drew yesterday. David DeJesus had two. Alex Gordon had two. So did Joey Gathright. And the Royals only struck out twice. Let's hope that the trend continues.

Damon Hollins continues to make noise. he was 3-for-3 with 5 RBI yesterday. He'll be 34 in April, so I'm guessing that he won't be fond of playing in Omaha if he doesn't make the Opening Day roster, but the way he's swinging the bat right now, he might want to consider it because he could be just one injury away from getting another big league shot.

Hideo Nomo gave up two runs in the first inning and came back nicely after that. He ended up giving up two earned runs on four hits in three innings of work. He's finally starting to find a little velocity. According to the Star, he hit 88 mph once on the radar gun. Joakim Soria pitched two scoreless innings. Gobble tossed one scoreless inning. And both Joel Peralta and Carlos Rosa surrendered two earned runs apiece.

Zack Greinke will go against Dan Haren in Tucson this afternoon.