The Kansas City Royals got after it early this afternoon, defeating the Texas Rangers by a score of 4-2. The first three Royals batters had singles that resulted in an early 2-0 margin. Royals leadoff hitter Mike Aviles reached on a single off Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson, Melky Cabrera singled and reached second on an error by Michael Young, before Billy Butler came through with a two run single of his own.
Royals starter Kyle Davies threw two scoreless innings in his first outing, striking out three and giving up a single before giving way to Bruce Chen. Chen walked one and struckout Josh Hamilton, while allowing just one hit as well in his two innings of work. The only runs given up by a Royals pitcher were two charged to Louis Coleman, who allowed a two run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to Doug Deeds. In addition to Davies' three strikeouts, Coleman, Tim Collins, and Luis Mendoza all had two strikeouts in single inning outings for each.
Offensively, Melky Cabrera and Billy Butler lead the way with two hits each, with Butler also having 2 RBI's in the first. Newly acquired and former Ranger Jeff Francoeur went deep off pitcher Dave Bush for the first Royals homerun of the spring season.
All the Royals key hitting prospects made it into the game, though second baseman Johnny Giavotella was the only one that came up with a hit, a ground-rule double off Yoshinori Tateyama.
Kyle Davies picked up the win, while Kevin Pucetas pitched a scoreless ninth to gain the save.
The Royals move to 1-0 this spring, while the Texas Rangers fall to 0-1. The two teams go right back at it tomorrow when they will face off again. Vin Mazzaro will get the nod for the Royals, while Danny Duffy, Everett Teaford, Blaine Hardy, Will Smith, Chris Dwyer, Patrick Keating, and Steven Shell are all expected to take the mound as well for the Royals.
Click here to view the full boxscore, courtesy of 610 Sports.
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