The Kansas City Royals certainly have to be pleased with Bruce Chen's staring performance yesterday and the staff as a whole, but the offense was stymied by the the Giants pitching stuff as the Royal fell 3-1 before a Giants record spring crowd of 12,216.
Chen went six innings in his start, giving up three runs on five hits. All three runs were solo home runs by Cody Ross, Buster Posey, and Aubrey Huff. Nathan Adcock and Aaron Crow each pitched a scoreless inning of relief. Adcock has been a solid pitcher this spring, coming to the Royals in the winter as a Rule V draft selection. Though he has never pitched above A ball, you certainly have to like the 6'5" right-handers chances to make the Opening Day roster. If Adcock is unable to stick with the big league club for the entire season, he must be offered back to the Pittsburgh Pirates for $25,000. Last year Royals reliever Kanekoa Texeira was in a similar situation.
The often wild Barry Zito set the tone for Giants pitchers, giving up just one run on two hits over six innings. On the day the Royals offense mustered just four hits, two by Mike Aviles.
Kansas City scored their run in the sixth when Aviles came around to score after Melky Cabrera reached base following an error by Giants shortstop Emmanuel Burriss. A full boxscore can be seen here.
Chen took the loss, Zito the win, and Santiago Casilla the save for San Francisco. The Royals now sit at 14-7-1, while the Giants improved to 18-6.
Kansas City will be out there again today with Vin Mazzaro facing the Texas Rangers.