The recent woes for the Kansas City Royals continued today as they fell to American League Central Division rival the Cleveland Indians 8-7.
Offense wasn't a problem for the Royals as they totaled 7 runs on 13 hits for the day. Kila Ka`aihue was 3-for-5 at the plate with 2 RBI, including a 2nd inning home run. Mitch Maier was a perfect 3-for-3 on the day with two walks, raising his average to .515. Jeff Francouer contributed 2 walks in addition to going 2-for-3 batting, while Alcides Escobar hit his 4th homerun of the spring during the 6-run 5th inning for Kansas City.
Nathan Adcock started for the Royals, but only went 2 innings giving up 3 runs on 2 hits before departing for Tim Collins who was excellent again in relief.
The Royals jumped out to 7-3 lead halfway through the 5th, when 8 hits accounted for 6 Kansas City runs in the inning as the Royals batted around against Indians starter Carlos Carrasco.
It was 7-4 heading into the bottom of the 8th and it looked as if the boys in blue would end their recent skid, but with Sean O'Sullivan on the mound, the Indians plated 3 runs to knot the game after Shin-Soo Choo singled to score former Royal Paul Phillips. Choo hurt the Royals all day going 3-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBI.
Then in the 9th with O'Sullivan still on the mound, Travis Hafner singled before giving way to pinch-runner Jack Hannahan. Hannahan then came around to score on a Cord Phelps triple for the winning run.
O'Sullivan took the loss and fell to 1-1, while Tony Sipp picked up the Cleveland win.
The Indians moved to 12-11, while the Royals fall to 14-10-1. Kansas City nows sits at 5th place in the in the 15 team Cactus League.
Bruce Chen (C'mon Chen!) gets the start for Kansas City tomorrow afternoon as they face the Seattle Mariners who sit at 13-7 and in 3rd place.