Before we take a look at today's game, let's first take a step back and look at the Royals late game last evening against the San Diego Padres. Kansas City used balanced hitting, with 11 different players having a hit in leading the Royals to a 11-3 victory over the Friars. Mitch Maier went 2-for-2 in the game, raising his batting average to .625 thus far. Brett Eibner also had a two RBI triple in his first spring training action. Catcher Salvador Perez was able to gun down Will Venable twice trying to steal second base.
On the pitching side of things start Sean O'Sullivan gave up one run over three innings, while Louis Coleman picked up the win with a scoreless fourth inning, before the Royals scored five times in the fifth inning to take control of the game. Tim Collins, Nathan Adcock, and Gaby Hernandez all saw time as well for Kansas City.
Now onto today's game, the Royals took to the field against the Cincinnati Reds, and lost 5-2. Kyle Davies started opposite Travis Wood of the Reds. Davies did quite well in three innings of scoreless baseball. He allowed four hits and a walk, while striking out three.
Wood held the Royals scoreless until the third, when Billy Butler hit a two-run home run scoring both he and Melky Cabrera for a 2-0 Royals lead. After Davies left, Danny Duffy came in to pitch for the Royals and was shaky allowing three runs and walking two in two innings. The key moment in the game seemed to be with two outs in the top of the fourth, Duffy gave up a three-run home run to the Reds' Drew Stubbs, his first of the spring.
The Reds were also able to score single runs in both the eighth and ninth innings off Royals relievers Patrick Keating and Steven Shell. Duffy took the loss for the Royals as he had a 9.00 ERA this spring. Wood was the victor and Matt Maloney picked up the save for the Reds who improved to 7-4, while Kansas City fell to 7-4. A full boxscore can be found here.
The Royals visit the Chicago Cubs tomorrow, a team they defeated 5-4 on Friday.