Kansas City Royals: Spring Training Results – MLB 2011
Kansas City Royals made a decent enough start to their Spring Training season campaign as they defeated Texas Rangers 4-2 on February 27. Although they lost their next encounter to the Rangers, they played well as a team throughout the spring season to earn
valuable standing points.
On March 1, the Royals edged past the San Diego Padres 4-3 to clinch their first win of the month. In their next match-up against Los Angeles Dodgers, the AL Central team was absolutely brilliant, outplaying their rivals in almost every aspect of the game.
Defeating the Dodgers with an 11-5 score, the team took a lot of confidence from that victory.
The Royals continued to look like an impressive unit for the entire week as they emerged victorious in five out seven games during the seven days period. Having thrashed the Dodgers, the Royals then dominated Los Angeles Angels 8-2 with another strong performance.
Going 4-4 with two RBI’s for his team, Mitch Maier finished with eleven hits.
"Mitch Maier was the star of the game," Royals’ manager Ned Yost said.
Experiencing their first loss of the month at the hands of Colorado Rockies, the Royals were really disappointed for not ending on the winning side after they had done all the hard work earlier in their 9-10 loss. However, they stuck to their strengths in
their next game against Chicago White Sox to earn a crucial 8-3 victory.
Royals continued to play aggressively and they became more dangerous with every passing game. Defeating the Chicago Cubs 13-4 on March 9, they seemed to be on the track for an impressive regular season results. Hammering the Los Angeles Dodgers 19-7 on March
12, they improved their win-loss record to 11-5.
Crushing the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians in four straight games, Ned Yost’s side was looking on top of their game. Kyle Davies, who was having a hard time finding his rhythm in the big leagues, displayed better
baseball in the match-up against the Cleveland Indians.
"The third inning was bad," Davies said. "I didn't command the ball at all. Balls were all over the place. I was 3-0 to a couple of hitters and that's not good. The first, second, fourth and fifth innings, I was ahead in most counts. I was much better in
the zone and down in the zone."
Although the Royals had a tough time against the San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers, they were back to their very best against Arizona and Chicago White Sox. Team manager Ned Yost was delighted with his team’s effort in the spring season and he aimed
to give similar results in the games during the regular season as well.
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