The Kansas City Royals were among the hottest baseball teams this spring but were held in check in an 8-1 loss to the Texas Rangers at Surprise Stadium on Friday night.
With 140 runs achieved, the Royals only followed the athletes in this spring training as teams with the highest number of points in the game on Friday.
Whit Merrifield provided the Royals’ only spark with a lead-off double in the first inning. He later scored on a wild field to give the Royals a brief 1-0 lead.
Jackson Kowar made his third start this spring. The right-hander did well on his first two starts, throwing five goalless innings. But this time around he was battered in his 1 1/3 innings as the Rangers racked up five hits, three walks and six earned runs.
Carlos Hernandez relieved Kowar and fought command problems. He went four and scored a run on a wild field, giving the Rangers a 7-1 lead.
The KC bullpen then got into a groove when Richard Lovelady, Ryan Kalish, Kyle Zimmer and Jake Newberry together scored 4 2/3 goalless innings.
Kansas City’s spring training record slipped to 14-8-3.
The Royals only have three games left in the Cactus League before the opening day on April 4th at The K. Next up is Milwaukee on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Surprise Stadium.
