The Cleveland Indians defeated the Kansas City Royals by a score of 9-5 in the Tribe’s first Spring Training game of 2020.
Cleveland Indians baseball is back. Well, kind of. Spring Training is here and after Saturday’s game was canceled, the Tribe took on the Kansas City Royals for their first game in Arizona. Cleveland came out on top by a score of 9-5 and move to 1-0 in the Cactus League.
Hitters of note
As per usual, regular starters usually do not get that much time early in the spring. The trio of Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, and Carlos Santana did not appear in Sunday’s tilt with the Royals. The only for sure regular starter that appeared was Franmil Reyes and he got his spring off with a bang. Reyes came up in the 6th inning and hit a solo shot to give the Indians a 4-1 lead at the time. Reyes would finish 1-3 on the day.
There were a handful of guys looking to make the Opening Day roster who did not collect a hit Sunday. Delino DeShields, Domingo Santana, Bobby Bradley, and Greg Allen were all hitless on the day. DeShields and Allen each walked once while Domingo and Bradley both went 0-3
Yu Chang is another roster hopeful and he started his Arizona campaign strongly, going 2-2 with 2 runs scored.
Another possible utility man Mike Freeman only went 1-3, but did manage to drive in 2 runs with his 5th inning bases loaded single.
Pitchers of note
Jefry Rodriguez got the start for the Indians and allowed one run in 2 innings on two hits and one walk while striking out two. The one run was a Bubba Starling solo home run in the bottom of the 2nd.
Adam Cimber pitched the 3rd inning and his only baserunner allowed was a walk to Nicky Lopez.
Dynamic relief pitcher James Karinchak followed Cimber and pitched a clean 4th inning. Karinchak struck out one batter in his lone inning of work. Karinchak received the win for his effort in Sunday’s game.
