2017 KANSAS CITY ROYALS Spring Training Game Notes Kansas City Royals (7-4) @ Cincinnati Reds (4-6) Tuesday, March 7, 2017 ACE 30 KARNS SHARP, BUT ROYALS FALL--Runs were at a premium yesterday in Surprise as the Diamondbacks handed Kansas City a 4-1 setback, despite another impressive outing for Nathan Karns...the righty, who was acquired from the Seattle Mariners in January, faced the minimum and needed just 34 pitches to navigate through his first 3.0 innings...however, Karns suffered his first defeat after surrendering a walk and a single to start the fourth, with both runs coming in after departing...the Royals couldn’t get much going offensively, scoring their lone tally in the eighth inning on Alex Gordon’s second hit of the day – a two-out RBI single to right field...Gordon was the only KC hitter to collect multiple hits in the game, while Lorenzo Cain had the only extra-base hit with a double to start the eighth. SENIOR TOUR CONCLUDES--Today ends a nine-game run of exhibition contests Upcoming Probables against National League foes with Kansas City making its second trip to Goodyear in four days...the Royals have gone 5-3 against the Senior Circuit this spring, with wins over Today @ Cincinnati Reds @ Goodyear Stadium (1:05) Milwaukee, Colorado, the Dodgers and San Francisco (twice) during the streak...KC will Travis Wood (L), Chris Young, Scott Alexander (L), Miguel Almonte, host Team Venezuela tomorrow, before the club’s first off-day of the spring on Thursday... Andrew Edwards, Brandon League, Chris Withrow, the Royals will not see another National League opponent until Sunday, when LA visits Jonathan Sánchez (L) Surprise Stadium. vs. Sal Romano, Nefi Ogando, Michael Lorenzen, Kevin Shackelford, MOUND WORK STILL TOP NOTCH--Despite suffering a defeat yesterday, the Royals Lisalverto Bonilla, Blake Wood, Tony Cingrani (L), Barrett Astin, hurlers continued to put up solid outings...Kansas City checks into today’s action with a Alejandro Chacin team ERA of 3.56, just behind Arizona’s 3.54 mark for the Cactus League lead...in their first 11 exhibition games, the Royals’ relief pitchers have posted a 2.99 ERA (25 ER in 75.1 IP), Tomorrow vs. Team Venezuela @ Surprise Stadium (1:05) despite an eight-run eighth inning here last Saturday. Jose Alvarez (L) vs. INTERNATIONAL GUESTS--Beginning today, Team Venezuela will begin its training for Ian Kennedy, Mike Minor (L), Yender Cáramo, Kevin McCarthy, the World Baseball Classic at the Royals’ Surprise Complex...the team, which includes KC Malcom Culver, Eric Stout (L), Bobby Parnell stars Salvador Perez and Alcides Escobar, will work today, play the Royals in an exhibition game tomorrow at Surprise Stadium and the Texas Rangers on Thursday, before their first Thursday - Off Day contest of the WBC, Friday in Jalisco, Mexico. Friday vs. Oakland Athletics @ Surprise Stadium (6:05) A WORLD BASEBALL SPRING--The Royals and the rest of Major League Baseball TBA opened training camp early this year due to this being a WBC season...players from 16 vs. different countries will compete in the tournament, which is underway...team USA, who Jason Hammel will have Royals’ Eric Hosmer and Danny Duffy has been assigned the Miami pool, which also features the defending champion Dominican Republic, Canada and Colombia...the Colombian squad will have Royals’ minor league catcher Meibrys Viloria and infielder Mauricio Ramos...also participating in this year’s WBC are: Drew Butera (Italy), Salvador Perez and Alcides Escobar (Venezuela), Joakim Soria (Mexico) and minor leaguers Gabe Kramer and Jake Kalish (Israel), Allan De San Miguel (Australia)...recently re-signed pitcher Peter Moylan is also slated to appear for Australia. VS. CINCY--The Royals take on Cincinnati for the second time in a four-day span, after dropping a split-squad affair, 9-7, here on Saturday...the clubs will meet one more time after today, March 20 in Surprise, but will not see each other in the regular season. ROSTER BREAKDOWN--The Royals reassigned pitcher A.J. Puckett to minor league camp on Friday and now have 65 players in camp...the breakdown includes 32 pitchers (14 non-roster), 8 catchers (5 non-roster), 14 infielders (4 non-roster) and 11 outfielders (1 non-roster)...among the 32 pitchers in camp, 11 are left-handed...southpaw Brian Flynn is listed among the 65 players on the roster, but will open the year on the 60-day disabled list as he recovers from a low back injury incurred just prior to spring training...of the 34 non-roster players in camp with Kansas City, nine have previous Major League experience, including six who had time in “The Show” in 2016...of the 33 roster players in camp, eight have yet to accrue any big league service time. .500 IN ‘16 FOR THE DEFENDING CHAMPS--After consecutive American League crowns, capped by a World Series title in 2015, the Royals recorded an 81-81 ledger last season, finishing third in the American League Central...Kansas City has gone 351-297 in its last four seasons, tying the Baltimore Orioles for the second best record in the American League in that span, just one-half game behind Cleveland (351-297)...this four-year stretch marks the first time the Royals have finished at .500 or better in four consecutive campaigns since going six straight from 1975-80...last year’s club navigated through the first three months with a 42-36 ledger, but scuffled to a 7-19 month of July...the Royals recovered with a 20-9 August, but then slipped and finished the campaign with a 12-17 record over September and October. SPRING WORK--Kansas City has gone 7-4 through the first 10 days of exhibition play, tying with the Angels and Seattle for the most Cactus League wins... the Royals were 14-21 in 2016, but 10-5 in Surprise, closing with eight consecutive home wins...the club drew a Surprise home record 126,108 last year for a per game average of 8,407....KC has an all-time exhibition record of 672-614 with 38 ties for a .522 winning pct...the club has posted a 240-191 mark with 18 ties for a .555 mark in the Valley of the Sun...the Royals spent their first 34 seasons training in Florida, beginning with Fort Myers (1969-87), followed by a 15-year stint in Baseball City (1988-2002). THE SEASON AHEAD--The 2017 campaign will begin on Monday, April 3 in Target Field, as the Royals and Twins face-off in the first of a three-game series...all three games in Minneapolis will be day affairs, with an off day on Tuesday, April 4, sandwiched between games one and two...Kansas City will then head to Houston for a three-game weekend set before the home half of the schedule opens on Monday, April 10 against the Oakland A’s...KC will host the Athletics for a three-game set, also separated by an off day on April 11, then visits from the Los Angeles Angels (3) and San Francisco Giants (2) will wrap-up the initial stay of the season...Kansas City will have a stretch from April 28-May 18 when it will play 16 of 20 games in Kauffman Stadium, separated only by a four-game journey to Tampa Bay on May 8-11...as evidenced by the two-game visit from the Giants during the opening homestand, the Royals will battle the N.L. West in Interleague play in 2017, also making trips to San Francisco (2), Dodger Stadium (3) and San Diego (3), while the Giants, Rockies (3) and Diamondbacks (3) pay a visit to “The K”, with the D’Backs series wrapping up the regular season on September 29-October 1. AT THE HELM--The winningest manager in franchise history, Ned Yost begins his seventh full season with the club, taking the reins on May 13, 2010... he has a 549-550 regular season record at the helm for the Royals, surpassing Whitey Herzog’s previous team mark of 410 wins (1975-79)...Yost is the 16th full-time manager in franchise history and enters this year seventh among active managers is games (2,058) and wins (1,006)...this is his second stint as a big league manager after nearly six full campaigns at the helm for the Milwaukee Brewers (2003-2008)...he compiled a 457-502 record with the Brew Crew including a 166-146 mark Starts by Position in his last two seasons...Yost, a catcher during his playing days, began his coaching career in the Atlanta organization, including 12 straight seasons on Bobby Cox’s big league staff 1B -- Hosmer (6), O’Hearn (2), Dozier (1), Dueñez (1), Merrifield (1) (1991-2002). 2B -- Mondesi (4), Merrifield (3), Colón (2), Cuthbert (2) ON THE RADIO--Today will be one of 20 scheduled radio broadcasts on KCSP (610 3B -- Cuthbert (5), Cecchini (2), Colón (2), Dozier (1), Sports) and the Royals Radio Network...throughout the spring, Denny Matthews, Ryan Moustakas (1) Lefebrve, Steve Physioc and Steve Stewart will call the action...the games not ticketed on SS -- Escobar (6), Colón (2), Torres (2), Mondesi (1) 610 will be carried on the web with Stewart providing the play-by-play. LF -- Soler (3), Gordon (2), Moss (2), O’Brien (2), Bonifacio (1), Orlando (1) PLENTY OF TV TIME--The Royals will have their first of 10 exhibition broadcasts on CF -- Cain (6), Orlando (3), Starling (2) Fox Sports Kansas City this Friday, when they host Oakland at 6:05...that contest will RF -- Soler (4), Gordon (3), Bonifacio (2), Orlando (2) be the first of three telecasts in as many days, as KC will also be on FSKC on Saturday against Cleveland from Goodyear, then again on Sunday when the Royals host the Los C -- Perez (5), Gallagher (3), Peña (3) Angeles Dodgers...there will be two telecasts in which KC will share the production with the P -- Duffy (2), Vargas (2), Hammel (1), Karns (1), Kennedy (1), opposing club, March 16 vs.