Spring Training Game XIII: Venezuela at Royals

It is Wednesday, March 8, the day that Order 66 will officially be given in the baseball world. Salvador Perez and Alcides Escobar have reneged on their commitment to the Royals to play for the Venezuelan national team in the World Baseball Classic.

And as such, that very Venezuelan team will head over to Surprise Stadium this afternoon to take on the team formerly known as the Fighting O’Brien’s for a baseball game of seismic proportions.

The Royals will look like this:

The Venezuelan squad will look like this:

On a more serious note, Rustin Dodd wrote another awesome piece for The Star, this time about Ned Yost losing his mother this past November and embarking on his first baseball season without her. It is surely worth your time if clicking on this blog post was worth your time.

Here are some other random notes for your viewing pleasure:

• The Royals have moved Kyle Zimmer and Josh Staumont, among other, to minor-league camp.
• Alex Gordon will be doing something weird on Saturday

• Mike Moustakas hit his first home run of Spring Training yesterday, but so did Billy Burns, so who knows. Travis Wood and Chris Young both struggled in their outings, giving up a combined five runs over five innings. Young did strike out five Reds in his three innings of work, however. Full box score.

Today’s game is slated to start at 2 P.M. CST and can be heard on KCSP 610.