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Cincinnati Reds (4-7) @ Kansas City Royals (8-5)
First Pitch- 2:05 CT
Surprise Stadium, Surprise, Arizona
Vladimir Gutierrez (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Ian Kennedy (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
The Royals will look to make it two straight following Thursday’s walk-off win over the Angels in Surprise. The club remains tied for second with Seattle in the Cactus league, boasting their record of 8-5, 0.5 games back of the front-running Angels and Padres. Entering Friday, only 20 days stand between fans and regular season baseball.
Quick Hits:
- Billy Hamilton returns to lead-off spot
- Khalil Lee gets his first start at DH this spring
- Meibrys Viloria is leading in at-bats (12), average (.412), home runs (1), RBI (6), OPS (1.167) amongst all catchers on the spring training roster
- Free agent catcher Martin Maldonado switched his agent from Scott Boras to Dan Lozano of MVP Sports Group. He remains in talks with Kansas City per Jon Heyman, insider for MLB Network
- Brad Keller and Jakob Junis look to be the two candidates to start opening day following Danny Duffy’s setback (Shoulder Tightness) per Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com
Lineups:
Kansas City (via @Royals)
CF- Hamilton
2B- Arteaga
LF- Gordon
1B- O’Hearn
3B- Dozier
RF- Goodwin
SS- Lopez
DH- Lee
C- Viloria
Cincinnati (via @Reds)
LF- Winkler
DH- Dietrich
SS- Peraza
3B- Suarez
CF- Schebler
C- Tucker Barnhart
RF- Ervin
1B- Farmer
2B- Trahan
Game 2 @ Dodgers (7-5):
First Pitch- 8:05 CT
Camelback Ranch, Glendale, Arizona
Arnaldo Hernandez (0-0, 4.91 ERA) vs. Hyun-Jin Ryu (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Kansas City (via @Royals)
2B- Merrifield
SS- Mondesi
RF- Soler
1B- Schwindel
3B- Cuthbert
LF- Owings
DH- Isbel
CF- Gore
C- Gallagher