Spring Training Game 14 & 15: Reds/Dodgers vs. Royals

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