Game threads IX and X - Royals at Reds; Dodgers at Royals

The Royals will have two spring training games for your pleasure today. The afternoon matchup will see them play the away squad against the Cincinnati Reds. They’ll be the home team versus the Dodgers in the evening. Even though the games are played at different times this is still considered a split-squad matchup.

For the afternoon game, Jonathan Heasley will continue to fight for a rotation spot. So far he has an 18.00 ERA in Spring Training which probably isn’t doing him any favors. In the nightcap, Zack Greinke will do “Zack Greinke gets ready for the regular season” things as his rotation spot is all but assured and he needs to tweak more than compete.

The Royals are putting Johan Camargo at shortstop in the day game. To be honest, I didn’t think he’d played there in his major league career. He was primarily a third baseman for Atlanta when things were going well. However, it turns out he’s played 95 games at short and has actually been all over the infield. Meanwhile, Matt Duffy continues to get a long look at third base. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the Royals were hoping to offload Hunter Dozier before the season starts because with Nicky Lopez, Nate Eaton, and Maikel Garcia all likely to make the roster, there doesn’t seem to be room for either Camargo or Duffy but they sure are getting a lot of hard looks early.

Lineup and Available Pitchers