Royals exhibition-game slate next week includes meeting with the Cardinals in St. Louis
The Kansas City Royals will play three exhibition games as tuneups for the 60-game MLB regular-season schedule, the club announced Monday. Thanks to an exhibition matchup with their cross-state rivals, Royals manager Mike Matheny won’t have to wait until August to make his return to St. Louis.
The Royals will play all three games next week in Missouri, including two at Kauffman Stadium. Each game will be televised by Fox Sports Kansas City.
The Royals will host the defending American League champion Houston Astros in Kauffman Stadium on Monday, July 20, at 7:05 p.m. The teams will play again on Tuesday, July 21, at 1:05 p.m. The Royals and Astros last played an exhibition game in 2015 at Houston.
The Royals will also play one game against the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday, July 22, at 3:05 p.m. at Busch Stadium. This will mark the first exhibition meeting between the Royals and Cardinals since 2001, when both clubs were members of the Grapefruit League.
Matheny wasn’t sure how many of the club’s 60 players would participate in the exhibition games. While the Royals will likely still be building their everyday position players up to playing nine innings, Matheny said he doubted they’d have a 60-man roster for those games. Players not participating in the games at Kauffman might take part in workouts before or after those games.
Matheny, hired in October to replace the retired Ned Yost, managed the Cardinals from 2012-18. He also played for the club from 2000-04.
During his tenure as manager went 591-474, won three division titles, made four consecutive playoff appearances and went to a World Series in 2013. But the team finished third in the NL Central in 2017, and they were one game above .500 (47-46) when the Cardinals fired him and promoted his bench coach and current Cardinals manager Mike Shildt during the 2018 season.
Matheny spent last season as a special advisor for the Royals.
When MLB released the 60-game scheduled last week, which includes six games between the Royals and Cardinals, Matheny said in a matter-of-fact manner, “I’ve moved on. This is my new home.”
With the news that his first trip back to St. Louis with his new club will be next week instead of Aug. 24, Matheny was asked Monday about the pending trip.
He said it just made sense geographically to set up the preseason meetings with St. Louis. He also pointed to the fact that they don’t play a live game until later in the regular season. He admittedly “wasn’t real crazy about” the idea of playing an exhibition game against a team like the Cleveland Indians and then beginning the regular season against that same team.
As far as managing against his old club, Matheny said, “It’s just going to be another opponent. It truly is. I know that doesn’t make for exciting journalism. Anyways, I’m excited to watch our guys play against somebody else; I don’t care who it is. It just happens to be the team on the other side of the state that our fans love watching us compete against, so I think it’s going to be a win all the way around.”
St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak spoke to The Star about Matheny during November’s General Manager’s Meetings in Arizona.
“I was happy for him,” Mozeliak said of Matheny’s hiring. “He and I were friends, and we unfortunately had to make a tough decision. But I think it’s a great opportunity for him to hit the restart button and have another shot at this. He’s a bright guy. He’s a charismatic person that the more you’re around him, the more you’ll realize that. I definitely think that he has a lot to bring to the Royals.”
This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 11:34 AM with the headline "Royals exhibition-game slate next week includes meeting with the Cardinals in St. Louis."
