Danny Duffy, Foster Griffin lead way as Royals’ pitching enjoys strong intrasquad game
Veteran left-hander Danny Duffy pitched three scoreless innings for the Royals in his second intrasquad start at Kauffman Stadium.
Duffy, the leading candidate to start the season opener, looked sharp Monday night against a lineup that featured mostly players with limited major-league experience and/or top prospects in the club’s farm system.
Duffy gave up an infield single up the middle by top prospect and 2019 first-round draft pick Bobby Witt Jr. It deflected off Duffy’s glove. Erick Mejia doubled on a hot shot down the third-base line that Maikel Franco couldn’t glove cleanly.
Witt collected two of the three hits Duffy allowed in his three innings of work — he finished his outing pitching in the right-field bullpen/batting cage. Duffy struck out lefty prospect Khalil Lee twice, once swinging and once looking, for two of his three strikeouts.
Mejia, last season’s Royals Triple-A Player of the Year, has collected at least one hit in each of KC’s intrasquad scrimmages since spring training 2.0 started at Kauffman Stadium.
Left-hander Foster Griffin started for the team composed of younger players and prospects. He pitched two scoreless innings against a lineup that included everyday regulars Whit Merrifield, Adalberto Mondesi, Hunter Dozier, Jorge Soler and Alex Gordon.
“I thought Duffy was really good right from the top,“ Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “I think you saw a pretty good look at what Griffin does. Even if he gives something up, a ground ball seems to follow and he can get himself out of trouble.
“To me a couple other guys that stood out would have been (Jesse) Hahn and (Kevin) McCarthy both,” Matheny said. “Hahn had the really good life (on his pitches). I think he’s starting to find that curveball. That’s a difference-maker. That’s a pitch he did not have when we were in Surprise. … McCarthy, with what he’s doing with the split now, it has giving him a chance. We flooded him with left-handed hitters and he continued to make really good pitches and we were seeing awkward swings.”
Rosie recovers
Right-handed relief pitcher Trevor Rosenthal mostly dominated throughout Cactus League play in Arizona. In his initial spring training outings, he worked a total of five scoreless innings, didn’t issue a walk, allowed three hits and struck out nine as he posted a 0.60 WHIP and hit 100 mph on the radar gun.
He started out looking slightly off-kilter Monday night. He walked Nick Dini to start the inning, committed a balk and gave up a single to Humberto Arteaga before he struck out Nick Pratto swinging. Arteaga got thrown out trying to advance to second base on a ball in the dirt and Brett Phillips struck out swinging.
“We’ve seen him so good so far where he’s coming in and (rolling) right from the top,” Matheny said. “To me, to see him come out there and give up a leadoff walk and figure out a way to leave him standing out there, that’s exactly what we needed to see today.”
Matheny managed Rosenthal in St. Louis and pitching coach Cal Eldred was with the Cardinals organization when Rosenthal was an All-Star closer in 2015. Matheny said the staff’s history with Rosenthal has given them some pretty good cues to look for with Rosenthal.
Stacked deck
The Royals’ coaching staff put multiple pitchers in situations with runners on base to start innings during the intrasquad scrimmage. Left-handed reliever Timmy Hill and Duffy each started innings with runners on first and second with no outs.
Left-handed reliever Gabe Speier started his inning with a runner on first.
The intent of the exercise was to apply pressure to the defense as much as the pitcher. The defense had to guard against bunt and stolen-base scenarios .
“We got a chance to work on our team defense that we had today with our bunt situations, getting guys kind of accustomed to seeing that in real speed,” Matheny said.
This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 10:40 PM with the headline "Danny Duffy, Foster Griffin lead way as Royals’ pitching enjoys strong intrasquad game."
