Richard Lovelady helps stop the bleeding, but Royals fall to the Rangers
If he makes the Kansas City Royals’ Opening Day roster, left-handed reliever Richard Lovelady knows his job may be to enter the game and put out the fire when things are raging out of control.
Friday night, the first two Royals pitchers couldn’t seem to do anything besides fan the flames. Lovelady overcame an early hiccup to get things under control and start a string of 4 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings for the bullpen.
The Royals dug too big of a hole to overcome as they fell to the Texas Rangers, 8-1, in front of an announced crowd of 2,294 at Surprise Stadium. The Royals (14-8-3) pitchers allowed seven of the eight runs in the first three innings.
The Rangers scored their first seven runs on just five hits with the enormous help of eight walks and three wild pitches that had multi-time Gold Glove winning catcher Salvador Perez darting all around the area behind home plate.
Right-handed pitching prospect Jackson Kowar had a rough time commanding the strike zone. He allowed six runs on five hits and three walks in 1 1/3 innings. Carlos Hernández also struggled locating pitches. He walked four and gave up a run without allowing a hit in one inning.
“Didn’t control the fastball,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of the early issues. “It’s going to be a long day when you can’t get the fastball to where you want it to be. It was just one of those rough ones.”
Lovelady gave up a walk to the first batter he faced, left-handed hitter David Dahl, and uncorked a wild pitch that allowed a run to score during that at-bat.
“My dad is probably kicking and screaming in a chair because, as a left-hander, you don’t need to walk the first left-hander you face,” Lovelady said. “But the fact that I was able to lock back in and take a hold of the situation at hand and get out of the inning with just giving up the one run from the wild pitch (was good).”
Lovelady struck out left-handers Joey Gallo and Nate Lowe to end the inning. The Royals didn’t allow another run until the eighth. Jake Kalish, Kyle Zimmer (two innings) and Jake Newberry shut down the Rangers offense for the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
Lovelady has now struck out 10 and allowed three runs (two earned) in 7 2/3 innings over nine appearances this spring.
He credited his ability to throw the two-seam fastball down and away as a big difference from when he struggled in the majors in 2019 (7.65 ERA in 25 games).
“The two-seamer is what got me in trouble my first time in the big leagues, leaving it up to right-handers,” Lovelady said. “Late in the season, not having that wipeout slider (and) having that flat plane slider got me in trouble.
“I think the biggest two things were those in general, staying ahead of guys and being able to utilize those two pitches to my advantage especially with the right-handers.”
Soler coverage
For the first few weeks of the season, the Royals schedule features multiple days off that should allow catcher Salvador Perez to log a lot of time behind the plate.
But when Matheny does give the 30-year-old catcher’s body a break from the grind, will Perez slide into the DH spot? And if so, will they lose Jorge Soler’s bat from the lineup?
“He got a lot of reps early in the spring in the outfield,” Matheny said of Soler. “I think that’s always going to be (an option). And we believe he’s a better outfielder than most people give him credit for, and I know he wants to play more outfield too.
“Our number one goal is how do we keep this guy healthy. We do know that the outfield can beat a guy up a little more. We never rule him out. He’s considered one of our outfielders in my mind. We’ll keep trying to get him work.”
If Whit Merrifield played second base, that could potentially open a spot for Soler in the field and allow Perez to serve as the designated hitter on a day game after a night game or during a long stretch of consecutive games.
“It’s nice early on in the season with so many off days that we’ll be able to work him,” Matheny said. “This guy just wants to play. He wants to catch. If his body is responding well and he’s feeling good, he’s going to be catching a lot. But everybody is going to need a day. It’s nice to have some options.”
Hall of Famers
Prior to Friday night’s game, Alex Gordon, Buck O’Neil and Bob Kendrick appeared on the video board. They were all part of a pregame Surprise Stadium Hall of Fame ceremony. Gordon, the retired longtime left fielder, was inducted for the eighth time following his franchise-record tying eighth Gold Glove award.
O’Neil, an All-Star first baseman for the Kansas City Monarchs, was honored for his accomplishments as a player in the Negro Leagues. O’Neil died in 2006 at the age of 94. Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, accepted the award on O’Neil’s behalf.
Mike Bell
The Minnesota Twins announced that bench coach Mike Bell died away Friday at the age of 46 from cancer. The club also announced it would play Friday night’s spring training game in his honor.
The Royals released a statement on Friday that read, “The Kansas City Royals join the rest of Major League Baseball to mourn the passing of Minnesota Twins bench coach Mike Bell earlier today. Mike, who was raised in a historic baseball family, touched so many lives, first as a player and then transitioning into Baseball Operations roles prior returning to the field as a coach in 2020. He had friends throughout our sport including many members of our organization and he will be missed by all.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Kelly, children Luke, Mikayla and Madeline and his entire family including his father, Buddy, who managed our ball club for three seasons, and brother, David, currently the manager of the Cincinnati Reds.”
Bell’s father, Buddy, managed the Royals from 2005-07 and spent 27 years as a player and manager in MLB.
Bell worked as the Arizona Diamondbacks’ director of player development from 2011-16 and vice president of player development from 2017-19.
The Diamondbacks were the organization that drafted current Royals right-handed starting pitcher Brad Keller in 2013, and Keller spent the first five seasons of his professional career in that farm system.
Keller tweeted, “Wow, this is heartbreaking news. RIP to a great and very well-respected man. Mike helped me a ton throughout my time in pro ball. Honored to know him for many years. RIP Mike. You will be missed.”
Bell’s brother, David, served as Matheny’s assistant hitting coach in St. Louis in 2014 before he became the club’s bench coach from 2015-17. Current Royals coach John Mabry was the hitting coach for that club, and current Royals pitching coach Cal Edred served as an assistant to the general manager in St. Louis from 2013-15.
This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 11:53 PM with the headline "Richard Lovelady helps stop the bleeding, but Royals fall to the Rangers."
