{"id":594735,"date":"2026-02-26T20:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/594735\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T20:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:49:14","slug":"arizona-diamondbacks-spring-training-gameday-thread-7-kansas-city-royals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/594735\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Diamondbacks Spring Training Gameday Thread, #7 @ Kansas City Royals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Surprise! No, really: Surprise. That\u2019s where the D-backs are playing once again today, returning to the scene of the recent victory over the Texas Rangers, to play the other inhabitants of the complex, the Kansas City Royals. The D-backs pitching has still left a bit to be desired, even though our ERA dropped down below seven yesterday &#8211; mostly because five of the ten runs allowed were unearned. Hooray for pitching! Boo for defense! That shoddy performance may be why Torey Lovullo <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/shoewizard59\/status\/2027081539771924883\" rel=\"nofollow\">was working with the infield defense<\/a> this morning. Especially since just last week, this was being <a href=\"https:\/\/go.skimresources.com\/?id=1025X1734621&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.azcentral.com%2Fstory%2Fsports%2Fmlb%2Fdiamondbacks%2F2026%2F02%2F15%2Farizona-diamondbacks-defense-after-disgusting-year-nolan-arenado-geraldo-perdomo-lovullo-latest-news%2F88643227007%2F\" rel=\"sponsored nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">touted as a focus<\/a> for 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Other pitchers: RHP Yilber Diaz, RHP Tom Hatch, RHP Ryan Thompson, RHP Kade Strowd, RHP Junior<br \/>Fernandez, RHP Landon Sims and RHP Shawn Dubin. Our first look at E-Rod, whose importance to the team is certainly increased, if the Merrill Kelly injury lingers for long [so much for \u201cminimal\u201d concern, eh?] But we should at a look as several serious candidates for bullpen spots. Thompson and Strowd are potentially on the A-list, but I may be most interested in Diaz. He had a terrible case of the yips last year, and couldn\u2019t throw a strike. But his winter ball numbers were considerably better: if he IS fixed, he could be a potential breakout candidate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">No broadcast of this game on the schedule, so might be quiet in here. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surprise! No, really: Surprise. That\u2019s where the D-backs are playing once again today, returning to the scene of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2387],"tags":[75962,5,936,2123,55,2596,2595,4,252],"class_list":{"0":"post-594735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-royals","8":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks-discussion","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-kansas","11":"tag-kansas-city","12":"tag-kansas-city-royals","13":"tag-kansascity","14":"tag-kansascityroyals","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116138905679329145","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}