Diamondbacks 1, Royals 10: A king-sized beatdown

Record: 4-7-1. Change on 2022: -1

Let’s see if we can find some positives out of this afternoon’s contest in Surprise. Firstly, Nick Ahmed made his first appearance of spring, and seemed to come through without any obvious ill-effects. He went 1-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts, and it was just nice to see him back in action wearing a Diamondbacks uniform, for the first time since May 15. Hopefully, there will be no relapses going forward. Evan Longoria also got off the slide, getting his debut hit as a D-backs with a first inning single. That put two on with no outs, but it was more or less downhill thereafter, as Lourdes Gurriel struck out, and Christian Walker flew into a double-play, Josh Rojas being out at home.

The next Diamondback hit wouldn’t come until there were two outs in the sixth, Buddy Kennedy singling home Jose Herrera, for Arizona’s only run. They were, however, five down by that point. Drew Jameson hit a road-bump in his quest to be named fifth starter, allowing three earned runs on four hits and a walk over 2.2 innings (he did the “lifted in the second frame, still came back out for the third” thing), though did fan five. Mark Melancon had another poor outing, allowing two runs on three hits in the fourth. After a zero by Joe Mantiply in the fifth, Tyler Gilbert unravelled on three straight singles, a HBP, two sac flies and an RBI double, as he was charged with four runs there.

Dominic Canzone had one of Arizona’s six hits (all singles) and also walked, while Kennedy had two hits, raining his spring average to .571. Otherwise, it was an afternoon to forget for the D-backs. They will look to do better back at Salt River Fields against the Athletics tomorrow, in what’s scheduled to be the first start of the year for Zac Gallen.