The 2019 Summer Junction City Brigade Baseball Camp is scheduled Wednesday at Rathert Field.
There will be a session for youth ages six to ten from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and for youth ages 11 to 13 from 1-4 p.m. The cost to attend is $25. That fee includes skill drills with Brigade coaches and players.
Registration forms will be available at the Brigade game with the Topeka Golden Giants Tuesday night at Rathert Field and also Wednesday morning at the stadium.
The general public can begin purchasing Kansas State University single game football tickets Monday.
There will be seven home games including contests with Nicholls on August 31, Bowling Green September 7, Baylor October 5, TCU October 19, Oklahoma October 26, West Virginia November 16 and Iowa State on November 30.
Season tickets are stillavailable including the $199 Flex ticket.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Once Reynaldo López went one pitch at a time, things worked out fine.
Following three consecutive poor outings, López pitched six effective innings against Kansas City on Sunday. And backed by a 471-foot homer from Eloy Jiménez, the Chicago White Sox defeated the Royals 5-2.
“The biggest difference was that I was able to clear my mind and be focused on the pitches I needed to execute,” López said through a translator. “In the past, I was thinking about other pitches in the game, or my mechanics.”
“I was able to clear my and stay focused all through the game,” he said.
A day after Lucas Giolito shut down the Royals in a 2-0 victory, López (4-6) allowed one run and four hits in six innings. He walked one and struck out eight.
López had been struggling recently, giving up 19 earned runs in his last 13 1/3 innings over his previous three starts.
“All my pitches were good today,” he said. “I was able to command, execute and finish all my pitches the way I know I can do it.
“I know that this team needs me, and I need to perform at my best every time I’m out there. We’re fighting every day and we want to win every time we’re on the field. Today was a step forward to that purpose,” he said.
His manager appreciated the difference.
“He threw very, very well,” Chicago manager Rick Renteria said. “His curveball was working very well, and his slider was working well. He was using it for punchouts. He commanded his fastball a little better. All in all, much better in catching the strike zone and mixing in his secondary pitches.”
Yoán Moncada had four hits and an RBI for the White Sox, who lost the series opener but had back-to-back solid pitching performances to take the last two games.
The Royals are 0-6 in rubber games in 2019, continuing a streak that started early last season. Kansas City has lost 14 straight rubber games, dating to May 30, 2018, and is now 0-14-2 in its last 16 series.
They struck out 11 times, the 11th time in 16 games they’ve reached double-figures.
“We’re on a strikeout run here,” Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. “We’re striking out a bunch, but they’re not on strikes, generally. They’re on pitches down below the zone. Curveballs give us a bit of a problem here lately, and we keep swinging at them.”
Glenn Sparkman (1-2) gave up two earned runs and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings.
Jiménez led off the second with the longest home run at Kauffman Stadium since Brandon Moss hit a 474-foot drive for the Royals against the Twins July 1, 2017. The White Sox added an unearned run later in the inning on Charlie Tilson’s double.
“Nah,” Jiménez said through a smile when asked if that was the farthest home run he’d hit. “In a game, I hit one 490 in spring training. This was my first in the majors in a game that counted.”
Jorge Soler hit a 445-foot shot homer in the fourth, snapping Kansas City’s 13-inning scoreless drought.
The White Sox got a run in each of the last three innings, on Moncada’s single that scored Tilson in the seventh, an eighth-inning double by Tim Anderson and an unearned run in the ninth.
The Junction City Brigade completed a two-game weekend sweep of the Liberty Monarchs with an 8-4 victory Saturday night at Liberty.
The Brigade improved their season record to 5-1 with the win.
Junction City will play in the capitol city against the Topeka Golden Giants Monday evening at 6:05 p.m. The Brigade will host the Golden Giants at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Rathert Field.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Lucas Giolito hasn’t lost or given up more than three runs in a start since mid-April. The Royals have been striking out at an alarming rate.
Given those trends, Giolito’s latest dominant outing wasn’t much of a surprise.
Giolito worked into the eighth inning and had a career-high 11 strikeouts — all in the first five innings — to win his seventh consecutive start, outdueling Brad Keller as the Chicago White Sox beat Kansas City 2-0 on Saturday.
“Giolito’s tough on everybody right now,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He has changed his whole delivery over the last year and a half, two years. Now he’s shortened up his arm stroke and his changeup is dynamic. It’s a plus-plus changeup. He’s got great arm speed. His slider’s a plus slider. Anywhere from 93 to 96 (mph) with his fastball, with command. He’s just kind of come into his own and quite frankly has developed into one of the best pitchers in this league.”
Giolito (9-1) allowed three hits and two walks in 7 2/3 innings and lowered his ERA to 2.28. He has allowed no more than one run in six of his seven straight wins. Giolito went 10-13 with a 6.13 ERA in 2018, his first full season.
Riley Taylor went six innings on the mound for Junction City Friday night at Rathert Field against the Liberty Monarchs. He gave up two hits, three walks but held the Monarchs scoreless in what would become a 6-0 Brigade victory.
Brigade coach Derek Francis noted that’s two good Friday night starts in a row for Taylor. “The offense didn’t do much early on. They had a pretty good arm going as well. But we kept pushing along and scratched a couple across, and things started to open up later in the game.”
Junction City ( 4-1 ) got a leadoff triple and run from Carson Sader in the bottom of the first inning, and a home run by Ed Scott in the fifth inning to help the Brigade offense.
Junction City plays at Liberty ( 2-5 ) Saturday night.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Adalberto Mondesi had three hits and two RBIs, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago White Sox 6-4 Friday night to end a six-game losing streak.
Mondesi’s third hit, an RBI single with two outs in the seventh, scored Whit Merrifield to make it 5-4. Mondesi had hits in three straight at-bats to end an 0-for-11 skid. He also scored on Jorge Soler’s RBI double to make it 6-4.
After Homer Bailey pitched six-plus innings of three-run ball, Brad Boxberger (1-3) allowed a run in the seventh but still got his first victory in 26 appearances. Ian Kennedy pitched the ninth for his fourth save in six chances.
Jace Fry (1-2) took the loss.
Ivan Nova allowed four runs in 5 1/3 innings with six hits and a season-high six strikeouts.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Mookie Betts is pretty good against Danny Duffy.
Betts hit a two-run homer off Duffy in a four-run third inning and the Boston Red Sox defeated the Kansas City Royals 7-5 Thursday to complete their first series sweep in nearly a month.
Betts is 7 for 11 with five home runs against Duffy (3-3).
“I put some good swings on some good pitches,” Betts said.
Betts has six hits, five home runs and a walk in his last seven plate appearances against Duffy.
“I’ve got to a better job of not serving it to him on a platter,” Duffy said. “He’s got five bombs against me in 11 at-bats. … If you make stupid mistakes like that he’s going to capitalize.”
Boston outscored the Royals 23-8 over three games and extended its winning streak to four. The Red Sox swept a series for just the fourth time this year, the first since May 10-12 against the Chicago White Sox. The World Series champions are 27-16 following a 6-13 start and face the second-place Rays in a four-game weekend series at Fenway Park.
“We have some confidence going against a really good ballclub,” Betts said. “Ride the wave through this weekend.”
Kansas City has lost six straight and nine of 10, dropping to a big league-worst 19-43.
With a doubleheader coming up Saturday against Tampa Bay, Boston gave Ryan Weber his third start. He allowed two runs and five hits in 1 1/3 innings, and Colten Brewer (1-2) followed with two scoreless innings of two-hit relief.
Matt Barnes, Boston’s seventh pitcher, allowed Jorge Soler’s one-out RBI double in the ninth but got his fourth save in seven chances by striking out Ryan O’Hearn and Chelsor Cuthbert.
Duffy allowed four runs and four hits in 2 1/3 innings. Eduardo Núñez’s hard drive went off the inside of Duffy’s right kneecap and ricocheted to O’Hearn, who tagged Núñez for the final out of the second. Duffy retired one of six batters he faced in the third.
“It’s sore, but it didn’t affect me,” Duffy said. “If I go back out there it’s because I can. If I can, there are no excuses.”
Betts’ 10th home run tied the score, and Rafael Devers put Boston ahead with a two-run single.
Soler’s fifth-inning homer cut the deficit to 4-3, but Christian Vázquez hit a two-run triple in the seventh and scored on Scott Barlow’s wild pitch.
Cuthbert and Alex Gordon homered for the Royals.
The Junction City Brigade will host the Liberty Monarchs in Mid Plains League baseball Friday night at Rathert Field. The first pitch is scheduled at 7 p.m.
The Brigade are currently 3-1 on the season tied for second and one game out of first behind the Midwest Athletics in the conference standings. The Monarchs are 2-4 and are in seventh place.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Chris Sale strode to the dugout after the seventh inning Wednesday night, and Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora asked his lanky left-hander whether he could keep going on a hot, humid night in Kansas City.
“I’ll finish this off,'” Sale replied.
Did he ever.
Sale struck out the side on nine pitches in the eighth for his second immaculate inning this season. Then the seven-time All-Star breezed through the Royals in the ninth, wrapping up an 8-0 win for his third career shutout.
“Any time you can finish a game, that’s what you sign up for,” said Sale, who allowed just three hits while striking out 12 without a walk. “I’ve never started a game I didn’t intend to finish.”
Sale (2-7) has rebounded from a dismal April to put together a series of solid starts. His seventh double-digit strikeout game of the season was punctuated by that perfect eighth, when even Royals fans roared as he mowed through Kelvin Gutierrez, Nicky Lopez and Martin Maldonado.
Sale also had an immaculate inning May 8 against Baltimore, making him the second pitcher with two in one season since strikeout records have been kept. Lefty Grove did it in 1928.
“That was one of his best,” Cora said about Sale’s outing.
Boston’s ace had plenty of help: Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a three-run double during a four-run fifth that broke the game open, and Rafael Devers homered and finished with three RBIs.
“We did a lot of good things offensively,” Cora said, “but we can still be better.”
Hard to imagine. The Red Sox have won three straight, scoring eight runs in each game. They’ve also won five straight at Kauffman Stadium dating to last season.
They jumped ahead against Royals starter Jakob Junis (4-6) with two runs in the first. And after the young right-hander settled down for a while, stranding runners at the corners in the second, Andrew Benintendi’s leadoff double in the fifth sparked the Red Sox onslaught.
By the time they loaded the bases later in the inning, and Bradley proceeded to empty them, Junis was headed for the showers and Boston was headed for another easy win.
“First inning didn’t go great, but I battled and made pitches when I needed to I felt like,” said Junis, who allowed six runs on eight hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings. “It wasn’t all as bad as it looked tonight, I think. I made some better pitches than the scoreboard shows.”
Still, it was the fifth straight loss for Kansas City, which fell to 19-42 — the second-worst start through that many games in club history. Twenty-three defeats have come in games the Royals at one point led, including the series opener against Boston on Tuesday night.
“It was just one of those nights where we couldn’t do much,” manager Ned Yost said.
