PHOTOS: More of the Astros Royals exhibition game on Tuesday
Jose Altuve # 27 of the Houston Astros in action during an exhibition game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on July 21, 2020 in Kansas City, Missouri.
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PHOTOS: More of the Astros Royals exhibition game on Tuesday
Jose Altuve # 27 of the Houston Astros in action during an exhibition game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on July 21, 2020 in
… more
Photo: Jamie Squire, Getty Images
PHOTOS: More of the Astros Royals exhibition game on Tuesday
Jose Altuve # 27 of the Houston Astros in action during an exhibition game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on July 21, 2020 in Kansas City, Missouri.
fewer
PHOTOS: More of the Astros Royals exhibition game on Tuesday
Jose Altuve # 27 of the Houston Astros in action during an exhibition game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on July 21, 2020 in
… more
Photo: Jamie Squire, Getty Images
In the second inning of the exhibition game on Tuesday, Astros Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman were hit by pitches in successive bats.
Stupid people on social media – judge for yourself if that’s superfluous – reacted as if the Royals, who had lost 103 games last season, somehow avenged the Astros by throwing them.
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This kind of unsubstantiated speculation is likely to be an issue during this shortened 2020 season, as fans are upset about the Astros scandal during the 2017 season.
In this case, it is evident that these pitches’ hits were the result of an ineffective Jorge Lopez, a Royals pitcher with 59 major league games who had an ERA of 6.33 last season and is trying to stay with the majors.
At first both bats came with charged bases.
Altuve was hit by a full-count pitch, and the pitch barely glanced from Altuve’s forearm as he checked his swing. It was so close that Royals catcher Oscar Hernandez even seemed to ask if the ball actually hit the racket with the referee Todd Tichenor.
In Bregman’s bat, Lopez had knocked him out with a 1: 2 count before a breaking ball came loose and barely glanced from Bregman’s belt to take another run home.
Both fields were clearly random and obvious to anyone who watched the game. It may not be as obvious to those who are only reading social media posts or trying to evoke theories by just looking at a boxed score.
In the fifth inning, George Springer was accidentally hit by a pitch in the elbow of Royals prospect Jackson Kowar.
Altuve was put out of play in the fourth inning with a bruise on his left leg when, after crossing the home plate and accidentally bumping into Royals catcher Meibrys Valoria, he stumbled and plumped his stomach in the grass behind the plate. Altuve stood up alone, but hobbled back to the dugout.
