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OAKLAND -- A couple of more nuggets uncovered in the Land of Hoz by the Elias Sports Bureau, figure filberts to the Wizard:Eric Hosmer, the Royals' rookie first baseman, received an intentional walk in the first inning of Sunday's game against Cleveland. That marked the first time a Royals rookie had been intentionally passed in the first inning of game since Sept. 2, 1969, the first season of th football games e franchise.Right fielder Fred Rico was intentionally walked by Detroit manager Mayo Smith to get to pitcher Roger Nelson. That was before the designated hitter in the American League. It worked, Nelson lined out to end the Royals' three-run first in a 6-2 victory.Hosmer's three-hit game on Monday at Oakland was his third consecutive three-hit road game. The only other Royals rookie to have three football games straight three-hit games on road was catcher Don Slaught in 1983. Collins aiming to follow Holland's example OAKLAND -- Right-hander Greg Holland came into Spring Training this year with new-found control. The Royals want to see the same metamorphosis from left-hander Tim Collins next year at spring camp."Collins will be better. I'm hoping he's like Holland," manager Ned Yost said. "Holland co football games uldn't throw strikes, then went home last year, and over the course of the winter. ... That's when you make your improvements, when you review and think and just come back better."Holland, to go along with a 4-1 record and 1.83 ERA prior to Tuesday night's game, has 62 strikeouts and just 17 walks in 54 innings. He's established himself as one of the Royals' most dependable relievers by making a s football games light mechanical adjustment."I tried to stay on line, going toward the plate, instead of coming off of it too quick," Holland said. "Being a power pitcher, I'm going to fall off a little bit but there's a fine line between throwing strikes and not. I'm just trying to stay in line that little extra split-second longer."Collins, with his 4-4 record and 3.66 ERA prior to Tuesday, has 51 strikeouts, b football games ut also 45 walks in 59 innings."He's overthrowing every offspeed pitch that he has," Yost said. "He's just trying to muscle his way through everything and he's going to have to develop some feel-and-touch on his offspeed stuff. He throws strikes in the 'pen so, I don't want to say a lot of it is anxiety, but he's amped up when he comes in. He's an aggressive little guy and he tries to blow it by e football games verybody instead of just pitch."Actually, Collins feels that getting away from that aggressive nature might be part of the problem."I'm always the wild man out there," he said, referring to his attitude not his control. "For me, when I'm not having a good outing, I'm not aggressive enough. That's not who I am; I've always been a guy that goes right after the hitters and I've gotten away from that football games quite a bit this year. That's something you can't work on in the bullpen or in your side work, that's got to be done in the game. In the offseason, you can't work on being aggressive."Lack of command certainly wasn't a problem last season in the Minors -- for three different teams Collins threw a combined 71 1/3 innings and walked just 27 with 108 strikeouts. Collins doesn't believe it's something football games mechanical, but perhaps mental. Something to ponder this winter, certainly. If the Royals attain their goal of becoming a contender, Yost sees big roles for both Holland, 25, and Collins, 22."The thing that's very attractive to me is both Holland and Collins are very durable guys," Yost said. "They're guys that you use in back-to-back-to-back days if you need to. But Collins is going to have to m football games ake that jump. He's going to have to come back throwing strikes like Holland did." Escobar offers helping hand to Giavotella OAKLAND -- If you've seen the video, yes, that throw did hurt shortstop Alcides Escobar's right hand.Escobar said it was pure instinct that caused him to make a barehanded grab of second baseman Johnny Giavotella's snap throw on the pivot of Monday's spectacular double football games play against Oakland. Escobar was expecting the throw on his glove side but Giavotella, after his diving stop, wasn't exactly in position to make a pinpoint throw and it went to the opposite side."I don't know how I caught that ball, honestly," Escobar said. "He threw it real hard and I was, 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe this.' It was thrown real hard."Escobar was shaking his stinging hand when he football games reached the dugout, without injury but with satisfaction. The play squelched a promising fourth inning for the A's and the Royals won, 11-6. Adcock, Teaford in lead for start at Seattle OAKLAND -- Left-hander Danny Duffy's start on Tuesday night was slated to be his last one this season for the Royals. So who'll be in his rotation spot on Sunday at Seattle? "I've got two in-house options here, football games [Nate] Adcock and [Everett] Teaford," manager Ned Yost said. "I could use either one of those, depending on if I've used either one of those in the days prior. And depending on the Triple-A playoffs that begin Wednesday."It'd be unlikely that Triple-A Omaha would yield up a starter because the Storm Chasers' series is a best-of-five that could last until Sunday. Vin Mazzaro, a likely late-season football games addition to the Kansas City rotation, will start on Thursday for Omaha.Adcock did well in a spot start for Felipe Paulino last Wednesday at Detroit. That was Adcock's third start of the season and Yost seems inclined to take a look at Teaford, who hasn't yet made a big league start. "If I haven't used Teaford in the three days prior to that, he'll probably get that start," Yost said. "Just to see. football games But I'm not going to pull Teaford out for that start if I've got a chance to win a ballgame [with him in relief]."So, it likely will be either Teaford or Adcock."Whoever we haven't used. I have confidence in them both," Yost said. football games
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