(AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

The KC Royals beat the Diamondbacks 4-3 in Surprise, AZ, but with no help from Snake starter Dan Haren. He pitched three scoreless innings that included his trying out a new pitch - a rising fastball designed to change the eye level of hitters waiting for Haren’s low split-finger fastball.

There were no D’Back homers. Orlando Hudson and Chris Burke drove in the runs. Chris Snyder is white-hot, getting two hits, including a double. Snyder is 8-13 (.615) so far this spring. Of his 8 hits, four are doubles and 2 are homers. Your math homework tonight is to figure out Snyder’s slugging percentage and his extra base hits as a percentage of hits.

Eric Byrnes was awful. He went 0-3, but ended up on base somehow one time–I’m still not following the games beyond the box score because I don’t want to put my MLB subscription on plastic this year, and I can’t afford the month to month deal until next paycheck, so I don’t know the details–and he got PICKED OFF! I know it is spring training and Byrnes was assessing how far he could go with this pitcher (Soria). But somehow, I find getting picked off a base embarrassing, in a way that getting caught stealing at 2nd or 3rd is not. And he is batting an anemic .214.

Split squad games today: Edgar Gonzalez at TEP vs the White Sox and Doug Davis at Peoria Stadium vs the Padres. BTW, Tony Clark is with San Diego now.

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