Royals' fiery opening series with ChiSox jump-starts division rivalry
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The White Sox came into Kauffman Stadium on Monday afternoon the talk of the American League Central.
They had overhauled their roster, upgrading their lineup, rotation and bullpen with a series of free agent-signings and big-time trades. They were a trendy pick to win the division, to finally break through to the postseason again.
But the White Sox will be leaving Kansas City with a season-opening series loss against the Royals, one that could have produced a budding rivalry between the two teams.
The pair of games have included a combined five hit by pitches while a sixth one was not far off -- Danny Duffy's fastball whizzed behind Adam LaRoche's head Wednesday night. Twice has Lorenzo Cain been hit on the first pitch of an at-bat. Both games needed warnings from the umpires to ease the emotions.
"You can only hit guys so many times before trouble develops," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Guys can only stand for a guy so much. Two times in two nights has got to be a little much for Lorenzo Cain."
Cain shrugged off another plunking and smacked a game-winning, two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning of Wednesday night's 7-5 win, guaranteeing the Royals a 2-0 start they haven't seen since 2008 and cementing a series win over a team Kansas City went 13-6 against a year ago.
Has Cain's pain yielded a regional rival for the Royals?
"I guess so," Cain said. "I guess you could say it turned into that."
First baseman Eric Hosmer, who hit a three-run home run in the third inning, said the excessively inside pitching ignited the Royals' dugout before they exploded with another impressive offensive showing.
"Yeah, but it doesn't take much to fire us up," Hosmer said. "We're a young, energetic group. We feed off stuff like that, whether it's a crowd or on the field like that."
The Royals, despite their 2014 AL championship, still feel like they're being overlooked. Experts across baseball are picking the Indians or the Tigers or the White Sox to win the division, to extinguish the presumed mirage that the Royals' unlikely postseason run was.
The Royals have noticed.
"I would love to sit here and tell you that we haven't been looking at all the stuff in the offseason, but we know that everyone thinks they're a good team and they got a good chance to win the division," Hosmer said.
The heightened expectations -- for both teams -- have led to more tensions early on in the season, and the White Sox and Royals are set to meet 16 more times this year after this series concludes.
"Pitching inside, that's part of the game," Yost said. "You can pitch inside all day long, but when you start drilling guys, that gets to be a little problematic."
You can follow Matthew DeFranks on Twitter at @MDeFranks or email him at matthew.defranks@gmail.com.
