KANSAS CITY, MO (April 25, 2012) — The Kansas City Royals selected the contract of left-handed pitcher Tommy Hottovy from Triple-A Omaha today and optioned right-handed pitcher Jeremy Jeffress to Omaha. With the selection of Hottovy, who is expected to be in uniform tonight (#46) in Cleveland, the Royals 40-man roster stands at 40.  In addition, the club returned outfielder Lorenzo Cain from his rehab assignment with Northwest Arkansas (AA).  Cain remains on the 15-day D.L.

Hottovy, 30, was 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA in seven relief appearances with the Storm Chasers.  The 6-foot-1, 205-pounder had allowed three earned runs on eight hits in 10.0 innings, walking five and striking out 17.  A Kansas City, Mo., native, Hottovy made his Major League debut for the Boston Red Sox last season, recording no record and a 6.75 ERA (4.0 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 SO) in eight relief outings.  Hottovy graduated from Park Hill South High School in Riverside, Mo., and Wichita State University.

Jeffress, 24, combined to toss 1.0 scoreless inning over two relief appearances for the Royals, allowing four hits and walking two.

Cain, who has been on the Disabled List since April 13 with a left groin strain, made three rehab starts for the Naturals and was 1-for-9 at the plate. He exited last night’s game and is currently being re-evaluated by the Royals medical staff in Kansas City.

April 2^nd, 2012

Springfield, MO – The defending World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals returned to the state of Missouri for the first time since their seven game series win against the Texas Rangers.  But it wasn’t at Busch Stadium; Hammons Field in Springfield was the spot and fans came out in full force to show their support for the champs.

The crowd of 10,079, the third largest in Hammons Field history and biggest since 2006, were starved for offense early as both starting pitchers, Tyler Lyons for Springfield and Trevor Rosenthal who are scheduled to both be in the Springfield rotation, each threw four scoreless innings.  Lyons matched Rosenthal’s four strikeouts and allowed just one hit.  Rosenthal threw four perfect innings.

After a scoreless inning from Sam Freeman out of the Springfield bullpen, St. Louis plated two runs against reliever Eric Fornataro.  Vance Albitz led off with a single and moved to third on a single by Matt Carpenter.  With runners at second and third, Tony Cruz grounded out to second scoring Albitz and Erik Komatsu followed with an RBI sacrifice fly to give the “Big Birds” a 2-0 lead.

St. Louis added another run in the 7^th off of Keith Butler when Palm Beach shortstop Ronny Gil hit a long home run to right to make it 3-0.

Springfield, who had just two hits both off of Kyle McClellan in the 5^th, got lead-off batter Kolten Wong on base thanks to a walk.  He would come around and score on an RBI triple by top prospect Oscar Taveras.  An RBI ground out by Xavier Scruggs put Springfield within just a run.

The 2^nd best prospect in the organization, Carlos Martinez who will begin the season in Palm Beach, pitched four sharp innings for St. Louis to earn the save.

Springfield received scoreless frames from Nick Greenwood and Jorge Rondon out of the bullpen.

As for the Cardinals Superstars, David Freese and Matt Holliday each played four innings.  Holliday was 0-for-1 with a walk and Freese was 0-for-2, but reached on an error.

Springfield will open the 2012 regular season schedule Thursday, April 5^th, as they take on the Frisco RoughRiders at Hammons Field.  5,000 fans will receive a Great Southern 2012 Magnet Schedule/Picture Frames. It’ll be the first of nine “Buck a Brat” $1 Johnson Bratwurst nights and everyone will enjoy a post-game Fireworks Spectacular thanks to AM Pyrotechnics.  Game time on Thursday is 7:08pm and tickets are available by visiting the Hammons Field Ticket Office, online atspringfieldcardinals.com or by calling (417) 863-2143.

Escape to Cardinals Baseball!

1985 World Series

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Kansas City Royals

Game 2 – October 20, 1985

Location: Royals Stadium, Kansas City, Mo.

Attendance: 41,656

Recap: For the second game in a row, the Royals put up more hits than the Cardinals, but could not find a way to win. Despite a three-hit performance including two doubles from Royals cleanup hitter Frank White and multi-hit games from Lonnie Smith and Willie Wilson, the Cardinals racked up hits in big situations. Tito Landrum had a second consecutive two-hit game, and Terry Pendleton drove in three runs. Just like in Game 1, the Royals’ starting pitcher outlasted the Cardinals’, with Charlie Liebrandt throwing 8.2 innings versus Danny Cox’s 7. The Cards also benefited from a shut-down bullpen; Ken Dayley, who recorded the win, and Jeff Lahti each threw one scoreless inning.

Line Score:

TEAM R H E

St. Louis 4 6 0

Kansas City 2 9 0

Winning pitcher: Ken Dayley

Losing pitcher: Charlie Leibrandt

Save: Jeff Lahti

Notables: Outside of the first four hitters in the Royals’ lineup, only No. 7 hitter Steve Balboni recorded a hit for Kansas City; Frank White and Willie Wilson recorded stolen bases for KC.

Thursday: A recap of Game 3.

Matt Kelsey is a Royals writer and the content editor for I-70 Baseball. He can be reached at mattkelsey@i70baseball.com.