KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The 2023 season got off to a bit of a lackluster start for the Royals, as the club was shut out and lost a tight 2-0 game to the Minnesota Twins on Opening Day.
But there were a lot of firsts at Kauffman Stadium, from the introduction of the pitch clock and bigger bases for Royals fans, to Salvador Perez being named captain, and the return of the Royals dazzling full powder blue uniforms.
The uniforms returned to Kauffman Stadium for the first time since they left the Royals' uniform arsenal after the 1991 season.
Royals pitcher Zack Greinke, who started his seventh career Opening Day start, had a solid day on the mound, pitching 5.1 innings, allowing six hits and two earned runs.
He also walked a batter and struck out four others.
Greinke faced adversity early on in the game after loading up the bases, but he was able to get Twins second baseman Nick Gordon to ground out.
The Royals also had a bases loaded opportunity in the fifth inning to score the first run of the game with M.J. Melendez at the plate.
However, Melendez grounded the ball to Twins first baseman Joey Gallo, who first threw the ball home to Twins catcher Christian Vazquez.
Vasquez then completed the double play at first, throwing it to Gordon to end the threat.
The Twins would score the first run of the game in the sixth inning with a RBI single by Twins left fielder Trevor Larnach, which scored Byron Buxton.
The Royals would have opportunity to score runs with men on base in the last two innings of the ballgame.
However, the Twins' pitching kept the Royals bats quiet, allowing only two hits in the game, which was the fewest ever recorded on Opening Day for the Royals.
The debut of the pitch clock at Kauffman Stadium did its job in limiting the amount of dead time between pitches, as both clubs played their Opening Day game in only two hours and 32 minutes.
This was four minutes shorter than the average Spring Training game this year, and 29 minutes shorter than the average 2022 game.
The Royals will have an off-day on Friday before they resume their series with the Twins on Saturday.
Veteran starter Jordan Lyles will pitch for the Royals on Saturday against Twins pitcher Sonny Gray.
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