Royals ride four home runs, strong pitching to 10-1 win over Diamondbacks

Adalberto Mondesi and Jorge Soler each hit a home run in the first inning, Royals‘ pitching held the Diamondbacks to just one run and Kansas City beat Arizona 10-1 on Thursday.

With Opening Day at Kauffman Stadium one week away, the Royals continued their strong spring training play.

The Royals got on the board early and often. Mondesi hit a solo homer to right field to put the Royals up 1-0 in the first. Soler followed later in the inning with a three-run shot to right to extend the lead to 4-0, and the Royals never looked back.

Carlos Santana hit the third of four home runs for the Royals in the fifth inning that gave Kansas City a 7-1 lead, and Ryan McBroom grew the Royals’ lead to 10-1 with a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Duffy delivered a solid starting performance on the mound for Kansas City before exiting the game early in the fifth inning after a Wyatt Mathisen hit ricocheted off of his legs. He was not seriously injured on the play. Duffy gave up his only run of the day on a home run by Pavin Smith in the second inning.

While Duffy gave up just one earned run over the course of 4 1/3 innings, it was Ervin Santana who really shone on the mound for the Royals in the win.

Santana struck out seven batters and threw three scoreless innings, giving up zero hits and zero runs.

Jake Brentz turned in 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief pitching for the Royals.

Kansas City improved to 14-7-3 in Cactus League play with just four games remaining in this spring training season.

They Royals play the Rangers next on Friday.