The Royals rallied late but lost 9-8 to the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday at Surprise Stadium, falling to 8-10-1 in Cactus League play.
Starting pitcher Danny Duffy was not able to use his slider effectively in a 3 2/3-inning outing. A's leadoff hitter Jorge Mateo took advantage of some fastballs over the plate to hit two of the three home runs Duffy allowed.
"I think if I could go back and redo anything today it would have been just getting fastballs, four-seams, glove-side down in the zone as opposed to leaving them out over," Duffy said. "They went and got a couple of them.