KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — When the coronavirus pandemic led to an overhaul of the baseball schedule, Mike Matheny had a strong suspicion he’d be headed back to St. Louis to face his former team in his first season in charge of the Kansas City Royals.
Matheny probably didn’t bet on seeing the Cardinals before the season even began.
Yet the two clubs, separated by about 250 miles of interstate on opposite sides of Missouri, will square off in an exhibition game at Busch Stadium next week. The game on July 22 will cap a three-game exhibition slate for the Royals — they will first play a pair of games against the Houston Astros — before their 60-game regular-season starts July 24 in Cleveland.
“It’s going to be another opponent. It truly is,” said Matheny, who is taking over for the retired Ned Yost after a year spent working as a special adviser to the Royals — a job that came on the heels of a roller-coaster tenure in St. Louis.