(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Carter Kieboom hits first Spring Training-homerun
Nederlands
     WEST PALM BEACH / FORT MYERS, Florida / TEMPE / MESA / PHOENIX, Arizona (USA) -
Carter Kieboom hit his first Spring Training-homerun on Saturday (March 9), while playing for Washington Nationals.
With that, he broke the shutout of opponent Miami Marlins in the ninth inning.
Until the eighth, the Miami-pitchers were throwing a Perfect Game.
Xander Bogaerts (Boston Red Sox), Kenley Jansen (Los Angeles Dodgers), Jurickson Profar (Oakland Athletics) and Andrelton Simmons (Los Angeles Angels) also played on Saturday.
Czech catcher Martin Červenka got two plate appearances for a split-squad of Baltimore Orioles against Tampa Bay Rays.
He entered the game in the bottom of the sixth, then walked in the seventh inning.
With Baltimore leading 16-15 in the top of the ninth, he produced an insurance run when he hit a homerun.
The 26-year old Červenka is now 2-for-5, which were both homeruns.
He played in five games, batted in four runs and walked twice.
At FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach (Florida), Washington Nationals played at home and lost 2-1 to Miami Marlins.
Miami-starter Pablo López threw four perfect innings, striking out four batters.
The 22-year old Venezuelan righthander was replaced by 33-year old Taiwanese lefthander Wei-Yin Chen in the top of the fifth.
The veteran Chen also retired three consecutive batters in the fifth, sixth and seventh inning.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Miami's Perfect Game ended with one out when Pedro Severino hit a single.
Hereafter, Chen retired the next two batters again.
In the meantime, Miami had opened the score im the top of the fifth inning when veteran Curtis Granderson homered with two outs.
Miami added a run in the sixth on a runscoring single by Miguel Rojas.
In the top of the seventh, Carter Kiebom became the new short stop for Washington and he flied out in the bottom of the seventh.
In the bottom of the ninth, with Miami leading 2-0 and Adam Conley being the new pitcher, Hunter Jones led off with a single for Washington, but a double play followed.
Hereafter, Carter Kieboom hit a homerun to end Miami's shutout, but that was to be all for Washington.
For the 21-year old Kieboom, this was his 12th game and he now bats 5-for-16 (.313) with two doubles and a homerun.
He scored four runs, also batted in four and also walked four times.
At jetBlue Park at Fenway South in Fort Myers (Florida), Boston Red Sox played at home and was beaten 10-2 by New York Mets.
Starting Boston short stop Xander Bogaerts was 0-for-2.
He grounded out in the second and fifth inning, then was replaced in the top of the sixth.
At Tempe Diablo Stadium in Tempe (Arizona), a split-squad of Los Angeles Angels hosted a split-squad of Milwaukee Brewers and lost 5-1.
Andrelton Simmons was the starting short stop for Los Angeles and was 0-for-3.
Simmons grounded out in the first and fourth inning, then flied out in the sixth.
He left the game in the top of the seventh.
At Hohokam Stadium in Mesa (Arizona), Oakland Athletics played at home against another split-squad of Milwaukee Brewers and lost 11-2.
Milwaukee broke an 1-1 tie with a 7-run rally in the sixth inning.
Jurickson Profar was Oakland's starting second baseman and was 0-for-2 with a walk.
Profar walked in the second inning, but then was left behind on first base.
He flied out in the fifth, then grounded into a double play in the seventh inning.
Profar was replaced in the top of the eighth.
At Camelback Ranch-Glendale in Phoenix (Arizona), Los Angeles Dodgers played at home against Seattle Mariners and recorded a 2-0 shutout.
Los Angeles took an 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, then added a run in the third at bat.
Kiké Hernández accounted for both runs, as he homered twice.
Kenta Maeda started for Los Angeles and struckout four batters in the three innings he pitched.
The 30-year old Japanese righthander was credited with the win.
In exhibition games (as well as All Star Games), starting pitchers are credited with the win when they leave the mound with a lead (and the team of course holds onto that), regardless the total of innings they pitched.
In a regular season game, a starting pitcher can only be credited with a win when he pitches five complete innings.
But in exhibition games (and All Star Games), starters almost never throw five innings and most of them are on pitch-count, so the rules are somewhat different.
In the top of the fourth, Kenley Jansen took over the pitching from Maeda.
The Curaçao-born righthander faced only three batters, who popped out, flied out and grounded out.
As he entered the game in a save-situation (but was not the last pitcher), he was credited with a Hold.
In the sixth, Jansen was relieved by Dominican righthander Yimi García.
(March 9)
Related Articles:
 Didder homers and scores winning run for Atlanta. (March 8)
Profar, Bogaerts, Schoop hit basehits. (March 7)
Basehits for Ozzie Albies and Ray-Patrick Didder. (March 6)
Jurickson Profar delivers deciding basehit for Oakland. (March 5)
Czech Martin Červenka homers in Spring Training. (March 4)
Schoop homers; Jansen winner in first appearance. (March 3)
Bogaerts homers; Kieboom-brothers hit doubles. (March 2)
Productive day (homerun) for Jurickson Profar. (March 1)
Ozzie Albies & Xander Bogaerts both hit two basehits. (February 28)
Carter Kieboom hits another Spring Training-basehit. (February 27)
Didder & Profar lone two Dutch players to play on Tuesday. (February 26)
Four Dutch players in one game; Czech makes Spring Training-debut. (February 25)
Basehits for Albies, Profar & Kieboom. (February 24)
Two more Dutch players in Spring Training; Kieboom HRs. (February 23)
Jurickson Profar first Dutch MLB-player to get into action. (February 21)
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