Kansas City Royals’ Nicky Lopez calls series opener in Toronto an ‘unselfish’ win

Perhaps it was the atmosphere in Toronto. Maybe it was just stepping into a role as one of the two most experienced position players on the revamped Kansas City Royals lineup. Whatever it was, Nicky Lopez couldn’t contain his enthusiasm about the club’s 3-1 win on Thursday night.

Minus 10 players that comprise a large chunk of the core of the current roster, including a pair of All-Stars, a pair of Gold Glove outfielders and both catchers (not including the injured Sal Perez), the Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays in the Rogers Centre behind a lineup that included five rookie position players and a rookie starting pitcher.

After the win, a joyful Lopez proclaimed of the victory, “It was just an unselfish win.”

Some viewed the video clip of Lopez’s comments on Twitter as having been directed at the players who weren’t with the team in Toronto.

Royals players have said publicly that they they respect the decision of teammates who aren’t on the trip because they didn’t get vaccinated. Lopez responded on Twitter and said he was happy for the guys that so many good things happened, and that’s what made the win unselfish.

The eight players who joined the roster include five who’d had never been on the active roster in the big leagues before. One of the first-time big leaguers, Nate Eaton, his his first home run in the majors on Thursday night. That sent a celebration through the entire team.

Asked what it was about the Eaton home run that created such an overjoyed reaction, Lopez explained, “I just think it was the whole story behind everything that’s going on. Just the whole story of these guys are given a chance. Eaton is given a chance to play center field in a big-league game.

“That’s what I was telling some of the guys. Everything going on, try not to listen to the noise outside. It’s whatever. You’re playing in a big-league game. You’re going to be competing against big-league pitchers. … What a great opportunity it is, and just to be able to deliver like that. We’ve got some guys that didn’t maybe play today that are going to get an opportunity to play this week. We’ll all be pulling for them too. It was just a great team win.”