Outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. has strong showing in his Royals spring-training debut

When he met with reporters last week after signing a minor-league deal with the Royals, outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. shared his goals for the spring.

“Make the team first,” Bradley said. “Kind of want to start with the basics and get back to playing some good baseball.”

Bradley did that Wednesday night in his first spring game as the Royals crushed the Chicago White Sox 14-5 in Surprise, Arizona.

Batting leadoff, Bradley opened the bottom of the first inning by singling to right field off White Sox starter Dylan Cease, who was second in last year’s American League Cy Young Award voting. The next three batters walked and Michael Massey hit a grand slam as the Royals scored five times.

In the second inning, Bradley crushed a one-out RBI double and that kick-started a six-run inning against Cease.

“It was a lot of walks, a lot of hits, a lot of runs,” Cease told MLB.com. “Definitely not a good night. But I left healthy. Thankfully it’s spring, so I’m just going to learn from it and kind of flush it.

“Obviously in spring it’s a mix of locating stuff and building up. Sometimes it’s not the worst thing to get punched in the face a little. It gets you going. But obviously not ideal.”

Here is Bradley’s double off Cease, via Bally Sports Kansas City.

You can see Bradley’s first-inning single here.

Bradley, who went 2 for 3 on Wednesday, batted .203 last season with the Red Sox and Blue Jays.

The British are coming

The Royals will play host to Team Great Britain at Surprise Stadium on Thursday. It’s a warmup game before the World Baseball Classic for Great Britain, which opens play Saturday night against Team USA.

Zack Greinke is scheduled to start for the Royals.