David Lough

David Dennis Lough

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 0", Weight 180 lb.
• School Mercyhurst College
• High School Green (OH) High School
• Debut September 1, 2012
• Final Game June 1, 2016
• Born January 20, 1986 in Akron, OH USA

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Biographical Information

Outfielder David Lough reached the majors with the Kansas City Royals in 2012.

Lough was drafted by the Royals in the 11th round of the 2007 amateur draft. He was signed by scout Jason Bryans for a $49,500 bonus and made his pro debut with the Burlington Royals that summer, hitting .337 in 24 games. He moved on to a different Burlington the next year, playing for the Burlington Bees of the Midwest League. With the Bees, he hit with 21 doubles, 11 triples, 16 home runs, 62 RBI, and 76 runs scored in 126 games. He began 2009 with the Wilmington Blue Rocks, and after hitting .320 for the club, was promoted in June to the AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals, for whom he hit .331 with 9 homers.

Lough was with the AAA Omaha Royals in 2010. He started the year slow, hitting .262 in the first half, but bounced back to hit .316 from that point onwards, ending the year with a .280 average. Back with Omaha in 2011, he hit .318 with 11 triples and 87 runs scored. After hitting .275 with 10 homers for the club in [[2012] Royals|2012], he earned a September call-up to the majors. He made his big league debut on September 1st against the Minnesota Twins, going 2-for-5 with a pair of runs scored while playing right field. He played 20 games that month, hitting .237 with 9 runs scored, no homers and 2 RBI.

Lough was back at Omaha to start the 2013 season, where he hit a scorching .338/.391/.474 in 37 games, scoring 29 runs. The Royals brought him up in mid-May, and he quickly took over as the starting right-fielder in place of the veteran Jeff Francoeur who struggled at the plate and was released by mid-year. David played 96 games as a rookie, hitting .286 with 5 homers and 33 RBIs. He scored 35 runs and had 17 doubles showing that he could hold his own at the major league level, although at 27 there was not much room for future growth. On December 18th, the Royals traded him to the Baltimore Orioles in return for 3B Danny Valencia.

Lough played 112 games for Baltimore in 2014, often spelling Delmon Young for defensive purposes in left field (out of 103 games in the outfield, only 47 were as the starter). He hit .247 in 147 at-bats, with 4 homers and 16 RBIs as the Orioles ran away with a division title. With Young at DH and Alejandro De Aza starting in left field in the postseason, he did not see much action, only getting one at-bat in two games over two series as the Orioles went down in the ALCS. He played sparingly at the start of 2015, but on April 25th, he was the hero as he hit a walk-off home run against Koji Uehara in the 10th inning of a 5-4 win over the Boston Red Sox after coming in as a pinch-runner in the 8th.

Related Sites

• David Lough on mlb.com
• MC bio