Brady Singer leads dominant pitching performance as Royals grab a 2-1 win over the Tigers
The opening was blink-and-you-missed-it tiny. Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Matthew Boyd worked basically a perfect game outside of one inning, but the Kansas City Royals took advantage of that momentary hiccup by Boyd and his defense and used that to secure their third consecutive win.
Royals starting pitcher Brady Singer dominated in his own right with seven innings of one-run ball. In his last three starts (18 innings), Singer has allowed just two earned runs, three walks and struck out 20 batters.
Singer’s teammates scratched out two runs, including one unearned run, against Boyd to come away with a 2-1 win in front of an announced 8,000 at Comerica Park on Saturday afternoon. The game took 2 hours, 10 minutes and finished with time to spare before rain showers hit downtown Detroit.
It was the Royals’ shortest nine-inning game since June 1, 2018.
How locked in was Singer?
“I had no idea how quick the game was,” Singer said. “Somebody told me after the game. It honestly didn’t feel that quick. There were obviously some innings in there — Boyd, I think threw 80-something pitches through seven or eight — but we were moving quick.
“I had some quick innings in there too. He was matching me. So it was a really good pitcher’s duel. We were going back and forth, kind of going off each other. It was definitely fun.”
Neither pitching staff walked a batter in the game. The Royals (12-7) assured themselves of at least a split of the four-game series with a sweep still a possibility.
Singer (1-2) allowed just three hits and struck out eight in his seven innings. Twice during his outing he struck out the side, both times coming against the top of a Tigers’ batting order featuring Robbie Grossman, Akil Baddoo and Jeimer Candelario.
In his previous start, Singer tossed six scoreless and allowed two hits and three walks in a no-decision against the Blue Jays on April 18.
“Fastball command feels really good,” Singer said. “That’s something that after that first start against Texas, I knew I didn’t have the command that I usually do. That’s been an incredible help. I think another thing is just attacking the zone, kind of going right at these guys, not nibbling too much.”
Singer picked up where he left off and didn’t allow a hit until a third-inning lead-off single, but Singer kicked right back into cruise control after that.
“This guy is going to live and die with fastball command, like most pitchers are,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Singer. “His secondary pitches can get him through certain parts of the order at certain times until he gets back to where he can locate, but he’s got unique stuff. He’s got unique makeup. To go with that, he’s got the ability to spot pitches with good movement, and it’s different. It’s late movement. You can see how the hitters react that tells you that it’s different.”
Willi Castro’s fifth-inning solo home run snapped a streak of 10 scoreless innings for Singer. Singer also hadn’t allowed an extra-base hit during that stretch.
Castro went down and got an 0-2 slider located down and in. He got enough of it to put it into the fourth or fifth row of the right-field stands for his first homer of the season on his 24th birthday.
Scott Barlow pitched a perfect inning of relief, and Josh Staumont retired the side in order in the ninth inning to earn his first career save, which made Staumont the sixth Royals relief pitcher to record a save this year.
“Every milestone that you hit is going to have some special memory in your head,” Staumont said. “Just little things like being able to throw it with Cam (Gallagher), guys I’ve come up with, grinded with, good and bad. So to have a good outcome with somebody I’ve been around for years is really cool. To seal a win, that’s two birds with one stone. That’s pretty cool.”
The Royals scored both their runs in the fifth inning. The first came on an Andrew Benintendi fielder’s choice that drove in Jorge Soler, who started the inning with a double lined to left field. He advanced to third on Hanser Alberto’s single and scored when Benintendi grounded to first baseman Jonathan Schoop.
Schoop threw to second base in an attempt to turn a double play, but his throw sailed high and the Tigers weren’t able to double-up Benintendi. Matheny credited Alberto’s baserunning for forcing the elevated throw.
The next batter, Michael A. Taylor, hit a bloop single to right field. With two outs, Benintendi went first-to-third and Tigers right fielder Victor Reyes’ throw to third base veered off line into foul territory and allowed Benintendi to score what turned out to be the winning run.
“Every time we get on the bases, we’re going to create pressure because you never know when the tide of the game is going to turn,” Matheny said. “Today, it was pressure on the bases, in my opinion, that caused some things to happen.”
Holland activated
The Royals reinstated reliever Greg Holland from the injured list prior to Saturday’s game. He went on the IL Friday for an undisclosed reason. Matheny would not discuss details prior to Saturday’s game, but a similar scenario played out with Staumont earlier in the season. Staumont later said his stint on the IL it was due to reaction to the COVID vaccine.
This story was originally published April 24, 2021 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Brady Singer leads dominant pitching performance as Royals grab a 2-1 win over the Tigers."
