Royals beat up by Twins in series opener; Singer leaves after getting hit by line drive
The good news regarding Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Brady Singer was that the injury update didn’t sound nearly as serious as it looked when he folded to the ground after having been hit by a line-drive comebacker.
The Royals right-hander battled command issues in the first two innings and then had to battle pain just to get to his feet at the end of his outing.
Singer left the game with what the Royals called a heel contusion, and the bullpen got pressed into duty for seven innings. Veteran pitcher Ervin Santana carried a bulk of the load after not having pitched in 10 days. He saved the bullpen some wear and tear with a four-inning outing.
Meanwhile, the Royals offense stalled on a chilly Minnesota night as they fell 9-1 to the Minnesota Twins in front of an announced 9,982 at Target Field in the first game of a three-game series.
The Royals (15-9) were held to four hits. Their lone run came on Carlos Santana’s sixth home run of the season. Salvador Perez, Andrew Benintendi and Ryan McBroom also had hits. Benintendi got robbed twice by Twins center fielder Byron Buxton, one at the top of the wall. McBroom’s hit came in a pinch-hit appearance in the ninth inning.
There were some scary moments immediately after Singer went down in a heap, but he had X-rays during the game which came back negative. He expressed optimism that he’d be ready to get back out on the mound for his next start.
“I feel good,” Singer said. “It feels alright, it’s a little bit painful. The ball hit me in a kind of weird spot. It hit me directly in the bottom of the heel. It kind of sent a sensation up my leg, something I’ve really never felt before. It was kind of a weird feeling. I walked off. I got some treatment and I feel pretty good.”
With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the second inning, Josh Donaldson lined Singer’s 3-2 sinker back up the middle off Singer’s left foot.
Singer went to the ground immediately in pain as the ball ricocheted in the air into foul territory between home plate and first base. Royals first baseman Carlos Santana caught the ball in the air for the first out of an inning-ending double play.
While Singer writhed in the grass, Carlos Santana threw to shortstop Nicky Lopez at second base to double-up the runner who had headed for third on the play.
“I saw it kind of come off the bat, and I knew it was kind of coming towards me,” Singer said. “I didn’t really try to move out of the way or anything. It just caught me in a weird place,” Singer said, before he deadpanned, “I kicked it right to Santana on purpose, and double play.”
Royals manager Mike Matheny and head athletic trainer Nick Kenney came out onto the field to tend to Singer, who remained on the ground for several moments. MLB Statcast data registered the ball off Donaldson’s bat at 105.5 mph.
Singer walked off the field gingerly and went through the dugout and right into the tunnel with Kenney following closely.
“I should be totally fine,” Singer said. “I don’t know what we’ll do, but I feel 100 percent ready to go.”
Singer, who’d walked just six batters in his first 21 1/3 innings of the season, walked three of the first nine batters he faced on Friday night, including a pair in the second that loaded the bases with one out.
Singer left the game having made it through two innings. He gave up one run on two hits, three walks and a hit batter. He threw as many balls as strikes (24 of each). The Twins were only up 1-0.
However, Twins rookie first baseman Alex Kirilloff enjoyed the best offensive game of his young career. Kirilloff — who has the distinction along with Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi and Oakland’s Mark Kiger as the only players to make their MLB debuts in a postseason game — hit two home runs and registered four RBIs in Friday’s win over the Royals.
The Twins scored three runs in the third against reliever Tyler Zuber, all three came on Kirilloff’s first major-league home run after Zuber had walked the first two batters of the inning.
Ervin Santana held the Twins to one run during that stretch when Kirilloff went deep to straightaway center for his second homer. That made Kirilloff the first Twins player to hit his first two career home runs in the same game since Pat Meares in 1994.
The Twins scored eight runs in the four innings Ervin Santana didn’t pitch, and just one in his four innings (the Twins didn’t bat in the bottom of the ninth). Santana left with the Royals trailing 5-1.
“To me (the goal) was trying to minimize the damage,” Ervin Santana said. “That’s one thing. I know they are very aggressive. I know they’ve been hitting a lot of home runs. I’m just trying to keep the ball in the park and just keep the ball down. Anything can happen.”
In the eighth inning, the Twins tacked on four runs against Wade Davis to really stretch the lead out.
Royals pitchers walked 10 batters in the game.
“Ervin Santana is the story of that game,” Matheny said. “We have a chance through the rest of this series because of what he was able to do today, go out there and eat it up and throw really good innings for us. It was a really good outing for Erv.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Royals beat up by Twins in series opener; Singer leaves after getting hit by line drive."
