Singer nearly pitch perfect; Royals win 6-0

The Cubs could do nothing against the Royals starter

I’ve been pretty hard on Brady Singer, this season. I have doubted him. I have insisted he should be demoted from the rotation despite his success.

That stops now.

For the second straight start, Brady offered up seven scoreless innings. Brady Singer lowered his season ERA to a sparkling 2.82 with his effort tonight. Over his past seven starts, a period of more than a month, Singer has a 1.76 ERA. The poor game against Boston is the only time over that span he gave up more than one run in a start. If Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo are 1-A and 1-B (in some order) then Singer might be 1-C.

He didn’t just shut out the Cubs, he dominated them, even without accruing many strikeouts. He allowed five baserunners all night long. He didn’t allow his first hit until the fifth inning, which was also the only inning he allowed multiple runners. He did get some help from Kyle Isbel to keep the shutout going. He hit Mike Tauchmann to lead off the inning and then gave up a single to Dansby Swanson. Tauchmann went to third and Swanson went to second on the throw, suddenly there were men at second and third with no outs.

Brady induced a groundout to get his first out but Miguel Amaya hit a flyball to center. Kyle Isbel, not known for his strong arm, managed to get behind it and put a decent throw to home plate. Salvador Perez made a fantastic tag on Tauchmann and the Cubs’ only scoring chance was gone, just like that.

It seems to happen so often in baseball that if a team squanders their opportunity to score runs, the other team will punish them for it in the next half inning.

All night the Royals had struggled against Kyle Hendricks. He gave up some loud contact, but the Royals hadn’t gotten a runner since the second inning. In the bottom of the fifth, Hunter Renfroe led off with a strikeout and Nick Loftin followed up with a weak groundout. Now with two outs, up came the much-maligned Garrett Hampson. Hampson, of course, immediately shot a single into right field. On a nifty hit and run play, Hampson took off for second and Kyle Isbel singled right through the spot vacated by shortstop Swanson.

You weren’t alone if you were wondering if the Royals ought to have sent Hampson all the way home on the play - the grounder died in left field and Ian Happ had to run in a long ways to pick it up. Adam Frazier was due next, he had one hit in his previous 25 at-bats. There were already two outs.

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

That’s when things really started to fall apart for Hendricks. Bobby Witt Jr. collected a single, sending Frazier to third. Vinnie Pasquantino got his second hit of the night to drive in Frazier and then Salvy fought back from 0-2 to a full count. Forced to come into the zone, Hendricks did it a little too well.

Six runs are the most the Royals have scored in an inning this year. The bottom of the fifth was the only time either team would score all night, contributing to a very quick and tidy game totaling a mere two hours and fifteen minutes.

With that win, the Royals guaranteed a winning homestand even if they should lose the next two games. They lose no ground to the Guardians, Twins, or Red Sox who all also won today.

With win number 57, the Royals have officially won more games before August 2024 than they did in all of 2023.

Oh, and they have a Magic Number - the number of games they must win or their closest follower must lose to guarantee a playoff spot. Tonight’s victory shrinks that number to 66.

KC will have a real challenge in front of them tomorrow as ace Shota Imanaga will take the mound for the Cubs. Fortunately, the Royals will counter with one of theirs in the form of Seth Lugo. Game time starts at 6:10 Central.