Even without his typical slider, Royals’ Brady Singer has solid outing against Angels
.jpg "Kansas City Royals’ Brady Singer pitches in the first inning of a spring training baseball game against the Oakland Athletics, Monday, March 8, 2021, in Surprise, Ariz. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)")
Brady Singer didn’t have his typical ability to manipulate his slider, but the Royals’ right-handed starter still nearly maneuvered through five innings unscathed.
However, Singer paid for one critical mistake and allowed three runs on five hits and one walk in a 4-4 tie with the Los Angeles Angels in a Cactus League game on Friday at Surprise Stadium in Arizona.
First baseman Carlos Santana homered, doubled and drove in three of the four runs for the Royals (12-6-1). Bubba Starling singled and drove in a run, while Kyle Isbel doubled and scored.
“I had a good feel for it, but I just feel like I didn’t have the bite or the depth that I was looking for today,” Singer said of his slider. “I was kind of spinning off of it a few times. You could see it more up in the zone. I was getting called strikes for it, which is good and is fun and all. But I was looking for a little more depth on it, especially with two strikes.”
Along with his fastball, the slider has been the bread and butter of Singer’s arsenal. He’s shown the ability to give the slider different shapes to keep hitters off-balance in the past.
On Friday, he struck out four batters and stayed on the attack for the most part.
All three of the Angels’ runs against Singer came on one swing with two outs in the fourth inning.
Angels outfielder Scott Schebler smacked a slider for a three-run homer over the right-field fence after Singer had given up a two-out walk followed by a double.
“I actually think it had a little more depth than the previous sliders,” Singer said. “He put a good swing on it, just dropped the head right on it. I tried to get it behind him a little more, a little more back foot. Like I said, I was kind of struggling with that today. He got me on it.”
The Royals responded the next half inning after an Andrew Benintendi double and an Adalberto Mondesi bunt that forced a throwing error to put two men on for Santana.
After Mondesi stole second, Santana sailed a two-run double that bounced on the warning track and over the outfield fence in center field.
Santana hit his second home run of the spring in his next at-bat of the game in the sixth inning.
“Santana, to me, just smashed two balls,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “I thought the first one he hit to center was gone. Then to be able to do it the opposite way, you’re starting to see from our angle (in the dugout) where that (swing) angle just looks right. You can see where his swing path is in a really nice place.
“He’s been doing it in BP, and I was looking forward to when it all started to click on the field. Today, he did. He picked us up big time.”
The Royals tied the score in the eighth on Isbel’s double and Starling’s RBI single.
Benny’s back is fine
Benintendi started for the second consecutive game after having missed some action with back soreness. Following Thursday’s game, he deemed himself “100 percent.”
After he bunted for a hit and stole a base on Thursday, he drove a line-drive double into the left-center gap on Friday. He went 1 for 3 with a run scored in each of his past two games.
During the first week of camp, Benintendi discussed how a lot of his focus had been on his swing plane. In 2019, he got away from his natural swing and started trying to hit for power and lift the ball.
He has made efforts this offseason and this spring to get back to the swing he featured prior to 2019. One of the key indicators for him is whether or not he’s getting backspin on balls he hits to the pull side.
“I feel like with the work in the morning and throughout the day, I’m seeing more consistency with ball flight and things like that,” Benintendi said on Thursday. “I think it’s starting to translate into games. I’m happy with where it’s at.”
