Kansas City Royals starter Brady Singer found success Friday with a different pitch
Whenever the words “Kansas City Royals” and “Sonny Gray” appear in the same sentence, it hasn’t meant anything good for the former.
Before Friday, the Minnesota Twins starting pitcher owned a nine-game win streak against the Royals — as the only pitcher in MLB history to go 9-0 in a nine-start span against the organization.
He held the lowest ERA (0.96), opponent batting average (.205) and opponent OPS (.494) versus the Royals since 2014 of those qualified.
However, by the end of the night, Royals right-hander Brady Singer had posted the more impressive stat line on the mound. Over five innings of work, Singer gave up only four hits, two runs and struck out 10 — a season-best.
Gray pitched six innings and gave up three runs on five hits. He struck out five, half of Singer’s total, and picked up his third straight loss.
“I had a good mix of all three pitches,” Singer said. “Slider was working really well. Sinker was good, movement on it was where I wanted it to be. And then threw some really good changeups.”
Singer’s heavy sinker-slider usage hit on all cylinders for the majority of his outing, producing many ground balls and strikeouts. Outside of two doubles and a few line drives, Singer stifled the Twins’ ability to hit much in the air.
Opposing teams have made it a priority to stack their lineups with left-handed hitters when facing Singer because of how much he utilizes his sinker and slider — accounting for 94% of his pitches thrown entering the contest. He leads MLB in percentage of left-handed batters faced.
However, Singer mixed in his changeup early, something manager Matt Quatraro highlighted after the game. And it paid off.
Singer said the changeup’s effectiveness was crucial and credited catcher Freddy Fermin for calling it early.
“I got some weak contact on it, I got some early outs with it, I got some swing and misses on it,” Singer said. “I had some good success with it early in the game, was able to use it later in the game, too, and in some crucial situations. So (Fermin) set the tone early with that.”
Singer’s 10 strikeouts marked the third time in his career of recording 10 or more strikeouts. And coincidentally, it was his first time punching out 10-plus since exactly a year ago.
He also had 10 strikeouts in a start against the Yankees last July 28, plus a career-high of 12 a start earlier in 2022 against Tampa Bay.
Quatraro noted that Singer’s large number of swings and misses might’ve elevated his pitch count (104 pitches thrown) on Friday. Singer also took a no-decision after the game needed extras to determine a winner.
Similarly, Singer was given a no-decision against the Yankees in his previous outing, going six innings and striking out nine, but the right-hander now has put together back-to-back productive performances.
Of course, shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.’s walk-off grand slam takes the cake when it comes to memorable moments from Friday. But it was also clear that, as Quatraro said, Singer’s stuff looked good.
“The constant point of emphasis is to continue to develop that changeup, and for him to do it in a close game like that says a lot,” Quatraro said. “There were a lot of positives in, you know, really hot night, really battled, the pitch count got up and he got some big outs.
