‘Stone cold out there’: KC Royals’ Brady Singer has found a new way to baffle hitters

Brady Singer had all his pitches working as he twirled eight shutout innings against the New York Mets on Thursday.

The Kansas City right-hander surrendered just three hits and struck out four in the Royals’ 9-2 victory, which capped their second consecutive series sweep at Kauffman Stadium and ran their MLB-best win streak to six games.

Across his last seven starts, 45 innings, Singer has recorded a 3.00 ERA with 37 strikeouts to nine walks. He has allowed two or fewer runs in five of those games, with several factors playing into his sustained success.

Against the Mets, Singer threw 65 of 100 pitches for strikes, relying mostly on his sinker (47%) and slider (44%) as usual. Royals manager Matt Quatraro credited him with getting the sinker inside on right-handed hitters, like slugger Pete Alonso, so they couldn’t take advantage of pitches on the outer half of the plate.

“I’ve kind of struggled with that all year, so to be able to get in there and continue to get in there, I think that sets up really good for the right-handers, using the arm-side away to lefties as well,” Singer said. “So everything was working out pretty well, especially to the right-handers.”

And against lefties, Quatraro noticed Singer’s slider was generating swings and misses. Overall, he garnered eight whiffs on 22 swings with his breaking ball (36%). Seven of those were against true lefties or switch hitters batting left-handed.

“Yeah, I mean that’s a huge key,” Singer said. “I mean, when I have that working it’s obviously one of my best pitches. So when I have that working it usually ends up in a little bit more success. But if I can get the sinker and the slider working and throw a few changeups as well, it works out really good.”

That third pitch, the changeup, continues to improve each time Singer takes the mound. He threw nine (9%) Thursday, producing two swings that resulted in groundouts.

“That’s not bad because that’s almost 10% of his pitches and that’s creeping up,” Quatraro said. “The last two games have been around that mark. So that’s really encouraging, actually. ... Especially (against) a team like that, that has some good left handed hitters in it.

“He’s getting more comfortable with it.”

Pitching coach Brian Sweeney said pregame that Singer has tried “a million grips” in his search for the right one. He explained Singer has a “supination bias” meaning his hand turns outward upon release.

It’s difficult to throw a good circle-grip changeup without consistent pronation, or inward rotation. So, Singer has started throwing his changeup with a split-finger grip.

Sweeney likes the results he’s seeing so far.

“The split is just like, ‘OK, I throw my two-seamer this way, I’m gonna take my fingers, same grip and throw a sinker,’” Sweeney said. “It’s a simplified process for the same grip, same area on the ball and throw it like your fastball. And then all of a sudden that grip does its job.”

The changeup averaged only 3.7 mph off Singer’s sinker against the Mets, but Quatraro said he thinks the movement is more important than differential in velocity. He noted how Zack Grienke often throws his fastball and changeup at the same speed but succeeds because of location and movement differences.

The key moving forward is getting Singer to trust the pitch even more.

Why is that so difficult? Sweeney explained it like this:

Hypothetically, if Singer was pitching at Yankee Stadium with runners on first and second in a 2-1 count against left-handed masher Anthony Rizzo, a changeup would be a good pitch.

However, it’s not easy to convince Singer, behind in the count, to choose a pitch he’s less confident in.

“Do you want to go to your third pitch or do you want to go to maybe the pitch that’s your main strike?” Sweeney said. “And that goes through the catcher’s mind, that goes through our mind in the dugout, and for sure, it’s going through Brady’s mind. So trusting that, getting used to throwing that in those situations is gonna give him the confidence to do it.”

Sweeney joked that incorporating the changeup is about making Singer “less stubborn” but later explained they often have good conversations about the pitch and how best to use it.

“Giving him the information, telling him why it’s going to work is just so important, and then he can do what he wants with it,” Sweeney said. “And now he’s really embracing, right? He’s embracing this changeup and you’re seeing speed differential and really good movement, and this is just going to open up a lot of things for him.”

Starting pitching loomed large overall in the Royals’ perfect homestand. In all six games, Royals starters pitched at least five innings and gave up three or fewer runs.

The Royals are hoping to see that kind of consistency the rest of the season, from Singer especially.

“I mean, you see this guy on the mound, right?” Sweeney said. “He’s stone cold out there. Huge competitor, really good at what he does and knows his strengths. And it’s every guy on this staff that has that inside of him. We’re lucky to see it every fifth day with Brady.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2023 at 6:59 PM.