Singer 'at a different level' in brilliant G1 start

KANSAS CITY -- The ovation Brady Singer received as he walked off the mound Tuesday afternoon was loud and proud, and rightfully so for the Royals’ starter.

Singer was dominant again in the Royals’ 4-2 win over the White Sox in Game 1 of Tuesday’s doubleheader at Kauffman Stadium. The right-hander twirled 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball, continuing his recent stretch of success in Kansas City’s rotation.

Since Singer returned to the rotation in late May after a brief stint at Triple-A Omaha to get stretched out as a starter, he has made 15 starts and pitched 92 1/3 innings with a 3.31 ERA. He has allowed just 84 hits and struck out 94 while walking 21.

“Brady’s at a different level right now with the movement, plus putting it on the spots,” manager Mike Matheny said. “... You can tell by the reaction of the hitters whether or not they’ve seen much like that before. The answer is, there are not that many guys who have that velocity, plus movement, plus location.”

Armed with what Matheny called Singer’s “best sinker we’ve seen this year” and his typical biting slider, Singer mowed hitters down again Tuesday, allowing just five hits with six strikeouts. He threw 99 pitches, and 71 were strikes. He pitched to just one three-ball count and got 14 called strikes on his sinker.

“[Confidence is] definitely high, which is something I’m really happy about,” Singer said. “That helps everything. Just being able to use that attack confidently. I feel like I’ve done that in the past few years, where I’m going to go out and attack, but I don’t know if it’s going to work. Lately, I’ve had a pretty good idea that it’s going to work.”

Singer’s biggest mistake was the slider he left over the plate to Josh Harrison for a solo homer in the third inning, but there weren’t many after that. Singer faced trouble in the sixth with runners on the corners and two outs but got José Abreu -- the White Sox most dangerous hitter -- to line out to second base on an elevated sinker. In the eighth, Singer exited with one out and runners on first and second after hitting Harrison and allowing a single to Chicago’s leadoff hitter, AJ Pollock.

Reliever Scott Barlow got out of the jam, as he so often does, to keep Singer’s impressive line intact. And Singer was backed by two-run homers from Vinnie Pasquantino and Nick Pratto to earn his fifth win of the season.

With all the excitement about the Royals’ youth movement in Kansas City, accelerated by a series win over the Red Sox this past weekend powered by the team’s rookies, Singer should be included in that, given the strides he has made.

The 26-year-old has pitched six or more innings in six consecutive starts. He has issued just 22 walks in 98 innings this season (including his relief outings at the beginning of the year), good for a 2.02 BB/9, a significant improvement on the rate he recorded in his first two seasons (3.55 BB/9 in 2020-21).

What has been key to Singer’s command of the strike zone is his fastball movement, which he has gained control of earlier and more often during this stretch. Singer’s sinker success is based on the feel he has each start, and he has been able to gain a better feel for where the pitch is going lately. It’s what makes it so good -- and it can lead to trouble when he doesn’t have a feel for that movement.

“I feel like the fastball was running a lot more than it was the last time,” Singer said. “Especially to the right-handers, starting it way off the plate and letting it run back. And then going into arm-side, able to run it more off. … It’s just based on every outing really. We get the reports on how much it’s running, how many inches it’s running. We can kind of play it off that.

“And it’s all on how I feel, too, if I’m able to move it that much or not.”