Singer is Royals' 'stopper' against mighty LA

KANSAS CITY -- The reaction of the Dodgers’ hitters told Brady Singer and the Royals everything they needed to know about Singer’s stuff on Sunday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.

Freddie Freeman shook his head after taking a front-hip sinker for a called strike. Cody Bellinger swung through a 95-mph sinker like he was holding a sword rather than a piece of wood. Trea Turner grimaced as he swung through an elevated 97 mph fastball.

The results backed up the reaction as Singer shoved against one of the best lineups in baseball, throwing six scoreless innings of one-hit ball in the Royals’ 4-0 win in the finale after dropping the first two in the set.

To end this season-long seven-game homestand -- and what overall has been an encouraging week for Kansas City -- on a positive note, the Royals (48-68) needed a win against the mighty Dodgers (79-34), who had won 12 in a row.

There was no one better to take the mound than Singer. The 26-year-old rose to the occasion like he’s done before, taking a no-hitter into the fifth inning and putting together his seventh consecutive start of six-plus frames.

Against the Yankees, Rays, Dodgers and two meetings with the White Sox, Singer logged a 1.67 ERA. On Sunday, he was backed by a Royals offense that took its first lead of the series in the first inning with Salvador Perez’s RBI double and added on, including Vinnie Pasquantino’s fourth home run of the homestand in the eighth inning off Craig Kimbrel.

“You always call it your stopper,” manager Mike Matheny said. “Whenever you’re on a bad run, this is a guy who’s going to put an end to it and put us back on the right track. And Brady’s a guy who could be that for a long time.”

In his third season in the Majors, Singer is pitching with a mentality he hasn’t had since college in a stacked Florida rotation.

“That’s how I feel,” Singer said. “You kind of look back at what I was doing then, and it’s like I said [against the Dodgers], use my best stuff against theirs.”

It was that attack mindset and confidence that had the Royals ecstatic when they landed him at No. 18 overall in the 2018 MLB Draft -- and why they were willing to bring Singer to Kansas City in 2020 when they needed a starter, even though he hadn’t pitched above Double-A.

The Royals were ready-- and still are -- to let Singer and the other young arms learn on the job, even if it means rough patches. In 192 2/3 innings across 2020 and ‘21, Singer posted a 4.92 ERA and a 99 ERA+.

“Facing big league hitters and big league teams, all that stuff, I definitely got away from [the attack mentality],” Singer said. “I feel like I’m back to what I was.”

This spring, with the help of the Royals’ research and development team, and pitching coach Cal Eldred, Singer changed the hand positioning on his sinker that mirrored more of what he threw in college, and he was able to control the movement much better to locate in the strike zone.

Singer started the season in the bullpen, but the Royals liked what they saw behind the scenes so much that they sent him to Triple-A Omaha to build up as a starter. He embraced the challenge, significantly increased his changeup usage while in Omaha and returned to Kansas City almost a different pitcher.

Now? Singer is pitching like an ace.

Since his return from Triple-A in May, Singer has started 16 games and thrown 98 1/3 innings, in which he’s yielded 85 hits and 24 walks to go with 101 strikeouts while logging a 3.11 ERA.

“We’re watching a guy just take a step in his career,” Matheny said. “We knew all the intangibles were there as far as his work ethic and discipline and commitment to the game, and how he loves to compete. But he’s following it up with execution.”

After Singer kept the Dodgers off balance and uncomfortable, Gavin Lux called Singer’s sinker “explosive,” and manager Dave Roberts complimented the way the right-hander worked with Perez to keep his team at bay.

Of Singer’s 102 pitches, he threw sliders half the time, which made the sinker that much more effective. The Dodgers took 18 swings on his sinker and whiffed on nine of them, while taking another nine for called strikes.

The Royals are not surprised by what Singer has accomplished. But now he’s letting the rest of baseball know.

“That’s the kind of pitcher he is,” Perez said. “They just need some time to know how he’s got to pitch in the big leagues and what kind of pitcher he wants to be. He’s one of the best we have right now, the way he’s pitching.”