Pitching woes hurt Royals as key series begins with tough start

KANSAS CITY -- Brady Singer had worked around jam after jam with the Red Sox hitting him around Monday night, including a massive double play in the fifth inning that kept the score tied and ended another threat on the bases.

That earned Singer a chance to go back out for the sixth inning and face the bottom of Boston's lineup despite how well lefties had fared against Singer on Monday. Manager Matt Quatraro called Singer’s start a “bend, don’t break outing” ... but things broke in the sixth.

Lefty reliever Angel Zerpa allowed the two inherited runners to score and then was charged with four runs himself while recording just one out in the Royals’ eventual 9-5 loss at Kauffman Stadium.

Boston's offense was relentless with 18 hits to hand the Royals a series-opening loss in a big three-game set. The Red Sox are the team chasing Kansas City in the American League Wild Card standings and are now 1 1/2 games out of the third spot.

“Everybody here knows where we’re at and who we’re playing.” second baseman Michael Massey said. “It’s fun, right? It’s what we train for in the offseason and Spring Training and throughout the season to put ourselves in a position to play a team like this in this situation. They got us tonight, but we’ll be back tomorrow.”

The Red Sox jumped on Singer quickly Monday, and he didn’t record a clean frame in 5 2/3 innings. Lefties gave him trouble: They were 9-for-20 against Singer with one walk.

“The sinker in was going to be a huge part of the night,” Singer said. “I kind of just left a few over the middle of the plate and gave up some hits on it. … Being able to use [the sinker] more into [lefties] is something I’ve been doing better as of late, it just didn’t work out tonight.”

Singer faced pressure all night and was at 84 pitches when he exited the fifth inning. Quatraro had Zerpa getting warm in the ‘pen in the fifth, but he stuck with Singer for the sixth despite two lefties and switch-hitter Nick Sogard due up in the order.

“You can always say there’s a case for it,” Quatraro said. “But I thought where we were in the lineup was a spot for him to continue to go, and I thought he was getting better as he went on.”

Singer got two outs, but exited with runners on second and third. The Royals gave up an extra 90 feet when Ceddanne Rafaela singled into shallow center field and went to second on Kyle Isbel’s throw to the infield.

“We need to keep him at first, for sure,” Quatraro said. “They know that. Massey said right away, ‘I got to be yelling two, two, two.’ He was aware of it.”

The top of the Red Sox order featured four lefties and that was the spot for Zerpa. In his first full season as a reliever, the lefty has inherited a Majors-most 44 baserunners, allowing just 13 of them to score (29.5%).

He got behind 3-1 to the left-handed Jarren Duran with four sinkers before leaving one in the middle of the plate that Duran ripped to the left-field corner for a go-ahead, two-run double.

“I didn’t locate, and they didn’t miss them,” Zerpa said through interpreter Luis Perez. “It was a tough time [with Duran]. I was going hard at it with the sinker, and he got to it.”

“I don’t think he got a two-seamer in on any of those lefties,” Quatraro added. “... Duran is a good hitter. You’ve got to mix and match, and you’ve got to get it in on him probably in that situation.”

The Royals’ bullpen roles are beginning to shift after this past weekend’s series in Detroit, with Lucas Erceg and Hunter Harvey earning the highest of leverage innings. But even if the Royals do have an upgraded back-end, they still need to record the outs necessary to get to those relievers.

Zerpa gave up four more runs in the seventh on two doubles, a wild pitch and a two-run homer from pinch-hitter Romy Gonzalez. Three of the four hits were on sinkers down the middle.

“We’re trying to figure out how to get through the rest of the game and keep it where it is,” Quatraro said when asked why he stuck with Zerpa for Gonzalez’s at-bat. “We have a lot of confidence in Zerpa. His stuff is really good. [Gonzalez] got on that fastball, and he was ready to hit.”