Singer Played the Baseball Version of Frogger

He dodged traffic all day long, but ended up with a solid six innings to get the Royals a momentous win.

You can see Brady Singer toward the bottom of that image above. He’s the one in green. It wasn’t pretty at all, but when you can put up six innings with one run allowed, I think you’re pretty happy about that. He had the bases loaded with nobody out in the first inning and ended up giving up just one run. That set the tone for the day.

I would say that what we saw from Singer yesterday was about as bad as he’s looked on the mound this season, save for maybe that first relief appearance in the game the Guardians just trashed the Royals, but different from previous seasons, he was able to work around trouble. The double play was his very good friend. He got one in the second, one in the third and one in the fifth and got an outfield assist for another out in the fourth inning.

In all, the Tigers had 12 runners on against Singer. He walked five and gave up seven hits, but, again, just one of them scored and the biggest inning for him came in his last inning where he had to navigate through trouble immediately. He gave up an infield single to Javier Baez. He then got Jonathan Schoop looking with a pitch that was a touch off the plate. Then the real trouble started.

He walked Harold Castro with only one pitch really close to a strike. Then he walked Jeimer Candelario with a couple pitches close, but that loaded the bases with one out. That’s when he went to work.

After a first pitch sinker to Spencer Torkelson that wasn’t close, he threw a slider that hung that Torkelson fouled off and then another one that hung that Torkelson took. Then he threw a great one:

Look at how fired up MJ Melendez was for his guy! You have to love that.

Against Akil Baddoo next, in a spot where Mike Matheny could have gone to Amir Garrett, Singer started with two pitches up and away and was already down 2-0. He threw a sinker at the top of the zone and got the call (which he should have, it was a strike). Baddoo fouled off a good slider to make it 2-2 before a sinker just didn’t run like Singer thought it would. He had to make a big boy pitch on 3-2 and he did.

And really, that was the game. The Royals had just scored their fifth in the bottom of the fifth to take a 5-1 lead. It’s not that the Tigers couldn’t still come back later in the game. It’s just that they likely wouldn’t. I don’t have any numbers to back this up other than anecdotal evidence that’s probably skewed from watching the Royals my whole life, but it sure feels like when a team wastes a golden opportunity, they don’t tend to do much else after that. And when that opportunity comes in the sixth, there isn’t much time left to do much damage, especially for a team as offensively challenged as the Tigers.

Overall, the command just wasn’t there for Singer. His sinker was kind of all over the place and even though he got 13 called strikes on it, the Tigers were content to take 28 of the 58 he threw for balls. It just didn’t seem to have as much run as in previous starts and in that sixth inning, he was clearly running out of gas and it sailed on him a bit. His slider, I thought, was a little hit or miss, literally. But again, he got the job done and that’s what matters.

And thankfully the Tigers returned a favor the Royals gave them last night by having a disaster inning on defense. You might have woken up yesterday and checked your email hoping for me to dismantle the team for the terrible effort on Tuesday night, but it was actually one of those games that I was never actually going to have time to write about because sometimes life gets in the way. When the game turned the way it did, I was at least kind of glad I wasn’t going to miss writing about a fun game.

But after the Royals made four errors on Tuesday, including three in the seventh inning to lead to three unearned runs (while losing by two), the Tigers put on a similar show in the fourth inning. With the score 1-0, the Royals dinked and dunked their way to four runs. It started with an Andrew Benintendi ground ball that just snuck through the infield for a single. Then Hunter Dozier singled on a ground ball to Tarik Skubal, who had been looking filthy. Skubal just couldn’t pick up the ball. With two on and one out, Emmanuel Rivera had the only big hit of the inning, a double to left that drove in Benintendi.

A Vinnie Pasquantino ground ball was fielded by Baez who tried to tag Rivera, but missed. The bases were loaded. Next up was Edward Olivares who hit a perfect double play ball right to Jonathan Schoop.

Then it was Kyle Isbel hitting a grounder to first. Skubal beat him to the bag, but just couldn’t get his foot on the bag, at least not clearly enough for a replay to overturn the original safe call. Then a Nicky Lopez sacrifice fly gave the Royals their fourth run and that was all they’d need. These were the exit velocities for that inning.

Pasquantino’s grounder and the Olivares ball were scalded, but also they should have been outs. The rest was weak or semi-weak contact that just did in the Tigers for the day. A big Dozier triple the next inning gave the Royals their fifth run and it was a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

As you know, the Royals came into the game 0-23 when they trailed at the end of the first inning. That’s ridiculous. But now, that stat is no more. They can stand proudly and say they’re 1-23.

No Entry

I’m going to talk about the Royals and the players who will not be able to play with them in Toronto in the final four games before the break. As you probably know, players who have not received their Covid vaccination cannot enter Canada. That’s the rule whether you like it or not. I’m going to discuss this in terms of baseball and baseball only. I have my opinions. Some of you may share them, some of you may not. There are plenty of places to share them. The comment section on this newsletter is not one of those places. I will delete anything regarding a vaccination argument.

First, if you haven’t seen the list of Royals who are placed on the restricted list before the series, it’s as follows:

Andrew Benintendi
Dylan Coleman
Hunter Dozier
Cam Gallagher
Kyle Isbel
Brad Keller
MJ Melendez
Whit Merrifield
Brady Singer
Michael A. Taylor

On that list is one pitcher who obviously started yesterday and a second baseman/outfielder who wouldn’t have been able to play anyway. So from a baseball standpoint, it’s like the Royals get two free roster spots (though they could have put Merrifield on the IL on Monday, but I’ll get to that). Many of the rest are very important to this steam. Their number one, three and four hitters from each of the last two games will not be there. Both center fielders on the roster will not be there (Taylor may have been an IL guy anyway, so maybe he’s a third free roster spot). They’ll be without both of their catchers. They’ll be without one of their steadier starting pitchers. And they’ll be without one of their more important relievers over the last few weeks.

So on the field, and particularly in the lineup, it hurts. If you weren’t aware, the restricted list for this allows the Royals to basically do whatever they want with roster spots. They can go to players on the 40-man or not and then when the series is over and they reinstate the 10 players, the players not on the 40-man roster aren’t subject to option rules or have to be exposed to waivers or anything. They’ll just return to wherever they were before and that’ll be that.

By the time you read this, we might know who’s on the roster, but I gave my best guess yesterday afternoon:

David Lesky @DBLesky

I want to play the "who is up to replace these guys" game, but some is just throwing darts. Maybe: Nate Eaton Freddy Fermin Maikel Garcia Carlos Hernandez Brewer Hicklen Michael Massey Brad Peacock Nick Pratto Sebastian Rivero Josh Staumont I'm confident-ish on a handful.

I realized after I tweeted that I totally forgot about Angel Zerpa, so he’s probably in that mix. We know a bunch of guys were absent from the Omaha lineup on Tuesday and yesterday, so I’m assuming they’re among those going to Toronto. It’ll be fun to see Nick Pratto and Michael Massey debut as they seem to be parts of the future. Brewer Hicklen just hit a 9,000 foot home run in Omaha. Maikel Garcia is on the 40-man and has a chance to be a piece of a good team. And they’ll need to catchers. Plus, I assume Josh Staumont will come back, though I’m not so sure on that one. Oh and they’ll need at least one starter, so they need Carlos Hernandez back.

On this front, it’s very cool to see many of these players get a shot. For some, it’ll be their first. For others, it’s a brief audition. Maybe Pratto stays on the roster after this and they DFA Ryan O’Hearn (ha!). So I’m pretty excited to see these guys get the chance to play in a big league ballpark and face big league hitters and pitchers. In a lost season, it’s a rare chance to get a very quick look at some guys who you may otherwise not get that chance to see.

From a competitive standpoint, it kind of stinks. Melendez had been leading off. Benintendi is hitting at the top of the lineup. Dozier has been way better than you realize. They’re without a solid starting pitcher against a good lineup. But beyond that, the trade ramifications are kind of fascinating. Now, I don’t think it changes much because I imagine the teams pursuing some of the Royals more likely trade pieces were aware of their status, but I'm very confused how there was a rumor that the Blue Jays were interested in Benintendi if he couldn’t even play home games for them. I don’t think it actually impacts the Yankees as much as some have said. They only go to Toronto once more and they should have the division and one of the two best records locked up. I suppose they could play in Toronto in the postseason.

But here’s the comment that has people talking and for good reason:

Alec Lewis @alec_lewis

Here's Whit Merrifield on his decision:

If you don’t want to read it, the gist of it is that he didn’t want to get the vaccination, but said “Something happens and I happen to get on a team that has a chance to go play in Canada in the postseason, maybe that changes.”

Again, this has nothing to do with the actual process of getting the vaccination. But it sure does tell the clubhouse where he stands for them. Maybe they have a better understanding of what he means and it’s not a big deal, but that is a huge slap in the face to his team. He wouldn’t have played in the series anyway, even though he says he might have, but maybe the guy who hit .135/.177/.164 in the 9-17 start for the Royals while mostly hitting leadoff shouldn’t be talking about changing his mind on a decision like that for a better team. I don’t know. I think it comes off as a pretty bad look.

Seven of the 10 Royals who won’t be there in Toronto spoke yesterday. All gave some variation of “it’s a personal choice” and left it at that. And I’m not arguing that. They were given a choice and they made the one that keeps them from helping their team in a four-game series. No matter your opinion on any of this, there is no arguing with the fact that the choice they made was one that told their teammates they value that more than the game and the team.

So if I’m, say, Daniel Lynch and I’m now asked to pitch against a good lineup without three of my best hitters helping to score runs against a team that you know is likely to score some runs, I have to wonder a bit how he feels about that. Or how Bobby Witt Jr. feels about losing the bats around him in a lineup that was becoming almost good. The only difference between Merrifield’s long answer and most players’ short answer is he said the quiet part out loud. Maybe there’s zero lasting impact. But maybe there’s not. That’s something we’re going to have to wait to find out after the break.

What’s done is done and the Royals will have a different look for the next four days before getting the chance to get another four days off for the break. I, for one, am going to enjoy getting the chance to see many of these young players get their chance and I’ll remain hopeful but not optimistic that a Blue Jays team in flux right now won’t absolutely rip them to shreds.