Let's play two!

On a perfect day for a doubleheader, it's time to anoint Brady Singer as the ace of the staff and Vinnie Pasquantino doubles up on the power.

Man, do I love a traditional doubleheader.

None of this split nonsense. No thank you to a game at one followed by a game at seven. Give me a good twi-night doubleheader where you have one game, followed by a 30-minute or so break and then straight into the second one. It has to be the best value in baseball. If Rob Manfred had any sense or feel for what the fans want from the game (spoiler alert: he doesn’t) he would mandate that each team have at least one doubleheader at home on their schedule every season. Sure, the Lords would forfeit a game of the gate. They would survive. Even better…the game would thrive.

That’s just me on the baseball soapbox. But wasn’t Tuesday fun?

I’ve used that adjective a lot over the last few days when describing the Royals. Fun. Crazy, isn’t it? But these days, everything surrounding this team is all about the fun.

It was a pair of crisp, well-played ballgames on a beautiful August afternoon and evening. The announced attendance was just 12,700 (a story for another day), but those fans were treated to a great couple of games, played in under six and a half hours. I can’t think of a better way to spend time.

The Royals took the first game 4-2 to extend their winning streak to three games. It was the sixth time this year they’ve won three in a row. Predictably, they dropped the nightcap 3-2. I write “predictably" because they have yet to win four.

Wouldn’t a four game winning streak be fun?

The victory in game one followed the Royals’ blueprint of late. Quality starting pitching (preferred to be from the draft class of ‘18) backed up by the bats of the Baby Royals. You have to say, that if that’s the plan, it worked to absolute perfection.

Let’s start with Brady Singer.

This was his first inning on Tuesday.

That wasn’t against a single batter. That was his work to get all three outs. It helps when the White Sox are aggressive right out of the dugout—both AJ Pollock and Luis Robert put the first pitch in play—but damn if that’s not a sexy first inning pitch chart.

After the game, Mike Matheny said he thought that we saw Singer’s best sinker of the year. I’m not quite sure about that, but what I won’t dispute was the fact that the sinker was quite exceptional.

How about this battle against Yoán Moncada in the second?

You will not see three sinkers better placed against a left-handed batter. In a row! And the first one was called a ball! Singer finished off the at bat against Moncada with a slider that broke in off the plate that he pulled to right for a flyout. I’m impressed he even bothered to swing after watching those sinkers paint the outside edge.

Or how about this sinker to polish off Eloy Jiménez in the fourth?

I mean, that’s just a perfect pitch. Jiménez didn’t much care for it, but he was wrong. It was a thing of beauty.

That sinker was immortalized in a Pitching Ninja gif. It wasn’t the only time Singer caught the attention of the Pitching Ninja on Tuesday. Witness…

Rob Friedman @PitchingNinja

Brady Singer, Wicked 94mph Front Hip Two Seamer. 🤢

Look at that run!

Singer threw 60 sinkers of his 99 pitches. He got just two swings and misses, which is why I’ve resisted the temptation to call the pitch dominant. It wasn’t it was something more than that. It was art.

Recall in his previous start against the Sox his sinker had about three more inches of drop than normal, but he was locating it in the middle of the zone. On Tuesday, the sinker was again dropping at an above-average rate—around two inches more than normal for Singer—and he was still keeping it a bit elevated. The key difference was he was working more on that edge with the pitch.

The location along with the uber-aggressiveness of the White Sox hitters meant that Singer was able to avoid hard contact for the most part. The average exit velocity on his sinker was just under 85 MPH.

Singer gave up a home run and a single in the third and then retired the next ten Chicago hitters. Back-to-back singles with two outs in the sixth brought no damage and Singer then set down the Sox in order in the seventh. After a HBP and a one-out single, his afternoon was finished. The final line: 7.1 innings with five hits, no walks and six whiffs. The only blemish was the Josh Harrison home run in the third. Again, I wouldn’t call his outing dominant. I would call it complete. A total and thorough effort.

After the game there was some talk about how Singer, because his sinker and slider were so good, didn’t need to use his change. Indeed, he threw just four on the afternoon. I think that’s poor analysis, to tell the truth. Singer needs that third pitch no matter what. The changeup for him is a total feel pitch. The more he throws, the more comfortable he becomes with it. He’s been very good in his starts this year and the change has been a factor in that success. While he may not have needed to lean on that particular offering on Tuesday, it should still be something he shows more often than four percent of the time.

I will drop in my usual caveat that Singer doesn’t throw the pitch to right-handed batters. The Sox, as previously discussed, don’t feature too many lefties in their lineup. So on that score, it makes sense that Singer didn’t show the change more often. Except he actually threw two of his four to right-handed hitters. It was the pitch he plunked Josh Harrison with in the eighth.

Just because his sinker/slider combo was working that doesn’t mean he should neglect the change. Perhaps he could be even better! My dream in 2022 is for Singer to get a Pitching Ninja callout on his change.

Here’s the fun thing about Singer…I would normally never (never!) remove a game or two to make the point that a player is doing a certain thing. It’s not statistically honest to cherry-pick the best X number of starts to make a case that a pitcher is good. However, in Singer’s case, we can absolutely remove his first three appearances of the 2021 season from his line. Those were coming out of the bullpen and Singer is, as we all know, a starter. And Singer made his first start of the season after traveling north on I-29 to get stretched out after spending so much time in the bullpen.

So let’s just look at Singer’s numbers through the prism of a starter.

Singer has always been able to get the strikeouts, but this season he’s turned it up a notch while reining in the walks. He’s thrown 92.1 innings and struck out 94. After yet another start where he didn’t walk a batter, he’s holding steady at 21 base on balls. That works to about a 4.5 to 1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. That’s fantastic. Of the 61 starters who are qualified for the ERA title (Singer is not, he’s 18 innings shy) Singer would rank 13th in SO/BB ratio.

He’s struck out over a quarter of all batters faced as a starter. That’s an increase of the 22-23 percent we saw in his first two seasons. Meanwhile, he’s walking under six percent of hitters. That’s a decrease from last year’s nine percent walk rate. His starter’s ERA is 3.31 and FIP is 3.61. The opposition is hitting .245/.297/.385 against him as a starter.

I’ve seen enough: Singer has become the ace of this Royals staff.

Since getting the call to Kansas City, no Royal hits the ball harder than Vinnie Pasquantino.

With an 86 wRC+ to go along with a .386 slugging percentage and .109 ISO, the results just haven’t been there. Sometimes, the metrics tell a frustrating story. In Pasquantino’s case, you see a great average exit velocity, a launch angle that has him elevating and (not listed above) a hard-hit rate that hovers around 50 percent…you’d think he’s hammering the baseball. A .109 ISO and .336 slugging percentage to go along with a .252 BABIP would point you to underwhelming results. If our incorporation of metrics have taught us anything the last couple of decades it’s that if a player has good process, the results should eventually swing his way.

Those results started to show as Pasquantino went 3-7 with a pair of home runs with three RBI in the doubleheader.

At 106.7 MPH, that was the sixth-hardest hit ball of Pasquantino’s major league career. He’s been absolutely punishing the baseball on the regular. While the results haven’t been there to start, with a little patience from the manager, they’ll start to come. I have a feeling we’re about to see Vincenzo go on a tear.

I’m going to give the beleaguered Mike Matheny a bit of credit here. Since they’ve arrived, he’s done a nice job making sure the rookies have gotten the most of the time in the lineup.

In the eight games since August 2nd:

• Salvador Perez has made eight starts - five at catcher and three at DH.

• Bobby Witt Jr has made seven starts - three at third and four at short.

• MJ Melendez has made seven starts - three at catcher and four in left.

• Kyle Isbel has made six starts - three in right, two in left and one in center.

• Nicky Lopez has made seven starts - three at second and four at short.

• Vinnie Pasquantino has made seven starts - two at first and five at DH.

• Nick Pratto has made seven starts - five at first and two in left.

• Michael A. Taylor has made seven starts - all in center.

• Hunter Dozier has made six starts - five at third and one at first.

• Michael Massey (recalled 8/3) has made five starts - all at second.

• Nate Eaton (recalled 8/4) has made four starts - all in right.

That’s nine players who are pretty much playing every day, with some rotation to include Massey and Eaton. Only Massey and Taylor are locked into their defensive positions. There’s probably a bit too much time for Dozier, but you’ll notice there haven’t been any starts for Ryan O’Hearn.

This isn’t an easy roster to manage, but Matheny seems to have found a solid balance where the players who need to have playing time are getting it.