Off the rails

Everything was going fine. Until it wasn't. Like Denny says, the walks will kill ya.

It’s always something with this club, isn’t it? The bullpen looks good, but the starters are getting bombed in the first so it doesn’t matter. The lineup starts to come around, but the pitching overall goes south. Then, of course, because this is the Royals, there are plenty of games where nothing works.

But this…this is a new one to me. I’m specifically talking about how the starting pitching can look so good for a handful of innings, only to have everything implode in an oftentimes spectacular and truly remarkable way.

Brady Singer looked so good cutting through the first 8/9ths of the Giants lineup. It’s a lineup that Singer should favorably match up against. It tilts decidedly to the left side, which gives him the opportunity to unleash his changeup. Perhaps you’ve heard, that changeup is the pitch that is going to help Singer as a starter.

As such, the night was looking promising. Singer was using his change (working away with it) in the first two frames and it was complemented by a slider that had a ton of depth, including this beauty that dropped on the back foot of Joc Pederson in the second.

That slider was set up by a pair of changeups away, including the previous pitch. From Baseball Savant, here is the sequence Singer used to strikeout Pederson:

In that moment, it struck me as exactly the kind of approach we’ve been begging to see from Singer since he broke into the big leagues in 2020. Attack high with the fastball, low with the sliders and show the damn changeup. In this instance, he jumped ahead with a change for strike one. The second strike was on the slider down that followed the elevated sinker. And as I noted, the slider that locked up Pederson was set up by the change that faded off the zone. Singer was changing speeds and eye level and locating well.

By my count, the first time through the order, Singer threw seven changeups. That matched or better the number he threw in each of his previous two starts this month. Yep, this was a good lineup for Singer to be facing.

And then it all went to hell.

After a two-out double off the bat of number nine hitter Austin Wynns—exit velocity 81 MPH, xBA of .220, hit just over the first base bag—Singer uncorked four consecutive walks, throwing 16 out of his next 19 pitches that were called for balls. (Yes, some of those calls weren’t great. But understand, Singer wasn’t helping himself at this point, trying to be too fine or whatever it was that was going on.

The sinkers to Mike Yastrzemski and Darin Ruf that caught the zone according to Savant were both called balls. I’m not sure it would’ve mattered, honestly, if they were called the other way. Although I keep going back to that Yastrzemski plate appearance. If one—or both—of those sliders that were just off the inside lower part of the dish were called strikes, it would have changed the entire trajectory of the plate appearance and the inning. Yeah, maybe he was squeezed there. But that’s going to happen from time to time. Singer has to figure out a way around that. As you can see from the next two plate appearances (Ruf and Pederson), he failed to do so.

It was a brutal inning. Singer threw 36 pitches, 23 of them were balls. It seemed to last forever.

Give Singer some credit. After that brutality, he was able to steady himself and get through two more innings allowing only a double on a dodgy call that went in the Giants’ favor after a replay review that lasted longer than your typical Phish jam. It was a nice bounceback after a really poor inning.

Bullpen management goes awry

One of the things I’ve liked from manager Mike Matheny since taking charge in 2020 was his use of the bullpen. I realize this was a criticism of his Cardinal days, but he seemed to learn from whatever mistakes he made in the past, showing a nice touch when it came to playing the right matchups. If there was anything to be critical of it was perhaps his overreliance on certain relievers.

Jump ahead to 2022 and his bullpen management hasn’t been as solid. In addition to going to the same well a bit too often, he’s just making some moves that demand reflection. Take, for instance, Amir Garrett entering the ballgame in the sixth inning with the score knotted at two.

Sure, Garrett can get you that whiff on a sweeping slider, but as we’ve seen all too often this year, his control just isn’t that great. He’s walked nearly eight batters per nine innings. Yikes.

And sure enough, he gets into immediate trouble, walking the leadoff man, Austin Slater. A wild pitch moves him to second because of course it does. After a strikeout for the first out, Thairo Estrada knocked a hanging slider into left-center to give the Giants a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

It took Jose Cuas—the newest member to enter Matheny’s Bullpen Circle of Trust—to bail the Royals out, although it wasn’t without some difficulty. Cuas walked his first batter and hit his second to load the bases. An infield fly and flyout mitigated the potential for any more damage.

That Cuas looked human wasn’t a surprise. It was the third day in a row he relieved, throwing 53 pitches in the process. Since making his debut on May 31, he’s now appeared in eight of the Royals’ next 12 games.

Just something to keep an eye on going forward.

Taking a walk on the wild side

Royals pitchers surrendered nine walks on Monday. According to Stathead by Baseball-Reference, it was the 22nd time this year a team has allowed nine or more free passes in a game. It was the second time the Royals did this, previously giving up nine walks to the Cardinals in early May, a 10-0 loss. Must be something in the interleague water.

Or maybe it’s just something about the AL Central. The White Sox and Twins have both had three games where they’ve issued nine or more walks. One of those White Sox games came against the Royals where they allowed 11 walks. Eleven!

Talk about some brutal baseball.

Central issues

• White Sox 9, Tigers 5

Lance Lynn returned from the IL and delivered 4.1 innings, allowing in 10 hits and three runs. Jose Abreu started things off for the Sox with a two-run homer in the first, but Chicago really broke the game open in the middle innings, boarding the singles train and riding it with the help of some productive outs and slipshod Detroit defense.

• Twins 3, Mariners 2

Byron Buxton clubbed his 18th dinger in the first, a two-run shot, and the Twins never trailed. Chris Archer only went four innings for Minnesota, but they got five innings of one-run ball from the bullpen with eight strikeouts.

Up next

Game two of the series by the bay is on tap tonight. Kris Bubic takes the mound for the Royals and the Giants will counter with Logan Webb. First pitch is scheduled for 8:45 CDT.