Starting pitching fuels a sweep

The Royals take care of business by brushing aside the Hapless White Sox, winning all three. The starting pitching was the story of the weekend.

When the Chicago White Sox roll into town, it’s all about taking care of business. The Sox are here to be patsies. Baseball’s version of the sacrificial lamb. Their purpose is to lose.

The Royals took that mission quite literally. They destroyed the White Sox over the three games to open the second half of the season. The combined scoreline was 17-3. Break out the brooms.

The starting pitching carried the series. Michael Wacha, Brady Singer and Seth Lugo combined for the following line:

23 IP, 12 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 20 SO

I don’t care that this came against the worst offense in baseball. The opportunity has to be seized. The Royals did that with a certain kind of starting pitching authority.

Hell, the individual performances need to be properly saluted:

Michael Wacha - 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO - GAME SCORE OF 75
Brady Singer - 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO - GAME SCORE OF 72
Seth Lugo - 9 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO - GAME SCORE OF 83

The starting pitching carried the day, but you need to score runs to win the game. It was a bit touch-and-go on Sunday as the Royals fell behind 1-0 in the sixth inning. If we’ve learned anything from the Royals’ bats this year it’s that they can string together a big inning. They couldn’t inflict damage against Chicago starter Drew Thorpe. Maddening to be sure, but fine. it was just a matter of time before the Royals got to the White Sox bullpen. It helps to have Bobby Witt Jr. on your side.

Friday - 3-3, HR, 1 BB, 2 R, 2 RBI
Saturday - 3-4, 2B, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 SB
Sunday - 3-4, 1 R

That’s a 9-11 weekend with a couple of extra-base hits and a handful of runs scored and RBI. It’s getting to the point where I can’t rationally discuss this guy.

Between the starting pitchers and Witt, the Royals served notice they’re ready to compete in the second half of the season.

Baseball Savant says Brady Singer threw five sweepers on Saturday. That alone is news because the data collected during Singer’s starts rarely shows that he’s throwing the sweeper. I’ve been writing about this on the regular that he is throwing the pitch, it’s just that it’s so similar to the slider, that it’s difficult for the computer to pick up the differences. Circuit boards and such don’t deal with nuance.

On Saturday, though, there was something different about that sweeper. It moved… Like a lot.

From Anne Rogers:

But he changed the grip on (the sweeper) Saturday on a whim after scrolling through X and seeing a grip posted there. He took it into the bullpen before Saturday’s start and liked it enough to take it into the game.

“Just kind of pulled it out today, and it worked well in the bullpen,” Singer said.

Singer didn’t know -- or wouldn’t reveal -- the account in which he saw the grip nor who was credited with the grip. But something clicked for the typically strong-willed Singer, and he went with it. One sweeper registered a 14-inch horizontal break Saturday.

Wait. I need a moment to collect myself. (Hell, it’s been almost 48 hours and I’m still having difficulty wrapping my head around this.) You’re telling me that Singer, the same Brady Singer who just can’t ever get comfortable throwing a changeup—or really any kind of third pitch beyond a four-seamer—found a new grip on the internet? And he was comfortable with it? And it worked?

Yeah, it did.

Rogers notes that one of Singer’s sweepers had 14 inches of horizontal run. The above pitch to Eloy Jiménez in the second inning had 13 inches of break. You can see, even from that angle that it starts out pointing to the corner low and away. With two strikes, Jiménez is going to need to swing at that pitch. Yet in the moment when he makes up his mind to pull the trigger, the pitch starts running away. Jiménez has already committed. He’s toast.

The broadcast had a fantastic angle of the same pitch:

You really get a sense of the movement from that angle. Not only how it moves away from Jiménez, but also the downward break of the pitch.

Savant says that Singer threw five sweepers. Again, I dispute that number. I’ll guesstimate that he threw at least 10 sweepers. Maybe a couple more.

Here’s where he located his “official” sweepers along with his sliders:

The sweeper furthest off the plate was the pitch to Jiménez featured above. The others were either in the zone or right off. No wonder he got four whiffs and a foul on the five. It was a lethal pitch.

Is eight different pitches enough? I guess not. It appears as though Baseball Savant has added a ninth pitch to Seth Lugo’s repertoire. A split finger. Maybe I’m just losing my mind, though. If the pitch exists, Lugo is throwing it. Now the Royals need to get Zack Greinke back so he can teach him the eephus.

I doubt you can make out the finer details from the above graph. That’s fine. It’s presented here only to show the array of Lugo’s arsenal. This is insane.

Lugo threw 103 pitches in his complete game on Sunday. He threw each of the above pitches at least twice. Here’s the breakdown:

How does an opposing lineup gameplan for this? Normally, Lugo throws the curve to left-handed batters and the slider to righties. He didn’t mix it up a great deal, but probably enough that those pitches had to be in the back of hitter’s minds from both sides of the dish.

Perhaps the thing I find the most amazing is that you really can’t say which of the above was Lugo’s best pitch. They all work. They all serve a purpose. We swooned over Greinke’s approach and thoughtfulness on the mound, but I think Lugo has taken this to the next level.

I love that Matt Quatraro allowed Lugo to finish this start. You could tell from the quotes after the game that it was important to Lugo that he go the full nine. He allowed a leadoff single to Tommy Pham to start the game but then retired the next 14 batters he faced. (Pham was erased on a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play to end the first.) Lugo hit Nicky Lopez with a pitch to open the sixth and Pham singled him home. Gavin Sheets followed that with a single of his own. From there, Lugo sat down the next 10 to finish the complete game.

What a free agent signing by JJ Picollo and company.

With the Royals down 1-0 after that sixth inning, did you panic? Were you worried?

The Royals squandered a couple of opportunities early in the game. With runners on the corners and one out in the first, Salvador Perez grounded into an inning-ending double play. In the sixth the Royals again put runners on the corners for Salvy. This time he struck out. Hunter Renfroe flew out to end the threat.

The Royals put a runner on third with less that two outs once again in the seventh. This time, they were able to get that runner home, courtesy a Kyle Isbel safety squeeze.

The breakthrough game in the eighth. It’s that quick-strike offense again. They looked borderline dangerous on Sunday, what with all those opportunities. Thankfully, against the White Sox you had the feeling the Royals would either take one of those chances offered or the Sox would giftwrap it to them. Turns out the Royals took it. Five singles in the eighth plated three runs. They took the lead and tacked on a couple of insurance runs. It was the perfect offensive ending to a perfect weekend series.

Capped by a perfect pitching performance by Seth Lugo.

At this point, I highly recommend you set up your phone to get alerts when Bobby Witt Jr. is up to bat. Why would you ever want to miss one of those moments? From the home run in the first inning on Friday, Witt served notice his first-half All-Star-worthy performance was not a fluke. Three consecutive three-hit games. Stellar defense. The threat on the bases. The kid is simply a special, special ballplayer.

A few notes from the Royals’ PR department:

• Sunday was Witt’s 42nd multi-hit effort in 100 games this season.

• Witt’s 14 three-hit games this season lead the Majors, ahead of Steven Kwan’s 13.

• He’s recorded a hit in 30 of his last 31 games at The K since May 7, a stretch in which he’s batting .455 (55-for-121).

So much fun.

Central Issues

Brewers 8, Twins 7

I guess this is Minnesota’s “rivalry matchup” as the two teams played just twice coming out of the break with the Brew Crew taking both games. Sunday’s battle was a back-and-forth affair with the Brewers tying the game in the seventh on a Jackson Chourio home run and then taking the lead in the eighth on a two-run blast from Rhys Hoskins. The Twins put up a fight in the ninth but fell just short.

Tigers 4, Blue Jays 5

Toronto starter Kevin Gausman pitched into the seventh and survived a four-run fifth inning to pick up the victory. George Springer provided the offensive support for the Jays with a pair of home runs. The Tigers took two of three to open the second half.

Padres 2, Guardians 1

The Cleveland bats are doing their best impression of the Chicago offense. One day after being one-hit against the Padres, they couldn’t muster a single knock against San Diego starter Michael King took a no-hitter into the seventh. Overall, Cleveland went 3-55 at the plate against the Padres on Saturday and Sunday. You hate to see it.

The standings reflect just about the best weekend you could have. Oh! The Red Sox, the team ahead of the Royals in the Wild Card standings at the break, were swept in their three-game series against the Dodgers.

Safe to say the last three games have had a positive impact on the Royals playoff chances. At least according to FanGraphs.

Bring on the rest of the second half.