Three Up, Three Down: Singer shoves the Royals to victory

Singer turns up like it was 2022, the offense shares the wealth and signs point to Massey finally breaking out of his early season slump.

The game was closer than it should’ve been, but the Royals withstood a late rally against their bullpen to hold off the Diamondbacks 5-4 in the desert. Closer than it should’ve been because they possessed all the ingredients for a more straightforward victory: Outstanding starting pitching and an offense firing mostly on all cylinders.

These are the 2023 Royals. Nothing is easy. So the bullpen wobbled. Scott Barlow was there to bail out Aroldis Chapman in the eighth with back-to-back strikeouts with the tying run on second. There was nobody to bail out Barlow when he got into the soup in the ninth, allowing a leadoff double to the ninth-place hitter Geraldo Perdomo. He tiptoed around the trouble though, getting a pair of ground outs and a pop-out to save both the day and the game. A five out save for Barlow and a victory for the Royals.

The Royals need every win they can get. It very easily could’ve gone sideways. Credit the team for pulling this one out. Handshakes and high-fives all around.

The record is now 6-18.

Here are three takeaways from the victory.

Brady Singer, coming off three consecutive underwhelming outings, rediscovered his 2022 form on Tuesday.

The Singer cambio made an early appearance on the evening, with the right-hander showing it to each of the first three batters he faced in the first. It was immediately much more than a show-me pitch as two of them were thrown for strikes. In fact, the change was an incredibly effective pitch on the evening for Singer against left-handed batters. He threw 11 of them and recorded a handful of strikes with it.

The change to punch out Alek Thomas was most definitely my favorite pitch of the night. Look at this movement!

That pitch is a soul-crusher.

With the confidence in the changeup, Singer was showcasing his full three-pitch repertoire with authority. His command was on point as he was working up and on the edges with his sinker and generally keep his slider low.

Singer trimmed a couple of miles per hour off his slider. The result was more movement on the horizontal plane. He recorded 7 swings and misses on the slider.

That’s just a wicked pitch with that kind of movement.

He also got a few called strikes on the slider. Below is his pitch chart on swinging strikes and called strikes on the pitch.

Those called strikes on the edge are exquisite. All of them came against left-handed batters and with the better than usual horizontal movement…what in the world could they do but watch that pitch go by.

The only time all evening I worried about Singer was his final batter. As he was approaching 90 pitches, it just felt like he was overthrowing a bit with the finish line in sight. It was a dangerous moment with Corbin Carroll on second after a bloop double down the left field line, but Singer was able to spin one last slider down and toward the outer edge of the plate. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. rolled over on it and grounded out to third, ending the threat and a successful evening for Singer. Bravo.

The Royals put their leadoff hitter on in each of the first three innings: A single from Bobby Witt Jr. in the first, a double from Kyle Isbel in the second and a single from Vinnie Pasquantino in the third. Given the starting base of those runners with no outs, according to the 2022 Run Expectancy Matrix, the Royals should’ve scored 2.8 runs. Because the games aren’t played on a spreadsheet (nerds!), let’s round up. If you subscribe to the wisdom of the Run Expectancy Matrix, the Royals, given the fact they had runners on first with nobody out two times and a runner on second with nobody out for their third opportunity, were expected to score at least three runs.

Because the Matrix fails to consider the Royals’ putrid collective offense, it was hopelessly wrong. The Royals rapped six hits in the first three innings. They scored one run.

The offense found its footing in the middle innings. A two-out rally in the fourth was sparked by a Hunter Dozier double (really!) and three consecutive hits in the fifth from Salvador Perez (single), Edward Olivares (double) and Michael Massey (single) netted two more. Yeah, you’d like to see them take advantage of what was being offered, but it ended up being a much more balanced offensive attack with eight of the nine starters collecting at least one hit. The one guy who didn’t get a hit, Franmil Reyes, still played a role with a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

The Royals matched their season high with 14 hits. Yeah, more runs would’ve been nice, but let’s not get crazy.

Massey went 0-3 in the first game of this road trip to drop his seasonal averages to .115/.111/.135. Included in that were 21 strikeouts in 54 plate appearances. His approach at the plate was abysmal. He was basically an automatic out no matter where he was hitting.

After sitting on Saturday, Massey was back in the lineup on Sunday. He rapped two hits, his first multi-hit game of the season. He collected two more in the series opener on Monday against Arizona. And wouldn’t you know it, on Tuesday he went 2-4 with a couple of singles. He looks like a totally different hitter.

In the first, he put up a nice plate appearance, despite striking out on a foul tip.

In his second at-bat, Massey hit one on the button that was a fly out to center. However, with an exit velocity of 103.3 MPH, it was his fifth-hardest batted ball of the season to this point. The distance of 384 feet was tied for the furthest he’s hit one this year.

In the fifth, he squared up a low 0-1 fastball that was located over the middle of the plate for a run-scoring single. It was a pitch that was begging to become a line drive. And it was a pitch that Massey was routinely missing earlier in the season.

Massey’s second knock of the night came against lefty Anthony Misiewicz in the eighth. That one was on a cutter running away from him on a 2-2 pitch. Another good piece of hitting on a pitch that was probably supposed to slide a little bit off the outer edge for a swing and a miss.

The swing is looking healthy.

He has six hits in his last 12 plate appearances with just two strikeouts. I’d say he’s found his comfort zone.