Singer shines in series finale against White Sox

The Royals take the season series against the division leading White Sox behind an early bomb from Salvador Perez and a tremendous outing from Brady Singer.

Singer started the game just the way he wanted to with a low pitch-count, 1-2-3 inning.

In the bottom half of the first, the Royals offense continued seeing White Sox pitching well. Whit Merrifield started the game off with a five-pitch walk. Whit then moved to third on a double by Nicky Lopez. With two runners in scoring position and no one out, the hottest man alive, Salvador Perez came up the bat. Perez must have thought the ball was too hot because he sent it 448 ft into the right-field fountains for his 41st home run on the year; giving the Royals a 3-0 lead before White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease recorded an out.

With an early lead, Singer went back out and with the help of his defense had another 1-2-3 inning. Eloy Jimenez led off the inning with a jammed single up the middle. Singer then got Brian Goodwin to strike out looking. Leury Garcia ended the inning lining out to Adalberto Mondesi at third who fired the ball across the infield, doubling up Jimenez at first.

Nothing doing for the Royals in the bottom of the second.

Two ground outs and a Seby Zavala strikeout made a quick third inning for Singer putting down the first nine batters in order.

Weird bottom half of the third led to the Royals adding one to the scoreboard.

Whit led off with a single over the second baseman’s head. Lopez attempted to bunt for a hit, but as the ball flew over the head of the pitcher Cease, Whit had to hold up in case it was caught making it an easy fielder’s choice to second base getting the lead runner.

With Lopez at first and one out, Salvy came back up and grounded to the third baseman Yoan Moncada. Moncada’s throw was low, but the Sox first baseman, Sheets could not complete the play having the ball trickle away from him. While it was rolling, it was accidentally kicked by Salvy into right field. With the ball rolling into the outfield, Lopez kept on running and scored; Salvy also moved to second.

Andrew Benintendi walked next making it runners on first and second with one out. Unfortunately, Cease struck out the next two (Santana and Mondesi) to complete the inning.

In the top of the fourth, a couple great defensive plays helped out Singer again. Luis Robert started the inning with a single. Moncada then grounded into a fielder’s choice to Mondesi who flipped the ball to Lopez to get Robert out at second. Abreu then hit a hard ground ball that Mondesi did a great job of picking it, again he threw the ball to second but it was in the dirt. Whit picked it beautifully to get the lead runner and Abreu just beat it out to prevent the double play. Jimenez ended the inning with a ground ball.

Cease struck out Taylor, Olivares and Dozier in the bottom of the fourth making it five straight strikeouts for him.

Singer worked another quick inning getting around a one-out single by Garcia in the top of the fifth.

In the bottom half of the fifth, Cease started the inning with 82 pitches. Whit flew out. Then Nicky Lopez gets his second hit of the day. He then moved up the second on Salvy’s walk. They were stranded there.

Back out there in the top of the 6th, Singer continued to keep White Sox hitters guessing. After a quick two outs. Moncada roped a ball off of Whit’s glove, which was recorded as an error on Whit. This brought up the always scary Abreu. Singer did not back down, he continued to attack and got Abreu to swing and miss on a great slider to end the inning.

Mondesi led off the bottom half with a single. He then did Mondesi things by stealing second and third base. With one out, Olivares walked, putting runners on first and third with one out. Mondesi scored on a long sac fly from Dozier. After Olivares moved to second on a balk, Whit sent him home on a single, extending the lead to 6-0.

Jimenez led off the 7th with a groundout to second. Goodwin then got his first hit of the day with a single to Whit deep in right field. Singer followed that by striking out Garcia and Gavin Sheets to ground out to end his fantastic start.

Singer’s final line 7 IP 4 H 0 ER 0 BB 6 K.

Tapia took over for Singer in the 8th and got around a lead off single by Mendick to record a shutout inning of his own which included two strikeouts.

Nothing happened in the bottom of the 8th for the Royals against reliever Jose Ruiz.

Wade Davis came on to close the door to finalize the 6-0 Royals win.

Royals are back at it tomorrow in Baltimore at 12:05 CDT.