Awful alliterative author appalled at atrocious athletic acts, aristocrats annihilated 9-4

Brady Singer had another mediocre start and the offense couldn’t sustain a rally as the Royals dropped the rubber match to the Tigers this afternoon by a score of 9-4.

Kansas City drew first blood in the second inning. Maikel Garcia and Samad Taylor knocked groundball singles to put runners on first and second with one out. Matthew Boyd then hung a slider to Freddy Fermin that was begging to be smoked. Fermin obliged him, crushing it off the wall in left field just out of reach of the left fielder Andy Ibáñez to give the Royals a 2-0 lead.

The Tigers immediately answered in the bottom of the frame. With one out, Nick Maton spit on four pitches well below the zone to draw a walk. Ibáñez singled and, after a Matt Vierling groundout that moved the runners to second and third, Eric Haase brought them home with a liner to center that got past Dairon Blanco for a double. Zack Short promptly brought Haase home with a single to give Detroit a 3-2 lead. They brought home another in the next inning with a Kerry Carpenter double followed by a Javier Báez RBI single. Singer coughed up his fifth run in the fifth inning when he allowed a leadoff dinger to Short.

I haven’t talked about the tops of the innings as Kansas City didn’t really do anything. They managed just three baserunners in innings three through seven, all singles. They had a chance for a rally in the eighth with runners on the corners and one out but managed just a single run out of the deal.

Jackson Kowar entered in the eighth and teamed up with the defense to put the game further out of reach with this progression: ROE, strikeout, RBI single, single, HBP, RBI fielder’s choice, RBI single, RBI single, groundout. All nine Tigers hitters came to bat in that inning and the score was 9-3 at the end of it. The Royals scored in the ninth on consecutive doubles but the rally fell well short as they lost 9-4.

Some nuggets:

• Singer allowed 12 hard hit balls (95+ mph exit velo) in this game. This is the fourth time this season he has surrendered at least 12 hard hit balls. He had zero such games from 2020-2022. The defense didn’t do him any favors today, but it would help if he didn’t give up so much loud contact.
• This team is getting even more banged up. Matt Beaty, who is only on the roster because of the Vinnie Pasquantino injury, exited the game in the eighth after colliding with Taylor.
• This is the fifth time this season the Royals have struck out at least ten times without drawing a walk, the most such games of any team.

The loss drops Kansas City to 20-54. They are 11.5 games behind the fourth-place team in the division, which is a White Sox team that is 11 games under .500. No rest for the weary as the Royals will travel to Tampa for a four-game set against the Rays, who have won five more games than any other team in baseball this season.

Brady Singer: 7.0 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR

Matthew Boyd: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 0 HR

Freddy Fermin: 3-4, 2 2B, R, 2 RBI

Zack Short: 3-4, HR, R, 3 RBI