KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Brady Singer threw seven scoreless innings to lead the Kansas City Royals to a 4-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday to salvage the finale of the three-game series.
Detroit was shut out for the 20th time this season, the most in the majors and five more than the next-closest teams, Kansas City and Pittsburgh.
Singer (8-4) allowed four hits and one walk with six strikeouts, and he retired 16 of the last 18 batters he faced. The Royals have won six of his last seven starts; he is 4-0 with a 2.25 ERA over that span.
“I wanted to get deep into that game, as deep as I could,” Brady said. “I think I came out well on the attack. The slider was kind of a pitch today that helped me the most. The fastball kind of came later in the game.”
Royals manager Mike Matheny said: “It was Brady as good as we’ve seen him all season. He had six strikeouts today, the majority with the slider, but the sinker was good, too. They played off each other really well.”
In 10 career starts against Detroit, Singer is 6-0 with a 2.44 ERA; 35 % of his 17 career victories have come at the Tigers’ expense.
“I don’t care who Brady was facing (today),” Matheny said. “The way he threw the ball, he was going to do very well.”
Kansas City got on the board early with Nick Pratto’s sacrifice fly scoring Bobby Witt Jr. in the first inning.
Witt had a pair of hits, including a double for his 51st extra-base hit, leading all major league rookies. Each of the Royals’ RBIs were contributed by rookies.
Drew Waters’ two-out double into the right-field corner scored Michael A. Taylor and Nate Eaton to expand Kansas City’s lead to 3-0 in the second inning.
In the fourth, Michael Massey jumped on Tyler Alexander’s first pitch, driving a cut fastball just fair down the right-field line. Massey’s second homer of the season made it 4-0.
“The hitting (coaches) did a great job with the (pregame) report and just from watching the game, I could tell he liked to get ahead,” Massey said. “I was just trying to get a good pitch early and I was able to put a pretty good swing on it.”
Alexander (3-10) went five innings, allowing four runs on six hits and a walk.
Spencer Torkelson had the Tigers’ only extra-base hit, a one-out double in the seventh.
UP NEXT
Tigers: Detroit and LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (3-4, 4.13 ERA) open a three-game series Monday by hosting the Houston Astros and LHP Framber Valdez (14-5, 2.64).
Royals: Kansas City and LHP Kris Bubic (2-11, 5.40) travel to begin a three-game series in Minnesota facing RHP Joe Ryan (10-8, 4.05) on Tuesday.
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