LOS ANGELES — A sinker that didn’t sink and a slider that didn’t bite were the two pitches Brady Singer didn’t want to throw to one of baseball’s best hitters, and Shohei Ohtani showed why on Sunday.
Ohtani homered twice and Freddie Freeman added another for the only runs Singer allowed the Dodgers in six innings, but Tyler Glasnow held the Royals scoreless in their 3-0 loss, losing the series at Dodger Stadium.
The Royals (41-32) struck out nine times and managed just three hits in seven innings against Glasnow, who threw just 85 pitches. They were held hitless over the final two innings and were shut out for the second time this year. Sunday was also the first game all year in which Kansas City did not record an extra-base hit. The Royals had recorded at least one in their first 72 games, surpassing the club record of first 51 games in 1978.
Glasnow was extremely efficient, with 62 of his 85 pitches thrown for strikes.
“I think in the first three innings there were 23 pitches,” first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino said. “Looking at the scoreboard, you’re a little bit in trouble when you see that. You expect a guy like that to throw a little more, especially a guy who’s very honest about it. He’s not trying to paint. He is trying to let his things work, which sometimes makes him balls.”
Singer featured a very different pitch mix on Sunday by relying more on his four-seamer (19%) and his changeup (9%) than he usually does, a concerted effort to shift the Dodgers’ focus from their signature sinker-mixture. slider. He would like to make three pitches in the 90s that he needed. The first was a sinker up the middle of the plate to Ohtani in the third inning that Singer was trying to get away with, and the other two were consecutive sliders in the sixth inning to Ohtani and Freeman.
“I’m trying to score it,” Singer said of the slider to Ohtani. “I thought I would try to swing there. Try to bury that slider, but also try to get him to chase it. But it should have been lower, and it’s the pitch where he does damage, the sliders down and in. So I need to put it more under the zone.”
As the Royals leave Los Angeles disappointed by a series loss, Monday’s off day comes at a good time before the club heads to Oakland for three games against the A’s.
Sunday concluded a 19-game streak in which the Royals played six consecutive series against teams that currently have a postseason berth: the Twins (American League wild card), the Padres (NL wild card), the Guardians (leader of the American League Central Division), the Mariners. (leader of the American League West), Yankees (leader of the American League East) and Dodgers (leader of the National League West).
The last 12 of those games were against first-place teams.
The Royals went 5-7 in those 12 games. Two of them were losses against the Yankees, when the Royals were outscored 21-6. But eight of the 12 games were decided by three runs or less.
“You let it marinate a little, and what were we doing? 5-7 in this stretch?” Pasquantino said. “…Obviously we would like to have a winning record, but I think we showed that we can compete. There were two games where the Yankees kicked our butts. We played hard against Seattle and Cleveland. (The Dodgers) are also very good. I think it shows that this team has fight. We were never left out of a game.
“As an offense, we would like to make it a little easier for the pitchers, but I think we showed something in this stretch. Now, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing against. We still have to do our best and compete no matter who you play. But obviously this was a 12-game stretch that was pretty difficult.”
As Pasquantino pointed out, the Royals can’t sit back and take it easy. They still have to play well and better than they showed in the last two weeks, while learning what it takes to beat good teams. It will be these clubs that the Royals could face in October, but there is still plenty of season left to play.
“I’m not surprised how competitive they have been; I know that’s how our guys are built,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “There is no easy night in the Major Leagues, regardless of whether you play against first-place teams or not. “I think our guys have embraced it.”
