KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In a part of the country where everyone seems to have a smoker in their backyard and burnt ends must come in school lunches, Brady Singer turned down the heat on the Dodgers’ sizzling offense.
Singer held the Dodgers without a hit through the first four innings Sunday afternoon and shut them out for six as the Kansas City Royals put an end to the Dodgers’ winning streak with a two-hit, 4-0 shutout.
The Dodgers averaged 7.6 runs per game during their 12-game winning streak (their longest since 1976), scoring eight or more in eight of the games including four in a row before Sunday. In their first 22 games after the All-Star break, they averaged 6.7 and were held under four just four times.
But Singer was having none of that.
The 18th overall pick in the 2018 draft, Singer’s two-pitch arsenal — a sinking fastball that averaged 94 mph on the day, and a sharp-breaking slider — kept the Dodgers at bay. He struck out five in his six innings and got 19 swings-and-misses, 10 with the slider, nine with the sinker.
Singer walked three and hit a batter before Chris Taylor got the Dodgers’ first hit of the day in the fifth inning. The Dodgers got two runners on with no outs that inning but Singer retired Cody Bellinger on a soft fly out, struck out Tony Wolters and got Mookie Betts to pop out.
The Dodgers’ only other scoring threat against Singer came in the next inning when Trea Turner led off with a 407-foot fly ball — that settled in center fielder Michael A. Taylor’s glove just short of the wall.
As the rebuilding Royals search for any signs of hope, Singer has given them some. Over his past six starts, Singer has a 1.64 ERA.
The Dodgers’ only other hit in the game was a double by Betts in the eighth inning. An error put runners at second and third for Max Muncy but he struck out against Royals reliever Scott Barlow to end the inning.
The Royals’ offense took a low-and-slow approach to cook up the win against Dodgers starter Tyler Anderson, scoring single runs in the first, third and sixth innings.
Anderson gave up a leadoff single to Taylor and an RBI double to Salvador Perez for the first run. Three singles produced the run in the third with Vinnie Pasquantino getting the RBI. Pasquantino led off with a double in the sixth and scored on Kyle Isbel’s two-out single.
Pasquantino made it a three-hit day with a solo home run off Dodgers reliever Craig Kimbrel in the eighth inning. Kimbrel has given up runs in three of his past six outings, pushing his ERA for the season to 4.39.