Game #16 Preview: Ray vs Singer

The Blue Jays wrap up their 4-game set against the Royals this afternoon, looking to earn a split of a series that they should have won. Gametime is set for 2:10 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Left hander Robbie Ray will make his second start of the season now that he’s fully recovered from his bruised elbow. His first start went much as expected, as he allowed a pair of runs over 5 innings. Hopefully he can be a bit more stretched out, as he threw just 84 pitches in his first start of the season.

He was pretty much his normal Ray in that start too. He only struck out 3, which is well below the rate he will get to, but he ended up walking 3 and allowing a home run, both rates pretty much close to what we can expect out of him. If he’s going to be the second starter on a playoff bound team, he’ll need to bring those last 2 numbers down a bit, but they’re not far off his numbers from the last couple years.

Royals’ Starter

The Royals will send out their 2018 first round draft pick Brady Singer. Singer was also the Blue Jays’ 2nd round draft pick in 2015, but didn’t sign, which began a series of transactions that eventually got the Jays Trent Thornton. So the Jays probably did alright, especially when you consider that they got 1.6 fWAR from Aledmys Díaz along the way.

Singer made his MLB debut last year after coming in as a top 100 prospect. He had a good season last year, pitching to a 4.06 ERA with a 4.05 FIP over 64.1 innings. It hasn’t gone quite that well for him in the early going this year, as in 8.1 innings, he has allowed 10 runs, although just 6 have been earned. He has given up 12 hits against 3 walks, while striking out an impressive 11, which all comes out to a much better looking 3.52 FIP. So he’ll definitely improve on his ERA as the season wears on.

Singer predominantly throws a sinker and a slider, and will very occasionally throw a changeup against lefties. His sinker averages about 95 and is very much his best pitch, but he does get the whiffs more often with his slider, which has helped his high strikeout numbers.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Royals’ Lineup

Yesterday’s Heroes

Yadier Molina went 3-5 with a pair of home runs and a double, driving in 4 runs to pick up the Monster Bat award. His Cardinals used his bat on their way to the 9-4 win over the Phillies.

Jorge Alfaro had a pair of big hits for the Marlins on the way to his WPA King award. In the bottom of the 9th, he hit a single to bring the team to within 1 while pushing the tying run into scoring position. After the tying run scored, the game went to extras, where Alfaro walked it off with a 2-run double, giving his Marlins the 7-6 win over the Giants. Alfaro’s WPA on the day was a stellar .869.

Zack Greinke threw 8 shutout innings yesterday, allowing 4 hits and no walks while striking out 6. He picked up the Pitcher of the Day award, as well as the win, in the Astros 1-0 win over the Mariners.

Find the Link

Find the link between Brady Singer and Akil Baddoo.

Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant