Singer stellar on the mound for Kansas City Royals; Pasquantino and Pratto belt homers

One added benefit for the Kansas City Royals and their fresh, young group of players is that they’ve got no attachment to any past woes or streaks of bad luck.

So a pitcher like Chicago White Sox right-hander Lance Lynn having had the Royals’ number recently, means nothing to rookie sluggers like Vinnie Pasquantino and Nick Pratto.

They weren’t part of those lineups when Lynn dominated the Royals. Instead, they had relatively blank slates.

Well, Pasquantino and Pratto each crushed a two-run home run off of Lynn to put the Royals on the path to a 4-2 win over the White Sox in the opening game of the four-game series and the first game of a doubleheader at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.

The victory extended the Royals’ win streak to three games and evened the season series with the White Sox at six wins apiece.

Meanwhile Royals starter Brady Singer allowed just one run on five hits in 7 1/3 innings. He struck out six and didn’t walk a batter. The lone run he allowed came on a home run. He had just one three-ball count in the outing.

“When you see that many good hitters take ball-to-strike pitches that they’re questioning and you go back and you look,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “It just had movement that they’re not accustomed to, then he played off of it with the slider.”

Lynn entered the day having gone 5-0 with a 1.08 ERA in his last five starts against the Royals, but the Royals put up four runs against him on seven hits, including two home runs, in six innings.

“Offense was really impressive again today, watching Pratto,” Royals manager Matheny said. “We’ve talked a lot about MJ (Melendez) and how the ball carries just a little different when you watch the trajectory. … For the ball to carry like it did to straightaway left field is just different. To go along with a couple other balls that he hit really well.”

Three of the hits against Lynn went for extra bases, Pratto (3 for 4) also roped a double off the veteran.

Michael A. Taylor (2 for 4) also had two hits for the Royals (45-65)

“These guys are unbelievable at the plate right now,” Singer said. “These young guys, this team is so much fun, and these guys are having a blast playing. I love what they’re doing. It’s really fun to watch.”

Singer’s last start prior to Tuesday came against the White Sox in Chicago on August 3. He allowed four runs on 11 hits, including one home run, in a loss. That was his first loss since June 26.

Singer went 1-0 in five July starts with a 2.05 ERA, a .217 opponent’s batting average, 42 strikeouts and 11 walks in 30 2/3 innings.

Other than the home run by Josh Harrison, the other hits Singer allowed on Tuesday were singles.

What was the big difference between his previous outing against the White Sox and this one?

“I think the movement on the fastball,” Singer said. “I don’t know if it was different than it was last time, but that’s the way it looked to me. I felt like the fastball was running a lot more than it was last time. And I think (I was) just making better pitches. I think I was missing on the right side of the plate, and just going in to the righties again.”

The White Sox grabbed a 1-0 lead in the third inning on Harrison’s one-out solo home run to left field.

Lynn didn’t hold onto that lead for long. He walked Salvador Perez with two outs, then his cutter low and inside to Pasquantino either wasn’t far enough inside or wasn’t low enough.

Pasquantino tagged that pitch down the right field line, around the foul pole and into the seats for a two-run homer to give the Royals and Singer a 2-1 edge.

Singer got through the sixth inning having thrown 71 pitches.

The closest thing to a high-stress inning, to that point, came in the sixth. White Sox hitters Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez hit back-to-back singles to put runners on first and third with two outs and cleanup hitter Jose Abreu coming up. Singer got Abreu to line out sofly to second base to end the inning and keep the one-run lead.

Pratto smashed a two-run homer in the bottom half of that inning to give the Royals a 4-1 advantage. That also gave the Royals as many earned runs against Lynn in the game as they’d scored in his previous five starts against them (33 1/3 innings).

The White Sox got the tying run to the plate in the eighth inning after Singer hit a batter and then gave up a one-out single, but reliever Scott Barlow came on and recorded two outs to strand those runners and keep the lead intact.

Royals reliever Dylan Coleman gave up one run in the ninth inning and put the go-ahead run on base, but Jose Cuas came in and recorded the final two outs to strand two men on base and record his first major-league save.

Cuas became the fifth Royals player to record a save this season. He joined Josh Staumont (3), Taylor Clarke (2) and Daniel Mengden (1) and Barlow (17).

Roster moves

Prior to Tuesday’s first game, the Royals placed relief pitcher Taylor Clarke on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to August 8) with a left oblique strain. They recalled right-handed reliever Jose Cuas to take Clarke’s spot.

Clarke, who signed as a free agent last offseason, had been one of the club’s most reliable bullpen options.

The Royals also announced that right-hander Jonathan Heasely was added as the 27th man for the doubleheader. Heasley started the second game.