By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Kansas City Royals battled mother nature and the Tampa Bay Rays in their series opener on Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium, falling 5-1 following a two and a half hour rain delay.
Royals starter Brady Singer had given up just one run as the Rays Richie Palacios scored on a wild pitch in the second inning, but heading into the sixth crew chief Adrian Johnson called for the tarp to be pulled onto the field and players to leave as thunder and lightning boomed and dark clouds surrounded the stadium.
Not long after the storm hit, leading to a two hour, 32 minute rain delay, that lasted longer than the actual game itself.
The game didn't resume until 11pm and Singer did not return to the mound, with John Schreiber taking over in the sixth, surrendering a double to Palacios scoring Josh Lowe and putting the Rays up 2-0.
The Royals did narrow the gap in the bottom half of the inning on a home run from Bobby Witt Jr, his 13th of the season, but the Rays would score two runs in the seventh, and their final run in the ninth inning to hold the lead.
Singer lowered his ERA to 3.05 across his 17 starts this season but was handed his fifth loss because of one sequence in the second inning and no run support. Singer has been given just two runs or fewer of support in 13 of his 16 starts, including each of the last seven -- a stretch in which he’s 0-3 and the Royals have scored a total of five runs in his 37 2/3 innings.
The Royals will now send Michael Wacha to the mound for Game 2 of the series tonight looking to bounce back, the Rays will counter with Ryan Pepiot. First pitch is at 7:10pm with pregame at 6:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).