Witt homers, triples; Royals beat Rays

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bobby Witt Jr. homered and tripled with three RBIs, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Tampa Bay Rays 8-4 on Sunday for their second win in 10 games.

Witt and Drew Waters became the first Royals teammates to each triple and homer in the same game. In a game that sped by in 1 hour, 54 minutes, Brady Singer (6-8) won for the second time in seven starts since June 4.

“The slider was really good, had some good swing-and-miss on it, and on the changeup, too, when I needed it,” Singer said.

He needed 70 pitches through seven innings and led 7-0 before Isaac Paredes hit a solo homer and Francisco Mejía hit a three-run drive for the ALbest Rays (60-36).

“When you have a sinker that’s working like that and they put the ball on ground early, it provides a lot of confidence for him to be able to work quickly and be able to move through the game efficiently.” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said.

Singer allowed four runs and seven hits in a season-high eight innings as Kansas City improved to 27-67, the secondworst record in the major leagues and ahead of only Oakland.

“That’s vintage sinkerballer,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “You’re relying on the late movement to get the ball on the ground and that’s what happened. He just had some extra movement on it today that made it a little challenging for us.”

The early lead gave Singer confidence to attack hitters.

Zach Eflin (10-5) gave up a season-high five runs and seven hits over a season-low three innings, allowing hits to seven of his first 11 batters.

The Rays had won three straight after a seasonworst seven-game losing streak.

In a game that started one hour later because of rain, Royals All-Star catcher Salvador Perez left in the second inning after feeling left hamstring discomfort while scoring on Melendez’s double.

M.J. Melendez hit a two-out RBI double in the first and the Royals opened a 5-0 lead in the second. Waters hit an RBI triple and scored on Nick Pratto’s single. Witt, who has an extra-base hit in six straight games, hit a tworun, two-out triple.

“Seeing the guys before me put together good at-bats gives you confidence,” Witt said. “Just trying to simplify as much as possible and just trying to put a good swing on the ball.”

Waters led off the fourth against Yonny Chirinos with a 465-foot home run to the upper level of the right-field fountains.

Witt led off the fifth with his 16th homer and Melendez hit a solo homer in the eighth off Chirinos.

TRANSACTIONS

Royals RHP Collin Snider was optioned to Omaha and RHP Max Castillo was recalled from the Triple-A team.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals RHP Josh Staumont, placed on the 60day IL on Saturday, is expected to have thoracic outlet syndrome surgery and miss the rest of the season.