Royals’ Brady Singer had brief mental lapse before striking out Aaron Judge in ALDS

Brady Singer jogged from the Royals’ bullpen to the mound at Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday night and was met by manager Matt Quatraro, who told him ...

“I don’t remember, honestly, I don’t know,” Singer said with a slight smile following the Royals’ 3-2 loss to the Yankees in Game 3 of the American League Division Series.

You can’t blame Singer for the temporary memory lapse. He made his first career postseason appearance and was called upon to face Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, the presumptive favorite to win the AL MVP award.

Oh, and Singer, who hadn’t pitched in 12 days, made his first relief appearance since 2022. What a spot it was: game tied 2-2, two outs and a runner on first.

“Yeah, just a little bit of the moment,” Singer said of not recalling the chat with Quatraro, “and I haven’t come out of the pen very many times. I haven’t made that run in.”

Fortunately, catcher Salvador Perez went over the game plan for facing Judge. Singer stepped up and fanned Judge on a check swing that was ruled strike three by first base umpire Mark Carlson. That ended the Yankees’ threat.

And it was the only batter Singer faced.

“I couldn’t tell on the swing. I thought it was a strike, but it turns out it definitely was not,” Singer said. “But, yeah, obviously glad he went there.”

Judge had a career .417 average against Singer, but the Royals had planned for that matchup if the situation presented itself.

It did and Singer got the job done.

“That was a huge spot in the game,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “We had Brady down there, have a ton of faith in him in those situations. And he came in first time that I’ve seen him work out of the pen. And he wasn’t scared. He got ahead of him and went to work.”

Singer’s last appearance before Game 3 was in the Royals’ 3-0 loss to the Braves on Sept. 27. To keep ready, he threw bullpen sessions and tried to stay sharp.

“Trying to keep the volume up as much as I can but be available at the same time to pitch that night,” he said. “It’s been fun to learn the bullpen, try and figure it out and I was happy to get in there tonight.”

Singer was the Royals’ first pick in the 2018 MLB Draft. He broke into the major leagues in 2020 and had been part of a losing Royals squad each season until this year.

Making his playoff debut in front of 40,312 home fans was a special moment.

“I took a second to look up when I was running in there and see the whole top deck full,” Singer said of the sellout crowd. “And just the whole experience tonight was incredible.”