Brady Singer logged his first scoreless outing of the season and Maikel Garcia hit his first career home run to propel the host Kansas City Royals to a 2-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday afternoon.
Singer (4-4) scattered five hits across 5 2/3 innings while striking out seven without issuing a walk. Relievers Taylor Clarke and Aroldis Chapman combined for 2 1/3 innings of relief before Colorado staged a mini rally in the ninth.
Singles from Mike Moustakas and Harold Castro put runners at first and second with one out, but Scott Barlow fanned Elehuris Montero and Ezequiel Tovar to notch his seventh save.
Michael Massey singled to drive in MJ Melendez in the bottom of the fifth to give the Royals all the offense they would need to salvage the finale of the three-game series. Garcia then provided an insurance run in the eighth when he blasted Kyle Freeland's 2-2 changeup over the center field wall for his milestone homer.
Although he took the loss, Freeland (4-7) still put together a quality start. He allowed two runs on four hits with no walks and one strikeout in seven innings.
Nolan Jones and Moustakas each had a pair of hits for the Rockies, who have dropped five of their last seven games.
Freeland retired the first 13 batters he faced before Melendez broke up his perfect game with a one-out double in the fifth. Melendez then scored when Massey ripped his single to right to give the Royals a 1-0 lead.
Following the completion of the fifth, the Kansas City grounds crew brought the tarp out on the field and both teams waited out a 16-minute rain delay.
Both Freeland and Singer stayed in the game despite the stoppage, but Singer was unable to finish the sixth.
The Rockies threatened in the second after Jones hit a leadoff single and made his way to third thanks to a pair of groundouts. But Tovar also grounded out, stranding Jones at third and keeping Colorado off the board.
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