Strong pitching and clutch hitting were the keys for Kansas City on Saturday night.

Michael A. Taylor came off the bench and delivered a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning to set the stage for a 6-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. Not too long after Taylor’s home run, Bobby Witt Jr. smashed his 14th home run of the season, continuing his strong rookie season.

Brady Singer didn’t give up a hit until a leadoff bunt single in the sixth by former Royals minor-league outfielder Roman Quinn. And by former Royal, we should emphasize the fact that it was just last week Quinn was released… and on Thursday he signed with the Rays.

Singer struck out a career-high 12 batters. He’s the second Royals pitcher to strike out +10 this season, following Daniel Lynch on 6/17 at Oakland (10 Ks), and the first Royal to strike out a dozen since Mike Montgomery at Detroit on 8/10/19 (12 Ks).

The victory was in front of an announced 20,668 at Kauffman Stadium.