The Kansas City Royals are pushing for a playoff spot, and Bobby Witt Jr. is doing his part to help them get there.
Riding a majors-best 18-game hitting streak after recording single in the first inning Saturday, Witt crushed a go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth in the Royals’ 3-1 win against the visiting Detroit Tigers.
Witt and his teammates will look to inch closer to an American League wild-card spot on Sunday afternoon in the decisive contest of the three-game series against Detroit.
“He’s the best player in baseball,” Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia said of Witt. “He does it all year, and he comes to the field every time, plays hard, and he never gives up. … He can change the game, and he changed the game.”
Witt made history with his eighth-inning blast, becoming the first shortstop in major league history with 20 home runs and 30 stolen bases in each of his first four seasons.
“It’s pretty special, just any time you do the first of something in this game since it’s been around for a while,” Witt said. “Those are great numbers, but now we have a bigger goal in mind.”
Kansas City is two games behind the Seattle Mariners in the race for the final wild-card spot in the American League.
Witt, 25, raised his batting average to .299, sixth best in the majors. He also has 20 homers, 76 RBIs and 34 steals.
A year ago, he was a key factor in the Royals making their way into the playoffs, batting .310 in August en route to finishing with a .332 average.
Right-hander Michael Wacha (8-10, 3.39 ERA) will be back on the mound for the finale after being on the paternity list.
Wacha is 2-2 with a 2.92 ERA in nine career starts against Detroit. His last appearance vs. the Tigers came just over a week ago. He allowed three runs on eight hits over six innings in a 4-2 loss on Aug. 23.
Wacha will go against Tigers ace left-hander Tarik Skubal (11-4, 2.28 ERA), who has been nearly lights out when he’s started on a Sunday this season. Skubal is 3-0 with a 0.66 ERA in the six Sunday games he’s pitched.
In his 17 career appearances (15 starts) against the Royals, the 28-year-old is 3-9 with a 4.38 ERA.
Detroit will look to do a better job of taking advantage of its offensive opportunities on Sunday. The Tigers had a chance to break the tie in the top of the seventh when they had runners on second and third base with two out but couldn’t capitalize on Saturday.
They finished the game just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded six.
“We swung the bats better than the scoreboard indicated,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said. “But the scoreboard tells the story at the end of the day. We couldn’t really push anything across. When we had the chance to separate, to put a little more pressure on them, we couldn’t quite do it.”
The Tigers have dropped five of their past six games after winning nine of 10 from Aug. 13-23.
–Field Level Media
