Look, it’s great the Royals won and all, but the big thing is that Bobby Witt Jr exited the game with lower back spasms after the sixth inning. He went 0-3 with a strikeout before leaving. Maikel Garcia took over shortstop for him, while Nick Loftin came in to play third base.
The Rays lost. The Mariners lost. The Royals gained a little ground in the Wild Card race as a result, but everyone is going
to be dissecting every quote from the Royals about Witt’s lower back.
Having said that, the game was a conglomerated, tidy pitching duel. There were only 11 total hits. No one on either team reached third base until the main action of the game in the bottom of the third inning. With two outs, Vinnie singled to bring up Garcia. Maikel got a hanging sweeper dead center over the plate and put it over the visiting bullpen beyond left field. Just really whacked that pitch.
The Twins lone run came in the top of the fifth on two consecutive doubles from Brooks Lee and Jhonny Pereda. Pereda’s double was just a good piece of hitting. Wacha’s pitch was low and outside and was not a strike…Pereda just reached down and slapped it the other way down the line.
And…that was all the offense either team could muster. At no other point in the game did any team have a runner reach third base.
Michael Wacha finished with 5.2 innings and those two doubles as the only run given up. He had two walks and five strikeouts. Given the stakes, and the close game, Quatraro was in his bag afterward, using five relievers to close out the game. Zerpa and Estévez each pitched a full inning, but three other dudes (Schreiber, Lynch, Clarke) faced only five batters combined.
A win is great – the Royals move to 72-69 and sit only one game behind the Mariners for the third Wild Card spot.
Let’s just hope Bobby Witt Jr ends up OK.
The Royals and Twins will play again on Saturday at 1:10pm US Central.
