All year, it seems like we’ve been waiting for a seminal Bobby Witt Jr. moment. Until tonight, Bob only had one home run, and until the 10th inning Witt was hitless and had run into an out on third base to end an earlier inning. But in the 10th, Witt made up for it and then some—crushing a three-run home run off A’s reliever Justin Sterner to propel the Royals to a 4-1 win over the Sacramento Athletics and giving us our Bobby Baseball moment.
The game was not exactly played particularly
well on either team. Royals starter Kris Bubic immediately gave up multiple baserunners in the first frame, and the A’s tagged him with a clean RBI single in the second inning. Bubic struggled with his pitch count and walked four batters in his five innings, but he wiggled out of jams, struck out six A’s, and pitched well enough. That second inning run was the only one that the A’s scored, as they only went two for 12 with runners in scoring position.
You know what that implies: yes, the Kansas City bullpen held it down! And since it was an extra innings affair with Bubic only throwing five, that means that a whole host of bullpen arms had to contribute. John Schreiber, Daniel Lynch IV, Matt Strahm, Nick Mears, and Lucas Erceg all tossed one scoreless inning each. Erceg made it interesting in the bottom of the 10th after giving up a hit and a walk to load the bases, but Darrell Hernaiz hit a ball right at second baseman Michael Massey to end the game with no damage done.
On Kansas City’s end offensively, there’s not a lot to talk about before Witt’s go-ahead shot, other than Salvador Perez whacking a solo homer of his own to tie the game in the sixth inning. That was cool!
But while tonight’s game went well, today was not a great day for injury news. Before the game, the Royals announced that Jonathan India underwent season ending shoulder surgery. And in tonight’s game, Vinnie Pasquantino left with what the Royals termed “lower back tightness” in the sixth inning
It’s a late night, so we’ll end this recap relatively early so we can all go to bed. Do note, however, that Kansas City has now won four consecutive games, with tonight’s game being their third win on the road this year. With the Detroit Tigers losing to the Atlanta Braves and falling to .500, the Royals are now only 2.5 games out of first place in the AL Central. There is still time, and there is still hope, even after this rough start.
