Fastball

Kansas City Royals Falter Again, But Bobby Witt Jr. is on Track For Baseball History

The Kansas City Royals have scuffled big-time lately, but Bobby Witt Jr. is certainly doing his part.

Brady Farkas

Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (7) hits a single during the eighth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Kauffman Stadium on Sept. 20.
Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (7) hits a single during the eighth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Kauffman Stadium on Sept. 20. / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
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The Kansas City Royals lost 9-0 to the San Francisco Giants on Saturday, continuing a late-season slide down the wild card standings.

At 80-75, the Royals are just 0.5 games up on the Minnesota Twins for the second wild card spot. They are just 1.0 game up on the Detroit Tigers for a playoff spot in general and 2.0 games up on the Seattle Mariners.

With seven games to play, the Royals have one more game against the Giants before finishing out the season with the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves.

Despite the team's backslide down the standings, shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. doing his part to will his teammates to the playoffs for the first time since 2015. At the age of 24, he's hitting .334 with 32 homers, 108 RBI and 30 stolen bases.

He's also on track to make some awesome baseball history at the plate, per @OptaSTATS:

Bobby Witt Jr. is hitting .334 and slugging .599 this season. He would be the fourth qualifying shortstop to hit those numbers in a season all-time, joining:
Nomar Garciaparra (twice, 1999 & 2000)
Alex Rodriguez (1996)
Arky Vaughan (1935)

Witt Jr. is going to get real consideration for the American League MVP Award this year, though he's likely to finish second behind New York Yankees star Aaron Judge.

The Royals and Giants will finish out their series on Sunday afternoon at 2:10 p.m. ET. Royals ace Seth Lugo will pitch against reigning National League Cy Young winner Blake Snell.

Lugo is 16-8 with a 3.05 ERA while Snell is 4-3 with a 3.31.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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