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Bobby Witt Jr. Hits Historic Milestone as Kansas City Royals Eye Playoff Spot

The Royals are suddenly just 2.5 games back of the reeling Red Sox and Mariners in the battle for the wild card.
Brady Farkas|
Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (7) rounds third base to score during the first inning against the Chicago White Sox at Kauffman Stadium on Aug. 15.
Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (7) rounds third base to score during the first inning against the Chicago White Sox at Kauffman Stadium on Aug. 15. | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

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Kansas City Royals

The Kansas City Royals stayed hot on Tuesday night, beating the Texas Rangers at Kauffman Stadium.

It was the eighth win in the last 10 games for the Royals, who won 5-2 behind a solid start from Seth Lugo and good bullpen work from Angel Zerpa and John Schreiber.

Kansas City is now 65-61, hitting the four games over .500 mark for the first time since May. They've also climbed to within 2.5 games of a wild card spot in the American League.

Team

Record

WC Spot

Yankees

68-57

1

Red Sox

68-59

T-2

Mariners

68-59

T-2

Royals

65-61

2.5 GB

Guardians

64-61

3.0 GB

Bobby Witt Jr. went 1-for-4 in the win, hitting his 18th home run. The blast also created some special history for Witt, as it was the 100th home run of his career.

Per Nick Kappel of the Royals PR team:

Shortstops to hit 100 HR through age-25 season, last 95 seasons:

Alex Rodriguez (241)
Cal Ripken Jr. (133)
Francisco Lindor (130)
Carlos Correa (107)
Hanley Ramírez (103)
BOBBY WITT JR. (100)

And this, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com:

Bobby Witt Jr. hit an absolute bomb for his 100th career home run.

He becomes the youngest Royal to hit 100 career HRs and just the fourth player in history with 100 HR and 100 SB in his first four MLB seasons.

A Silver Slugger and a Gold Glover last season, Witt has established himself as one of the best players in the entire sport. He's hitting .291 with 18 homers, 69 RBIs and 32 stolen bases. He's also carrying a .350 on-base percentage.

Kansas City advanced to the American League Division Series last season and they've been built to get back to the playoffs again this year. Rather than sell at the trade deadline, they made marginal adds, like bringing in Adam Frazier and Mike Yastrzemski. They also didn't trade Lugo.

The Royals still have questions moving forward, as starting pitcher Kris Bubic figures to be out for the season with a shoulder injury, and Cole Ragans is still out with his own shoulder issue.

The Royals and Rangers will play again on Wednesday night with first pitch coming at 7:40 p.m. ET. Rookie left-hander Noah Cameron will pitch for them, while the Rangers haven't announced a starter as of this posting.

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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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