Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. Makes Statcast History With Inside-the-Park Home Run
Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. made history with his wheels in more ways than one Monday against the Seattle Mariners.
Witt slapped infield singles to third in each of his first two at-bats of the night, helping the Royals get out to an early 3-0 lead. The second-year infielder then stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the fifth and hit a shallow line drive to right fielder Dominic Canzone.
Canzone lost the ball in the lights, though, letting it roll all the way to the wall for center fielder Julio Rodriguez to scoop up and relay in.
Witt had his sights set on scoring, and he wound up making it around the bases for the inside-the-park home run. Even though there wasn't much of a play at the plate, Witt still dove head-first into a Superman slide, staying on the ground as the Kauffman Stadium crowd cheered him on.
It took Witt 14.3 seconds to go home-to-home, which made his inside-the-park homer the fourth-fastest recorded in the Statcast era, according to MLB.com's Sarah Langs. The only ones since 2015 that were faster belonged to Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton and Miami Marlins second baseman Dee Strange-Gordon, the most recent of which came back in 2017.
On top of that historically quick trip around the bases, Witt also became the first player to notch two infield hits and an inside-the-park home run in the same game since Marlins outfielder Juan Pierre in 2004, per ESPN Stats & Info.
Witt, who finished fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2022, has broken out as the Royals' top position player in 2023. The shortstop is batting .277 with 22 home runs, 72 RBI, 34 stolen bases and an .810 OPS, and he entered Monday with a team-high 3.4 WAR.
For all the winning plays Witt contributed Monday, Kansas City's pitching staff still made the game interesting late.
Starting pitcher Brady Singer took a no-hitter into the seventh, but the Mariners scored four runs in the top of the eighth alone to cut the Royals' lead from five to one. Second baseman Josh Rojas tied things up with a two-out RBI single in the ninth, then Rodriguez gave Seattle a 6-5 lead the very next at-bat.
Witt, however, added another single to lead off the bottom of the final frame, and he scored on a sacrifice fly to re-tie the game two batters later. Left fielder Dairon Blanco walked it off with a suicide squeeze, completing the wild back-and-forth contest.
Even with the win, the last-place Royals remain on pace for their worst record in franchise history at 39-81.
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