But as Friday’s game came to a close, a No. 7 shortstop-sized cloud hung over the ballpark after Bobby Witt Jr. exited Friday’s game in the top of the seventh inning with low back spasms.
Witt’s status is unclear, and the Royals should know more on Saturday about the severity of the injury and what the concern level is moving forward.
“Right now, it’s just a back spasm,” manager Matt Quatraro said postgame. “Low back spasm. Locked up on him pretty good.”
When asked what the next step is for Witt, Quatraro didn’t have much of an update when he spoke with reporters right after Friday’s game.
“There’s nothing — I’m sure there will be muscle relaxants or something,” Quatraro said. “But right now, they have him hooked up to whatever machines, trying to get him to relax.”
Witt was unavailable for comment postgame due to getting treatment. It was unclear when he first felt the spasms; Quatraro said it happened sometime during the sixth inning. Witt fielded two ground balls in the top of the frame and told head athletic trainer Kyle Turner that his back was tightening up on him. As Witt sat in the dugout during the bottom of the sixth, it got worse.
When the top of the seventh began, Maikel Garcia slid over to shortstop and Nick Loftin entered at third base.
“It’s not about moving to short, it’s just like, we lost our best player,” Garcia said of what the feeling was like without Witt. “We don’t know if we lost him, but, you know, we feel like that. We just hope he’s OK and ready to play tomorrow.”
It goes without saying that the Royals cannot afford to lose Witt for an extended period of time. Or any period of time. Kansas City (72-69) is fully in the postseason mix, narrowing the gap in the Wild Card race to just one game with Friday’s win and the Mariners (73-68) in a spiral, losing again Friday to the Braves. The Rangers are the one team that separates the Royals from a postseason spot. With its extra-innings win over the Astros, Texas is a half-game back of Seattle and a half-game ahead of Kansas City. But the Royals do hold the tiebreaker (6-1 head-to-head) over the Rangers if they end up in a tie.
The Royals will need Witt to fully close the gap. The 25-year-old can change a game at any instant with his power, defense or speed.
Witt has played in 138 of the Royals’ 141 games this season, including starting Friday night. He went 0-for-3 before exiting and is slashing .294/.352/.503 this season with 21 home runs — his latest the game-winner in Thursday’s win over the Angels — and 34 stolen bases.
Witt missed one game last month with back tightness. He tried to play through it on Aug. 9 against the Twins in Minnesota, but was out of the lineup on Aug. 10. By Aug. 11 against the Nationals, Witt was back in the lineup and hasn’t missed a game since.
Witt’s status will be monitored closely over the next 24 hours. But there was hardly enough time for game personnel to dwell on Witt’s exit during Friday’s game as the Royals held tightly onto their one-run lead.
Garcia’s two-run home run in the third inning off Twins starter Pablo López was all the Royals needed in Friday’s pitching duel, with starter Michael Wacha holding the Twins to one run in 5 2/3 innings.
“I’ve always said it starts with the starting pitcher setting the tone out there,” Wacha said. “Just going out there and try to give the guys a chance to win a ballgame and let our offense do our thing.”
The Royals’ bullpen was lights-out after that. Pitching with “no margin for error,” as Quatraro said, Angel Zerpa, John Schreiber, Daniel Lynch IV, Taylor Clarke and Carlos Estévez picked each other up, pitched out of jams and got the Royals to the finish line of the victory.
“I feel like every game we have, it’s one or two runs one way or the other,” Clarke said. “You go into it and try not to think too big. Just one pitch at a time.”
