Kansas City, Mo. — On a night when he was hit by a pitch that shot his teammates, Bobby Witt Jr. fell into a small gap in the rotation, Salvador Perez and Hunter Renfro fell as well, and the Kansas City Royals were defeated. The Arizona Diamondbacks won their fourth straight 10-4 on Monday.
Whitt tripled in the first inning, doubled in the third and drilled a three-run homer in the fourth to deep left center to get the rough patch out of the way.
“Bobby! Bobby!” The crowd rose up chanting. Whitt came on in the sixth, hoping for a single and the first cycle by a Kansas City player in 34 years, but Arizona reliever Humberto Castellanos hit Whitt with his first pitch. The pitch shot Perez on the top step of the dugout as it screamed over the Diamondbacks, and the play only continued from there.
In the seventh, Royals reliever Jon Schreiber hit Gabriel Moreno, at which point both benches were cautioned, and Arizona manager Torrey Lovullo was ejected for arguing with plate umpire Jordan Baker. Perez exchanged words with Lovullo during a scrum near the plate.
Perez told reporters after the win that after Bobby Witt was hit an inning earlier, the home fans booed him.
He said that they also want to enter the field and fight. And Witt praised the support of his teammates, especially Perez, a 6-foot-3 senior, saying, “I don’t know if I’ll ever mess with him.”
Asked about the exchange after the loss, Lovello told reporters, “I didn’t say anything to Salvador Perez. I love Salvador Perez. He was an incredible major league player, and I’m his biggest fan.”
Witt had another chance in the eighth, but was retired on a fly ball to right field. Hall of Famer George Brett was the last Royals player in Toronto on July 25, 1990.
Speaking of Brett, Witt joins Royals legend, joining Willie Wilson, Carlos Beltran and Johnny Damon as Kansas City players with 10 triples in multiple seasons, according to ESPN Stats and Information Research.
“I’m just having fun, we’re going to try as hard as we can to put some wins together and just take it day by day,” Witt said in his post-game, on-field interview with Poly Sports.
Witt, who was named the American League Player of the Week earlier Monday, is 12-for-15 since playing in his first All-Star Game and finishing as the Home Run Derby runner-up, raising his average to .341. It was Witt’s fourth straight three-hit game, tying Damon in 2000 for the second-best streak in franchise history, behind Brett’s six in 1976.
The Royals (56-45), in position for a wild-card playoff berth, matched last season’s win total.
Cole Ragans (7-6) survived a shaky third inning to record his second straight win and eighth quality start in nine. He allowed 6 hits, 2 walks and 3 runs in six innings.
The Diamondbacks took a 3-1 lead when Kevin Newman and Alec Thomas hit back-to-back doubles, and Ketel Marte hit his 20th homer with a two-run homer to left.
The Royals took a 4-3 lead in the bottom half with Witt’s double, Vinny Pasquantino’s RBI single and Perez’s two-run homer.
Witt’s three-run shot off reliever Miguel Castro in the fourth made it 8-3.
Renfrow pitched the sixth, Kyle Isbell had three hits and two RBIs, and Pasquantino had three hits for the Royals.
After giving up just one run in six innings in each of his first two big league starts, Arizona’s Yilber Diaz allowed seven runs and nine hits in three-plus innings.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
