Witt fulfilling potential with red-hot July: 'It's fun to watch'

KANSAS CITY -- Bobby Witt Jr. is in a groove.

How else do you describe the Royals’ star shortstop's recent hot streak, in which he’s hitting .330 with a .999 OPS across 23 games in July?

That includes his stellar night Saturday, another four-hit performance that propelled the Royals to a 10-7 win and series victory over the Twins at Kauffman Stadium. Witt became the eighth Royal (ninth instance) to have back-to-back four-hit games and the first since Nori Aoki in 2014. In the last two games, Witt is 8-for-10 with four runs, four extra-base hits and nine RBIs.

“It’s fun to watch,” second baseman Michael Massey said. “We all know what he’s capable of -- well, I guess we think we know, until he proves us wrong again. He’s just fun to watch and [it’s] fun to be his teammate and play with him.”

Witt’s performance sent the Royals to their first series win since beating the Dodgers at the beginning of July. On Sunday, Kansas City will look for its first sweep of the season -- and first three-game winning streak all year.

“You live, you learn, and now we go to tomorrow trying to get the first sweep of the year,” Witt said.

Witt began Saturday night like he ended Friday night: with a blast. In his first plate appearance after his walk-off grand slam Friday, Witt crushed a hanging slider from Twins starter Bailey Ober, a 392-foot homer that landed in the visiting bullpen.

The Royals and Witt did not stop there, even as the Twins tried to mount a comeback against starter Jordan Lyles, who allowed three runs in five innings.

Massey led off the second inning with his eighth homer of the year, and Witt’s single through the left side of the infield capped a three-run frame. It was Witt’s fifth consecutive plate appearance with a run-scoring hit dating back to the sixth inning Friday.

But Witt wasn’t thinking about his last at-bat, nor any on Friday.

“I try to just remove it as much as possible, flip the page and get ready for the next day,” Witt said. “Just from seeing the past, you can see guys who have great games, then the next day have a bad game, or vice versa. … They’re just trying to stay pitch by pitch, at-bat by at-bat as much as possible. So keep that same positive mindset.”

That’s part of what makes Witt different, along with his work ethic and five-tool talent. He and Massey turned an unbelievable double play in the sixth inning after the Twins had cut the deficit to just one run and had the bases loaded with one out.

Royals reliever Dylan Coleman threw an outside slider to Carlos Correa, who stuck his bat out to make contact. Massey ranged to his right, fielded the ball and spun and threw to Witt, who made a clean transfer and fired a strike to first baseman Matt Duffy to get the Royals out of a jam.

“Quite honestly, that’s the game right there,” manager Matt Quatraro said.

But the Royals kept adding on so the Twins couldn’t make a comeback. Every Royals starter had at least one hit, including Kyle Isbel, who collected a career-high four hits on Saturday. The Royals’ 18 hits were a season high.

Witt hit an opposite-field single in the sixth and capped his 4-for-5 day with his seventh triple of the season, matching Shohei Ohtani and Ketel Marte for the most in the Majors.

“You got to stop and appreciate that when you see it because you know how hard it is to be that good for an extended period of time,” Quatraro said. “Driving balls to all parts of the park, made some nice plays defensively, too, tonight. We all know his physical ability, and when you get to see it come out, it’s fun to watch.”

The Royals are looking to finish this season strong, flashing as many improvements as they can to help soften the blow of another disappointing season -- but also looking toward 2024 and who can help take the step forward.

That’s what the final 56 games are about, and Witt is taking advantage of it. His teammates joined in on Saturday.

“It’s more just proving to yourself that you can make these adjustments at this level,” Massey said about the second half. “The first half was the first half. There were some good things, but a lot of things that are there to correct. I think the second half [is about] just proving to ourselves and our teammates that, ‘Hey, we can make these adjustments and get some momentum.'”