Witt, Massey combine for 'incredible' flip play 

TORONTO -- As a whole, the Royals’ season hasn’t looked great, but there have been countless standout moments. The seventh inning of Saturday’s 5-1 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre presented the latest shining example, this time coming from the defense.

When Vladimir Guerrero Jr. bounced a ball up the middle, both Royals middle infielders gave chase, with Michael Massey running to his right and Bobby Witt Jr. chugging to his left. Massey slid to corral the grounder and, in a split second, glove-flipped the ball to Witt who gunned to first for the out.

Scored a 4-6-3 groundout, that defensive gem brought the Royals’ dugout to their feet and left the crowd inside Rogers Centre stunned. First baseman Nick Pratto pumped his fist in acknowledgment of the great play while Witt and Massey jogged off the field. Out of all the flashy elements within that groundout -- the slide, the flip, the throw -- it was each infielder’s baseball IQ that made it possible, and saved a potential run from scoring.

“That was incredible,” said Royals manager Matt Quatraro. “They've done that a couple times, but I think that's the best of the ones they've done. I didn't think there was any chance they were going to try it there, so that was a really, really high-level play.”

As Quatraro said, that wasn’t the first time his infield pulled off such a fancy feat, but the defense seemed more keen than usual to produce highlight plays Saturday. In the very first inning, Witt barehanded a bounding ground ball and zipped it to first for yet another demonstration of his elite tools.

In a year where he’s chasing 30-30 status, the 23-year-old gets a ton of love for his offensive feats. But as the season’s gone on, Witt’s racked up an equal number of defensive highlights, leading to a 99th-percentile ranking in Outs Above Average. Mash that together with his powerful bat, and you’ve got yourself a true five-tool player.

“He's made great improvements,” Quatraro said of his shortstop. “He's a really consistent worker. You see him out there every day trying to continue to get better. He's not satisfied with where he is, but there's no doubt his defense has come a long way.”

Elsewhere on the diamond, the Royals were starved for hits. Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman threw a gem, striking out 10 over eight innings of one-run ball. Kansas City had just two hits, but when the Royals broke through for their lone run in the fifth inning, it came in a big way off the bat of Edward Olivares.

Gausman hung a slider in the middle of the zone, and Olivares crushed it. As the ball sailed into the bleachers, the 27-year-old admired it, gazing as it landed a Statcast-projected 431 feet away with an emphatic “thwack” off the Budweiser sign in left field.

Nine of Olivares’ 10 homers this year have traveled 400 or more feet and the Venezuelan has now homered four times in six games since being recalled from Triple-A Omaha. Olivares said he worked in the Minors to improve his timing and better cover the outside part of the plate.

“I’ve been working hard on my timing and my approach,” Olivares said. “Now I know [pitchers] throw me too many pitches outside, sliders, breaking balls.”

Olivares, like many other Royals hitters, has shown power in spurts this season. The numbers on the season aren’t great (13th in the American League in home runs), but since Sept. 1, the Royals have hit 15 homers in eight games, which is the third most in the AL in that span.

Added power from Nelson Velázquez has boosted those numbers of late, but consistency is the key. If things are to get better, the club needs to string together better at-bats.

“There is some thump in there,” Quatraro said, “especially once we added Velázquez. And [Drew] Waters has power. There’s a bunch of guys with power. It has to play in the game, and we have to be more consistent.”

There were near misses Saturday. Salvador Perez got robbed of extra bases in the fourth inning, and Olivares missed a second home run in the seventh when he ripped a line drive only a few feet wide of the foul pole. The Royals came close, but it wasn’t a sustained enough effort to defeat the Blue Jays.

Kansas City is close to bridging it all together, and the remaining games in September offer Royals players a chance to iron out their approach at the dish and build even more chemistry with each other, the same way Witt and Massey have cooked up their own harmony on defense up the middle.