Kansas City Royals maintain AL Wild Card lead over Red Sox with important home win

The Kansas City Royals needed to respond.

After a successful road trip, which included six wins against the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers, the Royals eyed opportunity square in the face.

KC welcomed the Boston Red Sox for three games at Kauffman Stadium. Both teams were in playoff contention and separated by 2.5 games. It was an important series as the postseason chase hits high gear.

The Royals quickly realized that their American League foes presented a difficult challenge. Boston took the first two games of the series and the in-season tiebreaker — and looked for the sweep on Wednesday night.

With their grasp on the final AL Wild Card spot slipping away, the Royals relied on their MVP candidate superstar Bobby Witt Jr. The 2024 All-Star stepped up to lead the Royals to a 8-4 victory in a signature game.

“That was kind of a really big game for us,” Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino said. “It was a tough series, but it kind of ends on a little positive note for us.”

Witt finished 3-for-4 with two home runs and four RBIs. He began his night with a solo homer off Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford. In the sixth inning, he drilled a 421-foot blast deep into the KC night while being serenaded by “MVP” chants.

The Royals added seven hits to punctuate Wednesday’s victory. The club improved to 64-52 and extended its AL Wild Card lead to 1.5 games over the Red Sox. Boston dropped to 61-52.

“It’s huge,” Witt said. “The Red Sox are a hot team and they swing the bat well. So we were trying to put up runs and Cole (Ragans) did his thing and the bullpen came in and shut the door.”

The Red Sox attacked Ragans early behind second baseman Romy Gonzalez. In the third inning, Gonzalez hit a three-run homer to give the Red Sox a 3-2 lead.

It was his fourth home run this season and second in the series. But Ragans shook off the early mistakes. He powered through 6 ⅓ innings allowing four runs (one earned), two walks and striking out seven batters.

“I thought I made some good pitches and I thought I made a couple bad ones,” Ragans said. “Obviously, they made me pay with a couple of bad ones. But the offense picked me up big time there. Defense doing what they do.”

The Royals gave him enough run support. In the fourth inning, KC scored five runs to knock Crawford out of the game. The Red Sox starter suffered his ninth loss as he allowed six runs in 3 ⅔ innings.

Missed previous games of the series?

Game 1: Royals drop series opener against Red Sox with playoff implications at stake

Game 2: Red Sox earn regular-season tiebreaker in Tuesday’s victory

Here are more notables from Wednesday’s game:

Royals offense explodes in fourth inning

The Royals found a way to get their offense rolling on Wednesday. In the fourth inning, KC sent nine batters to the plate against the Red Sox.

Outfielder MJ Melendez worked an 11-pitch walk to begin the inning. Later, second baseman Michael Massey got aboard with a nine-pitch walk of his own.

“They were tremendous at-bats,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said postgame.

Melendez would score on a wild pitch. Then, Witt stepped to the plate and laced a 93.7 mph fastball into the outfield gap. Massey and third baseman Maikel Garcia scored on the play.

“Hat tip to those guys because those are the at-bats of the night for us,” Pasquantino said of Melendez and Massey’s walks.

From there, Pasquantino hit a two-run homer to cap the inning. It was his 17th home run as he matched a career-high 11-game hitting streak.

“He’s been in huge spots and driving in a bunch of runs,” Quatraro said. “He is one of those guys where the at-bat quality is there regardless of the results.”

AL Central race narrows

The Royals climbed one step closer to the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central race.

Cleveland (67-47) dropped its fifth consecutive game after losing a doubleheader against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday. The Royals are now four games back of their division rival.

“We did our job tonight,” Pasquantino said. “You know, we beat a good team and it was kind of a hard-fought series kind of both ways. They won the series, but good for us that we won the night. We needed it.”

Additionally, the Royals are a half-game back of the Minnesota Twins for second place. The Twins (63-50) lost to the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday.

What’s next: The Royals are off on Thursday before resuming the I-70 series against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night.