Kansas City Royals’ rookie, former DFW star Bobby Witt Jr. has career day vs. Angels
Former Colleyville Heritage High School baseball star Bobby Witt Jr. hit another milestone on Tuesday after having his first career multi-home run game in Kansas City’s extra-inning win over the Los Angeles Angels.
The Royals won 12-11 in 11 innings.
Witt Jr., the No. 2 overall pick by the Royals during the 2019 MLB draft, homered in the top of the first inning 392 feet to right field to give Kansas City a 1-0 lead.
The Royals led 5-0 after four innings, but the Angels rallied behind Shohei Ohtani’s two home runs and eight RBI. Los Angeles pulled within 6-5 until Witt Jr. hit an RBI double to give Kansas City a 7-5 lead in the seventh.
The game was tied at 7-7 after seven innings when the Royals scored one in the eighth. Witt Jr. hit his second home run of the game, a two-run shot to right that went 396 feet that made it 10-7. Witt Jr. got on base four times after going 3 for 5 with a walk, two runs scored and four RBI, a career-high.
He raised his batting average seven points to 0.243.
He also has 10 home runs on the season, second among first-year players and only behind Pittsburgh’s Jack Suwinski (11). Witt Jr.’s 36 RBI ranks first among first-year MLB players.
Witt Jr. is three points off a season high (0.246). He has steadily raised his average throughout the season. The Kansas City rookie has now played in 65 games.
After five games, he was hitting 0.100. After 15 games, he was batting 0.185.
By mid May, Witt Jr. was batting 0.211.
In his last 30 games, Witt Jr. has 30 hits and is batting 0.280. This includes a five-game stretch in late May when he had 10 hits including back-to-back three-hit games. In June, Witt Jr. had a six-game hitting streak (11 for 21, 0.524). He also had hits in 9 of 10 games from June 8 to June 18.
This is Witt Jr.’s first year in the majors.
In 37 games in rookie ball during the 2019 season, Witt Jr. had 43 hits, one home runs and 27 RBI. Then in 2021 in Double-A and Triple-A, Witt Jr. hit 0.290 with 144 total hits, 33 homers and 97 RBI.
A graduate in 2019, the No. 1 overall prospect helped Heritage to the Class 5A state championship, was District MVP, Gatorade Texas and National Player of the Year and Star-Telegram all-area MVP.
He batted 0.500 as a senior with 63 hits, 37 going for extra bases. He finished with 15 home runs and 44 RBI while recording a .575 on-base percentage and 1.095 slugging percentage.
Witt Jr.’s father, Witt Sr., played in the MLB for 16 years with 11 coming as a Texas Ranger.
This story was originally published June 22, 2022 at 9:17 AM.