BALTIMORE — As Bobby Witt Jr. prepared to make his much-anticipated playoff debut for the Kansas City Royals, he took a moment after the final notes of the national anthem rang out at Camden Yards on Tuesday to soak it all in. The bright lights on a cloudy afternoon.
The 41,506 roaring souls in the stands, most supporting the host Baltimore Orioles. The orange towels twirling in their hands. "I'm like, 'This is where you want to be,'" Witt said afterward.
"This is the spot you want to be in. And this is what makes you a baseball player. This is what you dream of.
" Witt showed why he is one of the game's biggest young stars, bringing home the only run with a single Tuesday to back six terrific innings from another playoff first-timer, Cole Ragans, and helping the Royals return from a nine-year postseason absence with a 1-0 victory over the Orioles in Game 1 of their AL Wild Card Series. "It's kind of fitting for him to drive in the run. He's been the leader of the offense — him and (Salvador Perez) — all year," KC's Michael Massey said.
"Having him up in that situation is what we want as a team." Witt, the 24-year-old shortstop who led the majors with 211 hits and a .332 batting average this season, bounced the ball through the infield off a 95 mph, first-pitch cutter from 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes with two outs in the sixth.
Burnes used that cutter to get Witt out in his first two at-bats. "He took some pretty bad swings on it, weak contact, so it was .
