Here’s what Bobby Witt Jr. thought of Royals fans booing in KC’s 12-2 loss to Rangers
Boos rained down from Royals fans at Kauffman Stadium at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday, just as Marcus Semien circled the bases and another game slipped away too early from the home team.
The Rangers went on to win this one 12-2. The Royals fell to 4-14 on the season and 1-11 at home.
That particular sixth-inning moment, however, seemed the most telling.
KC had kept things competitive to that point, trailing 3-2 as reliever Carlos Hernandez entered with a clean inning. The next five Texas batters went like this: single, single, single, single, home run — that final blast coming from Semien to the seats in left-center.
“Pitches were strikes. Some of the breaking balls stayed in their power zone,” Hernandez said after the game, as interpreted by Royals assistant strength coach Luis Perez. “They went out and looked for those and got their job done.”
Suddenly, it was 8-2, and as Royals manager Matt Quatraro took the ball from Hernandez on the mound, the Royals fans continued to let them have it.
Yes, they booed Hernandez, but also the team ... and the year’s crummy start.
If the Royals’ loyal supporters were on a season-long journey through the stages of grief, this was where they flipped to “anger.” It was now too far in the year for overarching excuses, and too early for a 2023 campaign — even without lofty expectations — to be this far circling the drain.
Shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. heard the fans’ frustration from his spot at shortstop — and after the game spoke about his thoughts on the booing.
“Motivation for sure,” Witt said. “We’re trying to put on a show for them, so whenever they do that, it motivates us just trying to get better. And so I think that’s what we keep doing. Not that we like to hear it, but I think that’s something that ... we’ll just keep working.”
There’s still time, of course, for that work to lead to results. Baseball provides more chances than any sport to bounce back. And it’s worth noting that after Tuesday the Royals had only just completed one-ninth of their season.
The reality remains: KC has lost any optimism gifted by the promise of a new year. Even with an extended run of good baseball, the Royals will need weeks to emerge from the deep hole they have spent the first month digging.
Wednesday’s finale against the Rangers provides one more home opportunity to snap some ugly streaks. KC has lost five straight and eight of its last nine. In addition, the Royals have now dropped eight in a row at Kauffman Stadium.
So what’s the best way to go about turning things? Quatraro continued preaching a process-focused message he’s echoed through the early season, saying magic words to the players wouldn’t get the Royals out of their current funk.
“Meetings don’t help in a case like this,” Quatraro said. “It’s come back out tomorrow, be ready to play.”
Similarly, Witt said KC’s best path forward was “just move on, get to the next day and just keep pushing forward.”
“I know, at times it can get hard. You can hear it just from all the outside noise and everything, but you’ve just got to keep trying to keep a positive mindset, and that’s what it is,” Witt said. “We’re not trying to go out there each and every day and ... lose every game. People don’t see the work that we’re putting in before the game, before everything, and so that’s what we can continue doing.”
Giving the home fans something to cheer about — and soon — certainly would be a welcome change.
And also could give some much-needed evidence that the final 89% of the season might not resemble the start.
Missed the start of this series?
Game 1: Royals one-hit in 4-0 loss to Rangers, fall to 1-10 at Kauffman Stadium
Key moment
Semien homered for the third consecutive day, blasting Hernandez’s sixth-inning slider 417 feet in front of the fountains in left.
The three-run shot ended Hernandez’s day and any realistic chance the Royals had of winning.
Salvador Perez a rare bright spot
Salvador Perez was KC’s best hitter when it was competitive early, hitting the left-center wall on the fly for a 406-foot double in the first inning that Statcast said would have been a home run in 26 of 30 major-league parks.
Perez followed with a 111 mile-per-hour single in the third, part of a 2-for-4 night that was his third multi-hit performance of the season.
What’s next: The Royals wrap up their three-game series against the Texas Rangers at 1:10 p.m. Wednesday. Brady Singer will match up against Martin Perez.
This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 9:32 PM.
