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The Kansas City Royals have made their American League Division Series against the New York Yankees more competitive than many people thought they could, but they still have plenty of work to do. On Wednesday night, the Royals got themselves in position to take a 2-1 series lead, but a Giancarlo Stanton home run in the eighth inning lifted the Yankees to a 3-2 win in Game 3.
The odds shifted heavily in the Yankees' favor with the win, as they moved within just one game of advancing to the ALCS. They now have two chances to win one game, and will have their ace Gerrit Cole pitching in Game 4 on Thursday night. If that fails, they will get to play the do-or-die Game 5 back home at Yankee Stadium.
Despite the deficit, Royals star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is keeping things in perspective and remaining confident that the Royals can still come back and take the series, according to Pete Grathoff of The Kansas City Star.
“I’ve seen us win two games a lot of times so that’s all we have to do,” Witt Jr. said, per Grathoff.
Witt Jr. is still seeing things well after the loss despite some individual struggles in his first postseason. The young star is just 1-for-13 at the plate in this series with no extra base hits as the Kansas City offense has struggled. That can work against a team like the Orioles in the Wild Card series, where the Royals pulled out a pair of low-scoring affairs, but they need more on offense against the Yankees.
Witt Jr. needs to be the engine for a Royals offense that just doesn't have the same juice from top to bottom as their opponent in this series. Maintaining confidence is a good start for one of the future faces of the league, but if he doesn't see an uptick in production, he and the Royals will be taking an early vacation.
