Drew Waters caught the ball with a slight hop in front of the fence.
So it was 4-4 into the ninth, in a game in which Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt already had four of what would be 18 strikeouts for the Royals. And yet when Derek Falvey, Twins president for business and baseball, was stopped for a brief postgame conversation, he said this:
“How good is Bobby Witt? He almost won that game running the bases in the top of the ninth, and then he almost saved it in the bottom of the ninth with a catch that no other shortstop might make.”
Witt singled to open the ninth against Jhoan Duran, stole second, and then stole third, getting there with one out.
“You knew he was going to steal third and you couldn’t do much about it,” Falvey said.
The solution for Duran was to strike out Maikel Garcia to leave Witt there and get out of the inning on Waters’ one-hopper back to the mound.
