Royals’ All-Star reprise in Texas includes homer from Witt against his hometown team

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Bobby Witt Jr.’s biggest memory from All-Star festivities in his hometown last summer was coming up about 6 inches short — his measurement — in the Home Run Derby.

Now the star shortstop of the Kansas City Royals has his first homer that counts at the home of the Texas Rangers.

Witt went deep in the fifth inning after sparking his offense with a double and a run scored in the first, and fellow 2024 All-Star Salvador Perez homered twice in a 6-1 victory over the Rangers on Tuesday night.

As for the other active Kansas City All-Star from last year in the trio’s return to Globe Life Field, Seth Lugo struck out a season-high nine in his first victory since May 1. The right-hander allowed three hits and one run in six innings.

Pretty good hat trick in an All-Star reprise as the Royals ended a six-game losing streak that tied their season worst. They also stopped a five-game skid against the Rangers, their co-tenant at spring training in Arizona.

“Seems like a little more than a year ago we were here and had good games,” said Lugo (4-5), forgetting for a moment that it’s been about 11 months since he pitched a scoreless inning in the American League’s 5-3 victory. “And now we’ve got the W, so that’s what’s most important.”

Left-hander Cole Ragans, whose career started with the Rangers, is the Royals’ fourth All-Star from a year ago. He’s on the injured list with a left rotator cuff strain.

Witt — the son of former major league pitcher Bobby Witt, who spent 11 of his 16 big league seasons with the Rangers — lost the derby to Teoscar Hernández last July when a homer that would have forced a tiebreaker bounced off the wall in left field at Globe Life.

The 25-year-old wasn’t the starter at shortstop for the AL — that was Gunnar Henderson — but Witt played and struck out. His only other homer against the Rangers was in a 12-3 loss at home two years ago.

His first at Globe Life was his ninth this season.

“It was great to just check off another ballpark,” said Witt, the former Dallas-area high school star who was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 amateur draft. “But yeah, it was cool.”

Perez made the biggest news of the night by breaking Hall of Famer George Brett’s franchise record with his 18th career multihomer game.

The significance wasn’t lost on a nine-time All-Star who won a World Series with the Royals 10 years ago. Brett was on the franchise’s other championship team 30 years before that.

“When you pass a Hall of Famer, now you know you’re going to be next to him,” the 35-year-old Perez said. “So it’s super exciting for me.”

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB