Neither the Pittsburgh Pirates nor the Kansas City Royals have played much meaningful September baseball in recent seasons.
While the Pirates are again playing out the stretch this year, the Royals are in playoff mode when the teams meet Friday to open a three-game series in Pittsburgh.
Kansas City (80-67) resides 1 1/2 games ahead of the Minnesota Twins for the second of three American League wild-card spots.
The Royals trail the Baltimore Orioles by three games for the top wild-card spot.
Kansas City’s fusion of youth and veteran talent has the Royals on the cusp of their first playoff berth since their World Series title in 2015.
All-Star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is authoring an MVP-caliber campaign, although the 24-year-old likely will finish behind Aaron Judge as the New York Yankees slugger pursues a 60-home run season.
Witt leads the majors in batting average (.333) and enters Thursday tied with Judge for the major league lead with 9.6 wins above replacement.
“Bob is incredible at what he does, not just at the plate, but in the field, on the bases,” Kansas City left-hander Cole Ragans said. ” … We get the joy of watching him every single day.”
The Royals also have enjoyed a productive season from 34-year-old Salvador Perez, who leads the team with 101 RBIs and has committed just three errors in 127 games splitting time between catcher and first base.
Perez went 7-for-9 with a home run and six RBIs as Kansas City lost two of three games at the Yankees earlier this week.
“One thing that has been impressive this year is … his selectivity has been better than it has been historically,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “He understands where he is in the order. He understands what other teams are going to do to him, and he handles it.”
Perez’s walk rate sits at 6.9 percent, his highest mark since Statcast tracking began in 2015.
Kansas City visits a Pirates squad that has tumbled 10 games out of the final National League wild-card spot amid a 14-22 swoon since Aug. 4.
Although Pittsburgh (70-76) likely will miss the playoffs for the ninth straight year, general manager Ben Cherington said that manager Derek Shelton is suited to return in 2025.
“I think there’s a lot to the job I believe he does really, really well, and I also believe he works his tail off to continue to improve in a number of ways,” Cherington said of Shelton on Wednesday. “Seeing that, I believe he’s the right person to manage this team in 2025, so I fully expect that will happen.”
The Pirates are headed toward their fifth losing season in as many years under Shelton, but the 54-year-old is optimistic about the team’s future.
“I think we’re getting better,” he said Wednesday. “We’re in a much better spot (now) than we have been in the last two years with our starting pitching. We’re deeper than we have been. We need to continue to build some things offensively and continue to grow that depth because I think a majority of our depth is in our pitching.”
Shelton will deploy right-hander Luis L. Ortiz (6-5, 3.26 ERA) on Friday as Pittsburgh bids for its fifth straight win. The Pirates beat the Washington Nationals last Sunday before sweeping a three-game series against the visiting Miami Marlins.
Ortiz, 25, threw a career-high 100 pitches last Saturday, allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits and two walks over 5 2/3 innings in a 5-3 home loss to the Nationals.
Ortiz pitched five innings of one-run ball last August in a win during his lone career outing against the Royals.
Kansas City has yet to announce a starter for Friday’s game.
–Field Level Media