NEW YORK — Happy to be on track for an American League Division Series matchup against the top-seeded New York Yankees, young star Bobby Witt Jr. of the fifth-seeded Kansas City Royals streamed YouTube on the train ride from Baltimore to the Big Apple to watch some Derek Jeter highlights of postseasons past.
“Just being able to see it,” Witt recalled Friday, “just because of just how the stadium is, how the fans act, just wanted to kind of just take it all in.”
A year removed from a 106-loss season, the wild-card Royals face the AL’s best in a best-of-five series starting Saturday night, a renewal of passion-filled playoffs of 1976, ’77, ’78 and ’80. First pitch in the Bronx is set for 6:38 p.m.
“This isn’t a series, this is war,” said National Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett, a Royals star of those memorable matchups, tossing in a profanity for emphasis.
Kansas City won its only championships in 1985 and 2015. Witt remembered as a 14-year-old watching the 2014 Royals — including current teammate Salvador Perez — reach the World Series only to lose to the San Francisco Giants in seven games. A year later, the Royals needed just five games to beat the New York Mets in the Fall Classic.
“Kind of like the underdog story in ways,” said Witt, who drove in both go-ahead runs in Kansas City’s first-round sweep of the fourth-seeded Baltimore Orioles, who were outscored 3-1 by the Royals.
New York had a first-round bye, but the franchise itself has plenty of playoff experience.
With star slugger Aaron Judge and impending free agent Juan Soto teamed up for perhaps their only season together, the Yankees play before demanding fans insisting on the team’s first title since its record-extending No. 27 in 2009. No other team has more than 11.
“Thankfully we’re not playing against their tradition,” Royals manager Matt Quartraro said. “We’re playing against the team that we’re facing off against this week.”
Reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole will start for the hosts, and the Royals will counter with Michael Wacha in a matchup of right-handers on the mound at Yankee Stadium.
“The passion comes through in the noise and then the pageantry of the stadium. It’s hard not to think about all the great moments of the franchise,” Cole said. “It’s cold. The sound like fills you from the feet up. It’s just a different sound. It’s wonderful.”
Judge and Witt are the marquee stars. Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers and 144 RBIs while hitting .322 during the recent regular season, and Witt was MLB’s best with a .332 average along with 32 homers, 109 RBIs and 31 stolen bases.
Judge was a first-round draft pick of the Yankees in 2013. Since he made it to the big leagues three years later, they’ve lost three times in the AL Championship Series, twice in an ALDS and once in a wild-card matchup.
“It eats at me every time we don’t finish the job,” he said. “I take a lot of responsibility for that, being on the team, and if we don’t win it all, I feel like it’s my fault.”
Soto, a World Series champion with the Washington Nationals in 2019, will experience his first playoff game in pinstripes.
“All the guys are talking about is how loud this place is going to be,” he said. “That’s what I’m looking forward to, to see and to hear those fans going crazy.”
Witt’s namesake father pitched a hitless eighth inning for the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 6 of the 2001 World Series against the Yankees. The Diamondbacks won the first two games at home, lost three straight in the Bronx, then rallied in the desert to win the title.
“Hearing that and seeing his World Series ring was really cool,” Witt said of Bobby Sr., “so that’s just motivation for me to kind of do what he did.”