BALTIMORE – As Bobby Witt Jr. prepared for his highly anticipated playoff debut for the Kansas City Royals, he took a moment to take it all in after the final notes of the national anthem played at Camden Yards on Tuesday.

The bright lights on a cloudy afternoon. The 41,506 roaring souls in the stands, most supporting the host Baltimore Orioles. The orange towels swirled in her hands.

“I think, ‘This is where you want to be,’” Witt said afterwards. “This is the place you want to be. And that’s what makes you a baseball player. This is what you dream about.”

Witt showed why he is one of the game’s biggest young stars by bringing home the only run in a single Tuesday to back up six great innings against another playoff rookie, Cole Ragans, helping the Royals returning after a nine-year absence after the season with a 1-0 victory over the Orioles in Game 1 of their AL Wild Card Series.

“It kind of suits him to drive on the run. He’s been the leader of the offense all year long — him and (Salvador Perez) —,” KC’s Michael Massey said. “Having him in this situation is what we want as a team.”

Witt, the 24-year-old shortstop who led the majors this season with 211 hits and a .332 batting average, dropped the ball off a 95-mph first-pitch cutter from the 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner, Corbin Burnes, rebounded through the infield with two outs in the sixth.

Burnes used that cutter to get Witt out in his first two at-bats.

“He made some pretty bad swings, weak contact, so it was a pretty good pitch,” Burnes said. “He didn’t hit it very hard. It just found a hole and that was the difference.”

Maikel Garcia came in to score on a tying run, stole second – Burnes allowed runners to strike out 41 bases this season, the most in the major leagues – and moved to third with a groundout.

Garcia is another postseason newcomer, as is Lucas Erceg, who recorded a save with four outs, emblematic of an up-and-coming Royals club that lost 106 games last season but improved to 30 wins for the first time in October again qualifying time since winning the 2015 World Series.

Witt dealt with a few butterflies in the ninth, and Erceg said he had to slow down after realizing he hadn’t stuck to his normal routine on the mound. But otherwise, these KC kids certainly seemed comfortable in the bright lights when games matter most.

“Just be yourself,” Witt said. “We do this as a team.”

Now the Royals can wrap up this best-of-three series and advance to an AL Division Series against the New York Yankees by winning Game 2 in Baltimore on Wednesday. Kansas City sends All-Star Seth Lugo to the mound to face Zach Eflin.

Baltimore has lost its last nine postseason games.

Ragans exited after 80 pitches with left calf cramps, and the bullpen handled things the rest of the way. The All-Star left-hander was great, mixing a 98 mph fastball with a variety of off-speed offerings while allowing just four hits and striking out eight.

Burnes looked exactly how Baltimore hoped he would when it acquired him from Milwaukee in February.

“He did his part,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said.

The AL’s All-Star starter this season received a standing ovation after giving up a leadoff single in the ninth. He allowed one run, five hits and that one key free pass to Garcia.

“The walk hurt,” Burnes said. “The walk cost us the game.”

He became the first starter to throw a pitch in the ninth inning of a postseason game since Washington’s Stephen Strasburg in Game 6 of the 2019 World Series.

But Baltimore’s hitters – the team’s 235 home runs trailed only the Yankees – couldn’t come through.

The Orioles put a runner on third in the third inning, but Jordan Westburg flied out to the warning track in left field. They put men on the corners in the fifth, but Ragans struck out James McCann and 2023 AL Rookie of the Year Gunnar Henderson.

“It’s a big place,” Ragans said.

Hyde’s opinion? “That hurt.”

And in the eighth, Erceg replaced Kris Bubic with two men and two, ensuring Anthony Santander fired into a fielder’s choice mode in front of thousands of spectators.

“It’s getting louder. It’s definitely getting bigger,” said Witt, whose father was a pitcher in the majors. “But you just have to know that this is the game I grew up playing and loving.”

Trainer’s room

Royals: Vinnie Pasquantino was placed on the injured list after being sidelined since August 29 with a broken right thumb. He went 0 for 3 with a walk as DH.

Next

Lugo (16-9, 3.00 ERA) will make his first postseason start. Eflin went 10-9 with a combined ERA of 3.59 in 2024 for Tampa Bay and Baltimore.

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