Bobby Witt Jr. and the Royals target the Pirates

Sep 10, 2024; Bronx, New York, USA; Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (7) and relief pitcher John Schreiber (46) celebrate after defeating the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Neither the Pittsburgh Pirates nor the Kansas City Royals have played much meaningful baseball in September in recent seasons.

While the Pirates are once again playing down 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) is 1 1/2 games ahead of the Minnesota Twins for the second of three American League wild-card spots.

The Royals are three games behind the Baltimore Orioles for the top wild-card spot.

Kansas City’s fusion of young 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 putting together an MVP-caliber campaign, though the 24-year-old will likely finish behind Aaron Judge as the New York Yankees slugger seeks a 60-homer 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 amazing 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 day.”

The Royals have also 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 homer and six RBIs as Kansas City lost two of three games to the Yankees earlier this week.

“One thing that’s been impressive this year is that his selectivity has been better than ever,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “He understands where he is in the batting order. He understands what other teams are going to do to him and he knows how to handle it.”

Perez’s walk rate sits at 6.9 percent, his highest mark since Statcast tracking began in 2015.

Kansas City visits a Pirates team that has fallen 10 games out of the final NL wild-card spot amid a 14-22 slide since Aug. 4.

Although Pittsburgh (70-76) will likely miss the playoffs for the ninth straight year, general manager Ben Cherington said manager Derek Shelton is prepared to return in 2025.

“I think his job requires a lot of work and I think he does it very, very well, and I also think he’s trying his hardest to continue to improve in a number of areas,” Cherington said of Shelton on Wednesday. “Seeing that, I think he’s the right person to lead this team in 2025, so I fully expect that to happen.”

The Pirates are headed for their fifth losing season in two 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 position (now) than we’ve been the last two years with our starting pitching. We have more depth than we had before. We need to continue to improve some things offensively and continue to add to that depth because I think most of our depth is in our pitching.”

Shelton will start right-hander Luis L. Ortiz (6-5, 3.26 ERA) on Friday as Pittsburgh seeks 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 in 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 only career start against the Royals.

Kansas City has yet to announce a starter for Friday’s game.

–Field level media