KANSAS CITY, Mo.—The Kansas City Royals announced this afternoon that infielder Bobby Witt Jr. and left-handed pitcher Ryan Yarbrough have been named Royals Player and Pitcher of the Month, respectively, for July. The awards are determined by a local media vote.

Witt Jr. batted .327 (32-for-98) in 24 games, which marked the highest average by a Royal in the month of July (min. 90 AB) since Alex Gordon also batted .327 in July 2019. His .327 average ranked 8th in the American League (min. 90 AB) last month, trailing leader Kyle Tucker (.359), and his .633 slugging pct. ranked 6th best in the Majors, behind leader Cody Bellinger (.690). He matched Tucker, Nolan Arenado, Freddie Freeman and Christian Yelich for the Major League lead with 15 extra-base hits, after amassing 6 doubles, 3 triples and 6 home runs. Bobby recorded multiple hits in 10 of his 24 games, including 5 of his 8 games from July 22 through the month’s end, a span in which he slashed .441/.457/.735 (15-for-34). He played hero on July 28 vs. the Twins, hitting a walk-off grand slam off Jhoan Duran in the 10th inning and earning his 1st career walk-off RBI, 1st career grand slam, a career-high 6 RBI and a career-high-tying 4 hits. His grand slam marked the 7th walk-off grand slam in Royals history, and 1st since Sept. 14, 2018. The following night, he tallied 4 more hits, including his 2nd straight plate appearance with a home run in the 1st inning, before adding an RBI single in the 2nd to mark his 5th consecutive plate appearance with an RBI. Over that 2-game span, he went 8-for-10 with 4 runs, 4 extra-base hits and 9 RBI, and became the eighth Royal (9th occurrence) to record back-to-back 4-hit games and the first since Nori Aoki did so from Sept. 15-16, 2014. This marks Witt Jr.’s second consecutive monthly honor and the third of his career. He’s the first Royals position player to win at least three awards within his first two seasons to begin his career since Gordon earned the award thrice from 2007-08.

Yarbrough led all Royals starters with a 2.19 ERA (6 ER in 24.2 IP) last month, which marked the 5th-lowest ERA by a Royal in the month of July since the start of 2000 (min. 4 starts), behind only José Lima in July 2003 (1.44), Danny Duffy in 2014 (2.01), Brady Singer in 2022 (2.05) and Brad Keller in 2019 (2.12). His 2.19 ERA ranked 6th in the American League (min. 4 starts), trailing Michael Lorenzen (1.14), Aaron Civale (1.45), Tanner Bibee (1.78), José Berríos (1.84) and Tyler Glasnow (2.11). Ryan was one of only seven pitchers in the Majors to record at least 24.0 innings while allowing 2 walks or fewer, and his 2.19 ERA led that group. He was reinstated from the Injured List prior to his start on July 9 after missing 55 games with skull fractures, and he immediately returned to form, spinning 6.0 innings of 1-run ball in Cleveland. He recorded quality starts in 3 of his 4 outings, with the only exception being on July 19 vs. Detroit, when he fell just 1 out shy of qualifying for a quality start after pitching 5.2 innings and allowing 3 runs. Yarbrough closed out the month with 7.0 innings of 1-run ball vs. the Twins on Sunday, earning his 3rd win of July and his 4th of the season, while it marked his longest outing since a 7.0-inning start on July 25, 2021 at Cleveland, with the Rays. This marks Yarbrough’s only monthly honor with the Royals, and he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers at yesterday’s Trade Deadline for infielder Devin Mann and outfielder Derlin Figueroa.