Yankees hoping they can continue to shut down Royals’ Bobby Witt

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bobby Witt Jr. began his postseason career with game-winning hits in each of his first two games in Kansas City’s wild-card win over Baltimore.

But perhaps the best young player in the game has gotten off to a much different start against the Yankees in the ALDS.

Heading into Wednesday’s Game 3 at Kauffman Stadium, the third-year shortstop is hitless in 10 at-bats with four strikeouts, as Yankees pitchers have completely held him down.

“We’ve pitched him tough, but we know how good and dangerous he is,’’ Aaron Boone said during a Zoom call from Yankee Stadium on Tuesday after the Yankees worked out in The Bronx. “Hopefully we continue to execute.”

They’ve done a good job of that so far, with Yankees pitchers consistently not leaving anything over the plate for Witt to hit — and when they have, so far, they’ve been lucky.

Witt’s series started with a 108-mph rocket to the gap in left-center that Aaron Judge ran down in the top of the first of Game 1 off Gerrit Cole.

Cole threw just one pitch over the plate to Witt in each of the shortstop’s first three at-bats on Saturday.

The third one, in the fifth, Witt sent to the warning track in right, where it was hauled in by Juan Soto.

Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver also tried to be careful with Witt and lived to tell the tale, with Holmes getting a grounder to third and Weaver catching him looking in the ninth.

On Monday, in a Game 2 loss, Carlos Rodon kept his pitches out of the heart of the plate against Witt and retired him twice.

Later, Ian Hamilton, Holmes and Weaver also avoided mistakes.

The strategy versus Witt has worked better than Baltimore’s, since the Orioles challenged Witt and saw him hit three straight balls over 105 mph in the Game 2 clincher in the wild-card series.

“The Yankees have been a lot more disciplined in how they deal with Witt,’’ one American League scout said. “But they’ve gotten away with a couple of mistakes and that won’t last forever.’’

Witt has typically hit the Yankees well, with an OPS of .864 in 17 career regular-season games against them and an .887 OPS in seven regular-season games this year.

Still, Witt has just a .494 OPS against the current crop of Yankee pitchers, according to ESPN, and is just 1-for-6 with two strikeouts against Wednesday’s starter, Clarke Schmidt.

But Boone and the Yankees aren’t taking anything for granted.

“When you have good pitching and you execute, usually that favors the pitcher,’’ Boone said. “When they can execute at a high level, you’re gonna get even the best of the best out sometimes. It’s a couple games that we had some success where we’ve done some good things, pitching-wise to him. Hopefully we continue to have success, but we know how good, how dangerous and how well-rounded a hitter he is.”