ARLINGTON -- The Royals have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the bats to break out in a big way.
On Tuesday in Texas, they arrived.
The Royals rode big offensive nights from Salvador Perez and Bobby Witt Jr. to a 6-1 win over the Rangers at Globe Life Field, snapping Kansas City’s six-game losing streak and beginning a road trip in a positive way after a dismal homestand.
Perez was 3-for-4 with four RBIs, two home runs and a double, and his 18th career multihomer game surpassed George Brett’s 17 for most in Royals history. After slashing .212/.252/.333 the first two months of the season, Perez is now hitting .316 with a .929 OPS in June.
“Hopefully we continue to play like that,” Perez said. “Today, I know we won, but we played together. We gave everything we had. As the captain of our team, that’s enough.”
Witt added a solo homer in the fifth inning, his first career homer at Globe Life Field, which is not 30 minutes from where he grew up in Colleyville, Texas. Of course, Witt also hit 50 home runs in the Home Run Derby last summer, so he seems to be comfortable here.
Tuesday’s win was reminiscent of the 2024 Royals, with three of the four main characters -- and All-Stars in Texas a year ago -- playing a big part. Witt and Perez carried the offense, and Seth Lugo, who finished runner-up in American League Cy Young voting last year, spun six innings of one-run ball, striking out nine Rangers.
“Salvy called a great game back there,” Lugo said. “But two home runs, gave me some run support, that was huge. He had a great game. Our captain did it tonight.”
Lugo had a lead to work with before throwing a pitch Tuesday. The Royals jumped on Rangers starter Jack Leiter for three runs, capitalized by Perez’s two-run opposite-field blast.
Four of the six balls put in play against Leiter in the first inning were over 100 mph, and they all came from the Royals’ impact hitters in Witt, Maikel Garcia, Vinnie Pasquantino and Perez. This was a good start for a team that desperately needs more slug in its lineup; its .366 slugging percentage was fourth-worst in the Majors entering Tuesday, and its .117 ISO was second-worst.
What’s even more encouraging is the Royals didn’t stop there. Perez’s double added a run in the fourth, Witt’s homer came in the fifth, and Perez capped it with his second homer in the sixth.
“We just look at it like we got to win each and every inning,” Witt said. “We win one inning at a time, we’ll look up after nine innings and like where we’re at.”
That’s the kind of team the Royals have been trying to get back to in what has been an up-and-down season. Coming off a Majors-best 16-2 stretch from April 20-May 9, the Royals had lost 22 of their last 32 games entering Tuesday.
Their 35-38 record after Tuesday night has led to all sorts of questions about what the front office will do at the Trade Deadline. Several sources indicated Tuesday that the team has not yet determined its path, because so much can happen in the 44 days -- and 36 games -- until the July 31 Deadline.
This was a season in which the Royals expected to contend, and that’s still in play; despite the recent struggles and sub-.500 record, they’re just 2 1/2 games out of a packed AL Wild Card spot in mid June. If the Royals are still in the mix come July, expect them to add. And outfield help will be their biggest target.
But they’ll also need their stars to keep improving and impacting the game, just like they did in 2024 and just like they did in Tuesday’s win.
“We know those guys are the run producers in the middle,” manager Matt Quatraro said of Witt and Perez. “With Vinnie, and Maikel is stepping up some as well. But when those guys get going, it’s a huge relief for all of us.”
Quatraro was quick to emphasize that Tuesday was just one day. The Royals need a sustained run of success to truly get into the flow of a season and show they’re contenders.
That starts Wednesday. But at least they’ll go into it with a win.
“That’s who we are,” Witt said. “We come together as a team, we’re going to lose as a team, win as a team and learn as a team.”