CHICAGO -- The Royals knew they had the next nine or so games to turn things around before the Trade Deadline. The team’s top hitters were going to have to step up to keep them in the American League Wild Card race.
The good news for the Royals is that Salvador Perez continues to swing a hot bat. He hit two more home runs in the team’s 12-4 win over the Cubs on Monday evening at Wrigley Field, and his third multihomer effort of the season helped Kansas City score a season-high 12 runs in the series opener.
“It’s not surprising,” manager Matt Quatraro said of Perez’s recent hot stretch. “It’s something that he's done for years, and he's got huge power. He hits the ball extremely hard, and when he's more selective at the plate, like he's been, he does damage.”
When Perez is locked in offensively, he makes this Royals offense that much better. That has been evident in the past few games, as the slugging catcher has launched four home runs over the past three contests.
In Monday’s win, the nine-time All-Star hit a pair of two-run shots. He crushed a 96.9 mph fastball from Cubs pitcher Ben Brown for a Statcast-projected 380-foot home run in the fourth inning to cut the Royals’ deficit to one run and then put the game out of reach by connecting for a Statcast-projected 408-foot home run in the eighth inning.
“It’s fun,” pitcher Noah Cameron said after throwing six innings of four-run ball. “We were hoping he would get his third one off the position player [in the ninth inning], but he's unbelievable. He just continues attacking every day. During the game, he made a nice play, and me and him had a pretty good moment. I'm like, ‘Man, you're moving like you're 24 [years old] out here.’ Just watching him do what he loves is a lot of fun.”
Perez hasn’t seen his usual success in this Kansas City lineup this year, partly due to a slow start to the season. He hit just .213 with two home runs and 21 RBIs in his first 47 games through May 20.
However, no Royals player has been hotter offensively than Perez in recent weeks. The veteran is batting an impressive .367 with eight home runs, six doubles and 17 RBIs across 16 games in the month of July.
“It’s a long season, just trying to make adjustments,” Perez said. “My first half was a little slow, and I just kept working, talking to my hitting coach. I try to do my best every time I step out to home plate and help my team to win.”
The Royals know what this offense can look like when Perez is hitting the ball the way he has been recently. He’s been at this game for a long time, and his teammates all agree that it’s fun watching him do his thing at the plate.
With his two-home run performance against the Cubs in the series opener, Perez is now 10 home runs away from reaching 300 career home runs. The Royals' slugger would become the eighth catcher who caught in at least 70% of all his career games in MLB history to achieve that milestone in their career.
“You definitely don't take it for granted, right?” Quatraro said of coaching Perez. “He's a superstar player, and he has been for a long time, and you don't get a lot of those as a manager or as a fan. You have to really appreciate what somebody like that does.”
It has certainly been an up-and-down season for this Royals offense. They entered the day ranking 29th in MLB in runs per game (3.43) and hadn’t scored double-digit runs since June 3. The team knows, though, that they have the talent to put together more offensive outputs like the one on Monday.
Perez hit two home runs, Jac Caglianone launched his fifth career long ball in the second inning, John Rave totaled his third career homer in the seventh, and eight of the team’s nine starters tallied at least one hit in the contest. It’s just a matter of putting everything together moving forward.
“This is who we are,” Rave said. “This is what we know we’re capable of doing every single night. That’s what we’re going to try to do every night. We’re going to come in prepared, and whether we win by two [runs] or win by eight [runs], we’re going to battle to the end. We got a lot of fight in this team.”