Salvador Perez engineered the sweep of Pittsburgh

Focusing on his feats from Tuesday and Wednesday

The Kansas City Royals captured a much-needed sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates to begin the week before the All-Star break. Going into an off day before a three-game series against the Mets, the Royals now stand at 46-48, three games back of the Mariners and Red Sox for the third and final Wild Card spot.

And the sweep happened, in large part, because of Salvador Perez.

Tuesday Night

Salvy is smarter than I am.

That much became clear in the seventh inning of Tuesday night’s 4-3 victory. Perez came up with one out and the Royals down 2-1. After scoring nine runs the previous evening, the Royals offense once again fell asleep, this time against Pirates’ starting pitcher Mitch Keller.

After allowing a line-drive home run to Jac Caglianone in the second inning, Keller buckled down. Between Jac’s homer and Perez’s plate appearance in the seventh, Keller owned the Royals, retiring sixteen batters in a row.

Yet, the Royals were only down one run. And Perez is, above all else, a power-hitter.

It was a surprise, then, when he argued for catchers’ interference on a check-swing. Why did he want to take the bat out of his own hands? He could tie the ballgame with one swing. Instead, I see him arguing to end his at-bat and move on to first base. Head-scratching.

Much to his credit, manager Matt Quatraro came out in defense of his player and challenged the non-call. The review clearly showed catchers’ interference, and Perez took first.

After Caglianone flew out, Nick Loftin began his heroics, taking Keller deep to left to put the Royals up 3-2. The Royals would go on to win 4-3 on Loftin’s walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth, scoring Maikel Garcia.

None of it would’ve happened, though, without Salvy’s smart decision to take the bat out of his own hands. Maybe it seemed curious at the time, but it worked. Keller had been in a groove. The call shook him just enough to leave a pitch out over the plate for Loftin to cork over the wall.

Without Salvy’s decision to argue the non-call, maybe none of it happens.

Wednesday Night

In an effort to rest Salvy’s legs on consecutive days, Q gave him the day off from behind the plate. Wanting to keep his bat in the lineup, though, Perez received the start at first.

It ended up working well for the lineup and the defense.

Just like Tuesday night, the Royals would win the game 4-3. But they reached those runs in drastically different ways.

Perez finished with two fine plays at first base and two first-pitch home runs, the first coming in the second inning and the second happening in the eighth.

Hats off to 810’s Kurtis Seaboldt for this nugget:

If you can’t click on it, it’s a list of first-pitch home runs hit by Royals* entering the game. Salvy topped the list with 62. Add a pair.

*HUNTER DOZIER ALERT.

Seaboldt also tweeted (x’ed? posted?) this:

The homers ended up being the difference. For the evening, Perez’s homers totaled a whopping 870 feet.

As mentioned, he also made several fine plays at first base.

On one play, playing quite far off the bag, he cleanly fielded the ball before sprinting through first to get the runner. Always a treat to watch Salvy hustle like that. On another play, he showed off his smarts again. After fielding a weakly hit ball, he realized he wouldn’t beat the runner to first using his feet—so he dove to slap his glove against the bag, recording the out and, I believe, ending the inning.

Maybe he wasn’t 100% responsible for sweeping the Pirates, but the Royals wouldn’t have done so without the varied contributions of the inevitable Salvador Perez.