Royals' Perez giving fans reason to watch September baseball

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — In retrospect, the Chicago White Sox probably should have walked Salvador Perez with first base open in the first inning of a scoreless game Sunday, even if it would have gone against just about every traditional baseball strategy.

Instead of loading the bags, though, they watched the Royals’ sweet-swinging catcher empty them.

On the second pitch he saw from Dylan Cease, a 99 mph fastball well off the plate, Perez made the kind of contact that sounds as if a rocket has exploded. The ball soared into the early afternoon sun, splashing down after what seemed like an eternity in the upper fountains in right field — an opposite-field blast estimated at 448 feet.

“Most of us couldn’t stand in right field with a fungo and hit it up there,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said with a shake of his head. “When it came off the bat, it just looked different. I don’t know what to say.”

Hard to find words to put in perspective the season Perez is having.

Even with the Royals again well out of contention — 17 games back of the AL Central-leading White Sox entering Tuesday night’s game in Baltimore — their 31-year-old catcher is turning their stretch run into must-see viewing.

That homer against the White Sox on Sunday was his 41st, second only to Angels star Shohei Ohtani for the big league lead, and four back of Johnny Bench’s record set in 1970 for a player who caught at least 75% of his team’s games.

He is seven behind Jorge Soler’s franchise record set just a couple of years ago.

Even when Perez doesn’t manage a home run, he’s still coming through in the clutch. His tying RBI single in the eighth inning Monday, which helped the Royals to a 3-2 win over the Orioles, was his career-best 103rd of the season. It was the 34th RBI this season that tied the game...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Royals-Perez-giving-fans-reason-to-watch-16440567.php