Kansas City Royals’ Salvador Perez (13) reacts after hitting a solo home run against the New York … [+]
Salvador Perez played 31 postseason games in a span of two seasons when the Kansas City Royals reached Game 7 and lost to the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 World Series and beat the New York Mets in five games in the following year’s Fall Classic.
Because of various circumstances, it took him nearly a decade to return to the big stage of October baseball.
Among those circumstances were the core of the 2015 title team being traded or not retained in free agency or simply retiring. While the core of Kansas City’s second title team was moving on, the Royals were figuring out which young players would form the new group while seeking input from Perez, who went from three straight winning seasons in 2013 through 2015 to a trio of 100-loss seasons in 2018, 2019 and last season.
The Royals were in New York at the trade deadline of their 104-loss season in 2018 when Mike Moustakas was traded to help the Milwaukee Brewers reach the NLCS. Perez was not around much in 2019 due a partial tear in his ulnar collateral ligament that required Tommy John surgery for his right elbow.
“Yes, it’s kind of hard, but I think it’s part of the process,” Perez said Monday afternoon. “When I got called up, it was kind of the same process that we’re going through last year and a couple years ago. So you know at some point you’re going to make it to the playoffs again. And I thank God too I don’t make any decision to leave and I stay in Kansas City.”
Still even as the Royals struggled, Perez was willing to stay, signing a four-year, $82 contract that runs through next season and when Matt Quatraro was hired, he sought the input of someone who has become a Kansas City sports icon.
“I wanted to listen to what he wanted to say, not what I had to say,” Quatraro said. “I have the utmost respect for him watching him play for all those years on the other side of the field, heard a lot about him as a competitor. Just the fact that he was a catcher that played basically every single day was so unique.
“My first phone call was to him to just let him know that I wanted to hear what he had to say, and we were going to have the best line of communication we could possibly have.”
About four-plus hours after discussing their initial interaction, Quatraro and the rest of the Royals watched Perez fully extend his arms and meet a slider from Carlos Rodon over the middle of the plate. The destination of the swing was the back of the left field seats and the 402-foot shot was the start of a four-run inning.
Kansas City Royals’ Salvador Perez (13) connects for a solo home run against the New York Yankees … [+]
“He’s built for this,” said starter Cole Ragans, who was 17 when Perez hit his last postseason homer on Oct, 21, 2015 off Marco Estrada in Toronto in the ALCS. “He’s been here before. He knows what it takes.”
It will remain to be seen if the Yankees know what it takes to win this series with an offense that is 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position or the possibility of needing to trust Rodon in a Game 5 start on Saturday.
Before Perez took Rodon deep for the fifth time in 28 at-bats, the left-hander was dominating, popping fastballs anywhere, yelling with excitement after each strikeout and prompting analyst Ron Darling to say he had “no-hit stuff” on the TBS telecast. He started with seven straight strikes, threw first-pitch strikes to the first 10 hitters and threw 22 of his 37 fastballs in the first three innings though allowing two hits of his primary pitch and early in counts gave Rodon some pause and perhaps a belief he should change his selections.
Then came the fourth which started with a pair of sliders that were low and missed the strike zone. The third slider hardly missed and then came two more sliders resulting in hits and another hit that scored a run due to another slider.
Kansas City Royals’ Tommy Pham (22) scores as New York Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodón looks on during … [+]
“I felt he was pounding the strike zone with really good stuff all night. He falls behind him, and from there started making some mistakes with his secondary just in the heart of the plate,” manager Aaron Boone said.
While the Royals were enjoying Perez’s big moment and inning, Rodon was lamenting what went wrong.
“There were points in the fourth where I was trying to do a little more, I wanted to get some swing-and-miss,” Rodon said. “Thinking back to it, trust the pitch and go attack is the mindset I wish I had. Obviously I want to be better than that, especially how the first three innings went.”
The themes of Game 2 were laments about pitches gone awry for a No. 2 starter and the appreciation of Perez, who stuck around and was willing to wait through a rebuild for another chance at hitting postseason homers.
