Royals Report: 5 Things About Salvy Slam Over Cleveland

The Royals won their fourth straight game when catcher Salvador Perez slammed a two-run home run in the eighth to give KC a 3-2 victory over the Indians at Kauffman Stadium Tuesday night.

The KC Royals improve to 34-30 and have pulled within one game of the Indians in the AL Central. The Indians fall to 35-29, and remain in first place one game over the Kansas City Royals.

Whit Merrifield tied the game at 1-1 after he answered a solo shot by Carlos Santana with a dinger of his own. Merrifield’s blast was his second in the last two days and are the first two home runs of his major league career.

Add in solid defense along with good base-running, and Merrifield looks like a complete, polished player as a rookie. Can you believe the KC Royals left him exposed to the Rule 5 draft? Any team could have claimed him for the $50,000 draft fee. The Kansas City Royals are fortunate no one seized the opportunity.

Clearly, the KC Royals made a mistake last winter. But I guess Whit Merrifield doesn’t much care right now.

On to my observations about Tuesday’s game:

Next: Chris Young

5) Chris Young Was OK On Tuesday

Chris Young is working his arm back into starting shape, and was operating with an approximate 85 pitch limit on Tuesday night. Young lasted 4.1 innings, allowing 2 runs on five hits and four walks with four strikeouts while throwing 87 pitches. Young gave up one solo home run.

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Young was far from dominating, as he worked with numerous runners on base. Fortunately, Carlos Santana’s third inning home run came with no one on base. Young never did give up the big hit with runners on base, leaving with men on first and second with one out in the fifth.

Despite all of the base-runners, Young’s outing was a big improvement over the four bombs he gave up against these same Indians on June 5 in Cleveland.

I’m not so sure that Chris Young should remain in the KC Royals rotation, but at least he’s improving. His 6.15 ERA and 2-6 record are hardly impressive, but at least his ERA is coming down from the stratosphere.

With Mike Minor getting ready to join the team in his rehab assignment in Omaha, Young might not be long for the rotation anyway.

Next: Dillon Gee

4) Dillon Gee Did A Fine Job Too

Dillon Gee returned to the Kansas City Royals after getting recalled June 11, with the team sending lefty Scott Alexander down to Omaha. 

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Gee, in effect, was a tandem starter with Young slated to go only 85 (or so) pitches. Though he surrendered an RBI single to Jason Kipnis with runners on first and second with one out, he managed to escape the fifth inning with no further damage by inducing a fly ball from Franciso Lindor and a pop foul from Mike Napoli.

Gee pitched into the eighth inning before yielding to Joakim Soria with runners on first and second and one out. Gee’s line for the evening ended up 3.0 innings, 3 hits, 0 earned runs, 1 walk and no strikeouts.

The Young/Gee pairing allowed only 2 runs in 7.1 innings on Tuesday.

Gee has done an outstanding job as a long reliever this season, but has been much less effective when asked to start. Gee has proved to be yet another valuable role player that general manager Dayton Moore has plucked from the free-agent bargain bin. He’s very useful as long as you don’t ask him to face a hitter more than twice in the same game.

Next: Joakim Soria

3) Joakim Soria Nailed Down The Win

First, Joakim Soria escaped a jam in the eighth inning to keep the score 2-1 in the Indians favor. He ended up becoming the pitcher of record when the KC Royals scored two runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 3-2 lead into the ninth.

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With both Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera unavailable after appearing in three straight games, Soria finished out the ninth.

Soria got the job done to earn the win. His ERA is now back down to 3.28 after blowing a save to trigger the Kansas City Royals eight-game losing streak. He’s earned back the trust of manager Ned Yost to finish games in tough situations.

While hardly surprising, it’s a nice thing to see after the KC Royals signed the 32-year-old Soria to a three-year, $27 million contract before the 2016 season. He doesn’t have the dominating stuff of either Wade Davis or Kelvin Herrera, but he gets the job done with four pitches and outstanding command.

WIth Soria’s resurgence, the back end of the Kansas City Royals bullpen appears as strong as ever with Kelvin Herrera (1.74 ERA) and Wade Davis (1.11 ERA) behind Soria. Luke Hochevar is the fireman.

Next: Alex Gordon

1) Salvador Perez Turns Up The Power

Salvador Perez came into the league as a 240-pound slap hitter. He was such a hacker, with exceptional contact skills, that he could almost hit anything. As a result, he’d put a poor pitch into play without taking advantage of his tremendous raw power.

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Perez put up high batting averages early in his career, but with limited power numbers. The last few seasons, Salvador Perez struggled to learn how to sit on a pitch he can drive, and to become at least a little more selective at the plate.

Salvy is still a hacker, but his home run totals have improved from 13 in 2013, to 17 in 2014, and to a career-high 21 in 2015. Though his OPS has crashed from an excellent .834 in his rookie season to a below-average .706 in 2015, Perez was learning how to properly use his natural gifts. There really wasn’t much of a future for a 240-pound slap hitter with little to no speed.

In 2016, it appears that Perez has figured out his new approach. He’s slashing an outstanding .294/.322/.525 with 10 home runs. He’s on pace for a career-high 25 dingers, which makes him an elite catcher when you add in his three consecutive gold gloves. At age-26, Perez is realizing his full potential as a player.

Next: Orlando, Merrifield Continue To Excel In KC

Now we come to Tuesday night. Perez went 2-4 with 1 run scored and 2 RBI’s.  With two outs in the eighth, Perez slammed a Travis Shaw pitch over the right field wall to erase a one-run deficit and put the Kansas City Royals up 3-2. It was an outstanding piece of hitting that he simply would not have been able to pull off early in his career.