KC Royals: 3 key takeaways from the Toronto series

The KC Royals just beat Toronto three times. Here are some things to ponder.

Toronto, a team riddled with injuries and struggling to be relevant, arrived in Kansas City late last week hoping to find its way in a four-game series with the KC Royals. Instead, the battered Blue Jays headed to Boston early Sunday evening the losers of three of those games while the Royals, enjoying first place in the American League Central, are four games over .500 for the first time since 2017.

Kansas City beat the Jays Thursday night, rested Friday when rain washed out that evening’s game, lost the first game but won the nightcap of Saturday’s doubleheader, then shut out Toronto Sunday.

The series, especially the final two games, made one thing perfectly clear—this is Salvador Perez’s team. He is its undisputed leader, heart, and soul, the one player it can’t presently do without.

Coming off a stellar series against the Angels in which he was a torrid 8-for-12 with four RBIs, ended a game with a rifle-shot throw to third to catch the runner for the final out, and collected his 1,000th career hit, Perez didn’t let a slow 0-for-7 start against Toronto bother him.

He blasted a Joel Payamps two-out, seventh inning slider 459 feet into the left field fountains to walk off the Jays in the second game of Saturday’s twinbill:

The homer completed a 2-for-4 night for Perez, and he was ready with more for the Jays in Sunday’s final game. Quiet (0-for-4) until the seventh, Perez hit T.J. Zeuch’s first pitch into the fountains to break a scoreless tie and give the KC Royals all they’d need for their third win of the series:

Perez now leads the club in homers with five and slugging percentage at .618; he’s tied for the team RBI (11) and runs scored (10) leads with Whit Merrifield, and with Carlos Santana for third in OBP (.339).

It appears Perez intends to prove his spectacular 2020 was no outlier.

What else is there to take away from this series?

Three KC Royals’ newcomers aren’t doing so well at the plate lately.

The questions were there before spring training even started. Could free agent signee Michael A. Taylor improve his career .237 average and .291 OBP? Could Andrew Benintendi, acquired via trade, recapture the form he had in 2018-2019 when he hit .271, then .290, averaged 18 home runs, and had OBPs of .352 and .366? And would Carlos Santana bounce back from his .199 2020 season?

Those were legitimate concerns considering the Royals brought Taylor, Benintendi and Santana aboard to play center, left, and first base, respectively, all unstable spots given the inability of anyone to claim center or first since the departures of Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer, and the vacancy Alex Gordon’s retirement created in left.

The concerns remain after the Toronto series. Collectively, Taylor, Benintendi and Santana were a disturbing 6-for-33 (.181); although Santana was 4-for-13, Taylor was hitless in nine at-bats, Benintendi 2-for-11.

Benintendi’s woes may be the most concerning. His .216/.286/.275 line isn’t what the Royals traded Franchy Cordero, Khalil Lee, and two players to be named later to get in a three-way deal with Boston and the Mets. He’s striking out too much (28.6 percent of the time) and doesn’t have a home run.

Taylor’s Cactus League hitting was excellent and he started the season well, carrying a .370/.393/.630 line into the current homestand. But because he hit safely in only one of the seven games since (.105), that slash plummeted to .261/.320/.413.

Santana’s .208 average is the worst of the three, but he leads the club in walks with 10 and his .339 OBP is certainly in the ballpark of what the Royals have in mind. He’s also second on the team in RBIs with nine.

It’s too early to hit the dugout panic button, but these three newcomers must get better at the plate.

Kansas City almost swept the Blue Jays. Salvador Perez led the way and the starting pitching was encouraging, but the bats of three KC Royals gave rise to some concern.