Salvador Perez’s homer off Indians’ Andrew Miller lifts Royals to a win

In the moments after the Royals lost a series finale in Baltimore to the Orioles on Thursday night, Royals catcher Salvador Perez sat at his locker in Camden Yards and struggled to muster a smile.

He'd hit a grand slam on his 28th birthday. It was cool, he said. But it would have been better with a win.

Given another chance to provide a lift against the Indians on Friday in Cleveland, Perez delivered again. This time with a 10-9 victory over the Indians.

Perez hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning off All-Star setup man Andrew Miller, who was making his first appearance for the Indians since missing 13 games because of a hamstring strain. The ball cut through the chilled air at Progressive Field and landed in the left-field home-run porch 4.7 seconds after the barrel of Perez's bat connected with Miller's 83 mph slider.

Since 2014, Miller has terrorized opponents in the American League and beyond with a cross-body delivery that helps hide his pitches. He'd posted a 1.33 ERA in 94 games for the Indians. Perez had 1 hit in 8 previous at-bats against the left-hander.

But on Friday, when even Indians starting pitcher Trevor Bauer labored in his 4 2/3 innings, Miller proved fallible.

"That's baseball," Perez said. "He’s nasty. I think he’s one of the best lefties in the American League right now."

Perez's homer and an stingy bullpen helped deaden the blow starting pitcher Jason Hammel dealt the Royals. After obliterating a 4-3 lead and surrendering nine runs on six hits in 3 2/3 innings, Royals relievers allowed just six baserunners through 5 1/3 innings.

Rule-5 acquisition Brad Keller threw three of those innings. The rookie hadn't pitched beyond a second inning in a single outing this season, yet the Royals were forced to play his card. Burch Smith, another Rule-5 acquisition, was supposed to bridge the gap between Hammel and the backside of the bullpen. But Smith labored through the fifth inning, loading the bases on three walks and throwing 34 pitches.

The elevated pitch count forced Royals manager Ned Yost to call another pitcher out of the game sooner than planned. If Keller didn't pull through, the Royals bullpen, which had already labored trying to pick up after Ian Kennedy's nine-run, four-inning start on Thursday, might have been decimated for the remainder of this Cleveland series.

But Keller never crumpled. Of the 11 batters he faced, only three reached base. Keller saw his ERA shrink to 2.20 and picked up his first career win.

And when the Royals pulled him into the visiting clubhouse for a postgame celebration, he earned his first big-league beer shower, too.

"It’s crazy," Keller said. "I kinda dreamed of (the win) as a little kid."

For a little while, Hammel had recovered. He retired seven consecutive batters after Yonder Alonso had capped the Indians’ three-run first with a solo home run. Hammel finished the third inning with a manageable 43 pitches under his belt.

But for the second game in a row, a Royals starting pitcher couldn’t maintain control. Hammel tried to compensate for leaving pitches up in the zone, and wound up throwing 46 of them in the fourth inning alone. He allowed seven of eight batters to reach base; he issued three walks, gave up a grand slam to Michael Brantley and surrendered six runs.

Yet the Royals let neither the 9-4 disadvantage nor the daunting prospect of facing Miller — who hadn’t given up a homer to an American League Central opponent since the Twins' Joe Mauer hit one in Miller's first game with the Indians on Aug. 1, 2016 — faze them.

They chipped away instead. Mike Moustakas roped an RBI double in the sixth. Two batters later, Lucas Duda hit his third double of the night to shrink the Indians’ lead to 9-7. Alcides Escobar, who drove in four runs in a game for the first time since June 17, 2015, hit an RBI single to pull the Royals within one run.

In the next inning, Perez strode to the plate with Jon Jay waiting at first base.

When Perez trotted home moments later, Hammel’s disastrous outing had suddenly evaporated from the foreground.

"I’m proud of the guys for coming back," Hammel said. "Steak dinner on me for that one. That’s a huge comeback. That’s a big win to build momentum with. You can’t be disappointed there.

"The team wins and loses together. I put them behind pretty deep. They battled back, and they put up a W."

The Royals improved to 13-25 and gained one game on the AL Central-leading Indians. The Royals are now 5 1/2 games out of first place.

"It doesn’t mean a lot right now but you pick up a game," manager Ned Yost said. "There’s a lot of positives for this win for us today."

Royals 10, Indians 9

This story was originally published May 11, 2018 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Salvador Perez’s homer off Indians’ Andrew Miller lifts Royals to a win."