'He's coming now': Sal Perez’s homer helps Royals beat Twins, win first series since May

Catcher Salvador Perez rounded the bag at first base, pounded his right fist against his chest and continued his trot home.

He had just drilled a two-run homer in the first inning, roping Twins starter Lance Lynn’s high fastball into the right-field corner some 369 feet away from home plate. Of the 14 he’s hit this year, this was just the third to travel to the opposite field.

It helped the Royals beat the Twins 4-2 at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday night.

One night earlier, Perez had stood on second base, hands raised above his head as Mike Moustakas slid home on Perez’s two-run double with what ended up being the decisive run in the Royals’ 6-5 victory.

Now here he was, playing in his second game with the Royals since starting the All-Star Game for the fifth year in a row, and beginning to make up for his career-worst first half.

In the 13 days since being named an All-Star, Perez has batted .303 (10 for 33) with 11 RBIs. The sample size is too small to hugely improve the .213 batting average he posted in his first 67 games this season; but it’s enough to start a trend in the right direction.

“His at-bats tonight were fantastic,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “You noticed he was taking pitches, he was seeing the ball really, really well. He was getting in good hitter’s counts. That’s when he’s starting to come out of it, when he just gets a little less anxious and starts seeing the ball better like he did tonight, that’s when I turn to Terry Bradshaw and Pedro (Grifol) and say, ‘He’s coming now. He’s gonna get hot.’”

With the win, the Royals improved to 29-68. They hadn’t won two games in a row or secured a series victory since they took two of three from the Twins at Kauffman Stadium from May 28-30.

“We were talking about it,” said reliever Brian Flynn. “We were like,’ Man it’s a good day to have Brad Keller on the mound tomorrow.’ Everybody’s already talking about sweeping these guys. That’d be a big up for us, especially to start off the second half.”

Junis returns from DL: Lower back stiffness knocked starting pitcher Jakob Junis out of the rotation the week before the All-Star break. He’d labored through his previous seven starts, allowing 35 runs (34 earned) in 40 1/3 innings while walking 15 and hitting six batters with a pitch. He’d struggled to command his vaunted slider, his grip falling to the side of the baseball as he released the pitch. He’d fallen victim to the long ball, giving up 13 home runs during that span.

Although he wasn’t perfect in four innings Saturday, giving up two walks and four hits, the break seemed to allow Junis to regain form. He struck out six batters, half of them caught looking at sliders. Joe Mauer, who hit his 415th career double in the first inning, was the only Twins player to cross the plate with Junis on the mound.

“That’s been my kryptonite all year, getting beat by the home-run ball,” said Junis, who threw 77 pitches and did not allow a homer for the first time since June 3. “So to get the amount of soft contact and ground balls I did tonight was very promising, and hopefully I can keep doing that.”

Flynn dominant in long relief: For the second time this month, Brian Flynn pitched more than three innings of scoreless relief against the Twins. He entered Saturday’s game in the fifth and retired nine of the 11 batters he faced. In three innings, he allowed one hit and one walk and struck out four.

Small ball: After Alex Gordon and Rosell Herrera drew leadoff walks from Twins reliever Taylor Rogers to start the eighth inning, shortstop Alcides Escobar laid down a textbook bunt to the left side. The runners moved into scoring position for Whit Merrifield, who found a hole up the left side of the infield to provide the Royals one run of cushion.

“That was huge,” Yost said. “I wish we could’ve tacked on one more. Had the opportunity, first and third, and (Jorge) Bonifacio couldn’t get the ball in the air. It was huge to get that extra run there.”

This story was originally published July 21, 2018 at 9:33 PM.