Perez has big night as Royals hold off a furious Reds rally, salvage series split
Kansas City Royals right-hander Brad Keller pitched six scoreless innings and thoroughly stifled the Cincinnati Reds’ offense. However, the Reds immediately made noise when Keller exited the game and turned it into a nail-biter late.
The Reds had the bases loaded with one out in the ninth, but Royals reliever Trevor Rosenthal threw a nasty slider to get former Royals World Series hero Christian Colon to hit a ground ball to third baseman Maikel Franco.
Franco quickly flipped quickly to second baseman Nicky Lopez, who turned the game-ending double play with a throw to first baseman Ryan O’Hearn, as the Royals held on for a 5-4 win at Great American Ball Park on Wednesday night to earn a split of the two-game set heading to a day off on Thursday.
The Royals (8-11) have now won five of their last six.
“It felt like a playoff game,” Royals catcher Salvador Perez said. “It’s exciting. We just want to win. Rosenthal made a great pitch, a slider down a way to CC.”
Colon wasn’t the only former Royal who caught Perez’s attention late in the game. Going into the ninth inning Perez looked into the Cincinnati dugout and saw his former Royals star teammate Mike Moustakas, a core member of the back-to-back World Series appearances in 2014 and 2015.
Moustakas gestured to Perez and congratulated him on a good game.
“We’ve been in that situation before. Okay, so it’s no pressure. We’re going to get it,” Perez said to his longtime friend. “(Moustakas) started laughing.”
Perez extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a third-inning home run as part of a 3-for-5 game with a double, three RBIs and two runs scored. He came a triple away from hitting for the cycle.
Perez ended the night batting .329 with 12 RBIs and four home runs in 19 games this season.
Whit Merrifield had a double, an RBI, a walk and scored a run, while O’Hearn had an RBI and Hunter Dozier walked three times.
“Rosie had it all the way. We were right where we wanted to be,” Royals manager Mike Matheny quipped after the dramatic finish.
“You guys are tired of me talking about how I’m so proud of these guys and how they just keep coming, but that’s so enjoyable to watch and be a part of and to listen. So much clean baseball today. That turn at the end is just a great exclamation point on a lot of things done well.”
Rosenthal walked three batters in the ninth. Matheny visited the mound after the second walk with one out and two men on base primarily to slow things down and to give Rosenthal a little confidence.
“I’ve definitely experienced that outcome too many times, but never a doubt,” Rosenthal said. “If you just watch these game, that inning I feel like is a microcosm of how our last couple weeks have been going. We’ve just been fighting so hard.”
The Royals walked eight times and scored one run in the first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. They led from start to finish despite not having one breakout offensive inning.
Keller limited Reds hitters to two singles over six scoreless innings in his second start of the season. Keller walked three and struck out three in a 90-pitch outing.
Keller’s first inning on the mound featured a 17-minute delay six pitches into the outing. Reds leadoff hitter Shogo Akiyama fouled a 2-2 pitch back off the right hand of home plate umpire Chris Conroy.
Conroy, who was bleeding from his finger, was taken off the field and second base umpire Jeff Nelson took over behind the plate as the umpires continued with a three-man crew until Conroy returned to work the bases later in the game. Conroy suffered a fractured ring finger.
Perez played a big part in building a 5-0 lead.
After Merrifield doubled and scored on a Perez groundout in the first inning, Perez blasted an 0-1 pitch from Reds reliever Tyler Mahle over the left-center field wall in the third inning.
Merrifield’s sacrifice fly in the fourth drove in Adalberto Mondesi for the third run of the game, and O’Hearn’s fifth-inning sacrifice fly came about a foot to a foot and a half away from being a grand slam. Instead it made the Royals’ lead 4-0.
Perez continued to power the offense in the sixth inning with an RBI double to the right-center field gap.
“The guy is in a groove,” Keller said of Perez. “It’s fun to watch. We definitely missed that last year, there’s no doubt about it. Having a veteran presence behind the plate is huge, him knowing guys and knowing hitters. … At the plate, he’s absolutely dialed in — laser beams across the field.”
The Reds smashed three home runs — two against reliever Ian Kennedy and one against Scott Barlow — and scored four runs in the seventh inning as they pulled within a run 5-4.
Kennedy has allowed six home runs this season. Barlow hadn’t allowed a home run in 45 consecutive innings, the longest active streak in the majors entering the night.
Josh Staumont pitched a scoreless eighth inning with three strikeouts, the last two came with runners on the corners following a walk and a single.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 9:29 PM.
