Benintendi and Perez power Kansas City Royals past Pirates for third straight win
The discussion since Andrew Benintendi’s first news conference following the offseason trade that sent him from Boston to the Royals had centered around him getting away from hitting home runs.
After all, Benintendi’s pledge since before he put on a Kansas City uniform has been that he’ll return to the form of years past, focus on hitting line drives and take advantage of the vast square footage of the Kauffman Stadium outfield.
Home runs? Passé. He’d moved beyond that. Adopting the launch-angle craze had messed up his swing and altered his approach. So much so that he spent the offseason, spring training and first few weeks of the regular season trying to re-discover that bat path he once rode to success in college, the minors and the beginning of his major-league career.
Then came a fifth-inning at-bat Tuesday night Benintendi stepped to the plate with no outs and the bases loaded in a tie game and pulled a ball over the right-field wall for a game-altering grand slam that sent the Royals to a 10-5 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates in front of an announced 10,333 at Kauffman Stadium.
The Royals’ third straight win improved their record to 27-26 as they moved about .500 for the first time since May 7 when they were 16-15. They’ve also surpassed last season’s win total from the 60-game pandemic-shortened season.
“Benny has just really put on a show for the last month,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “It’s so good to see because he’s not trying to do what he did today. He’s just trying to take what they’re giving him, and take good at-bats, find the barrel, use the whole field.”
Benintendi’s blast was his first at Kauffman Stadium as a member of the Royals, and his fifth homer of the season. He’s now batting .291 for the season, and he’s coming off a month in which he led the team in hits (33) and batted .340 in 27 games.
Benintendi’s grand slam, the second of his career, gave the Royals an 8-4 advantage and was part of a three-homer, 12-hit onslaught that included a pair of Salvador Perez home runs as he collected the seventh multi-homer game of his career.
It was Benintendi’s fourth career game with at least five RBIs.
Benintendi and Perez, the Nos. 3 and No. 4 hitters in the Royals’ lineup, combined to go 4 for 9 with three home runs and eight RBIs.
“What a show,” Matheny said of the offensive performance. “Whit (Merrifield) getting on base. There’s a good chance (Carlos) Santana saw 35 pitches today all by himself. That stuff does make a difference when you give opportunities for Benny.
“What a huge swing in the game that was — a beautiful swing, but a swing in the game’s momentum to give us some room. It was just a big inning. Then Salvy being Salvy. It was just great to see. Everybody contributed. We had a lot of different guys make things happen today, but it was the middle of the order that came through for us.”
Benintendi drove in the Royals’ first run with an opposite-field single to score Merrifield (3 for 5, two runs, one RBI, one stolen base) in the first inning.
But the Royals trailed 4-1 after the Pirates scored three in the third inning and another in the fourth.
Perez cut into that deficit in the bottom of the fourth with a laser-like two-run homer down the left-field line, and it was 4-3 going into the fifth.
Michael A. Taylor’s lead-off triple started a string of five consecutive Royals hitters who reached base and scored to start the fifth. Nicky Lopez, who started at shortstop for the ailing Adalberto Mondesi, walked. Merrifield’s single scored Taylor and tied the game.
Then Santana, who was on base three times in the game, drew the first of his two walks to load the bases for Benintendi.
“I was just trying to get a pitch to drive to the outfield,” Benintendi said. “They had tried to pound me up and in a little bit, so I had that in the back of my mind.”
Benintendi turned on a first-pitch inside fastball from former Pirates starter Wil Crowe and drove it 393 feet. It landed in the home bullpen.
“I feel like I understand the player that I am and what I can do on a consistent day-to-day basis,” Benintendi said. “So I’m just going up there trying to hit the ball hard. That’s all I can control. Swing at good pitches, control the zone and try to barrel it up. Anything beyond that point is luck, honestly. Hopefully it finds some space.”
Perez tacked on a solo homer in the seventh, and Kelvin Gutierrez tripled and scored in the eighth on Taylor’s sacrifice fly.
Royals starting pitcher Brady Singer allowed five runs (four earned) on eight hits, one walk and a hit batter in 5 2/3 innings. He also struck out six.
Singer committed a pair of throwing errors on balls hit back to the mound, which he described as “brutal.” But the Royals’ offense gave him plenty of cushion on a night when he wasn’t his sharpest, particularly early.
“That was incredible, I mean Benny and Salvy and the whole lineup,” Singer said. “We were talking about it (in the clubhouse). The whole lineup contributed. It was an incredible team win, and it was really good to see those guys do that.”
This story was originally published June 1, 2021 at 10:52 PM.
