Kansas City Royals star Salvador Perez delights a young fan with his two-homer game
On a night when Salvador Perez celebrated the anniversary of his debut in the majors, the Kansas City Royals’ All-Star catcher also found a way to make a young fan in the stands at Kauffman Stadium part of the festive night.
Perez collected three hits, including two home runs, in an 8-4 win over the New York Yankees on Tuesday night. The first of the two home runs pushed him past his single-season career high. The second gave him his 10th multi-home run game of his career, which came 10 years to the day he debuted.
In the middle of another awe-inspiring performance, the voice of a young fan in the stands caught Perez’s ear.
A fan favorite with an electric smile and a jovial demeanor, Perez turned his attention to the young onlooker who kept calling his name.
Perez, a seven-time All-Star, noticed the boy holding a sign that said it was his birthday and asking Perez to hit a home run.
“I like to make people happy because you never know how much was sacrificed so they could buy that ticket and see you play,” Perez said. “That’s why I always say you need to play hard every inning because you don’t know how hard they work or whatever they’ve got to do to buy a ticket to come in and see you.”
He later quipped that he told the young fan he’d repaid him, saying, “I hit two.”
Perez made sure, with help of one of the bat boys and fans in the crowd, that a baseball got to the young fan.
Perez homered in the first and sixth innings. Each of the blasts either gave the Royals a lead or tied the score.
“Special day, and I think he hit one of those with one eye,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Perez, referencing a bug that flew into his eye prior to his second homer.
“... To be able to then do what he did, I mean this guy — he’s at a different level right now. You’re talking some career numbers for him on an already very good career. I still think he’s just kind of finding his stride.”
Perez enters Wednesday’s game on pace for 42 homers, which would be the second-highest single-season total in Royals history behind Jorge Soler’s record 48 home runs in 2019.
If Perez reaches 42, he’d have the third-most by any catcher (at least 75 percent of his games behind the plate) in a single season behind Johnny Bench’s 45 home runs in 1970 and Javy López’s 43 in 2003.
Perez credited bench coach and catching coach Pedro Grifol, special assignment hitting coach Mike Tosar and hitting coach Terry Bradshaw for helping him continue to improve and make adjustments throughout the offseason.
Grifol and Tosar are both based out of the Miami area, where Perez makes his offseason home. Perez regularly trained with them in the winter. Bradshaw provided constant input via phone calls and shared videos.
With the help of that trio, Perez spent the offseason fine-tuning everything from his stance, to his swing, his position in the batter’s box in relation to the plate and his approach.
While Perez described his anniversary game as something he’d never forget, he may have been more elated about his patient performance at the plate the previous game.
Perez has walked just 13 times this season, but two came in Monday night’s series opener. That gave Perez his eighth two-walk game in 1,089 career games, his first since May 9, 2017.
“I was so happy yesterday when I got two walks,” Perez said. “Two walks in one day! You know what that means? I was like, ‘OK, Salvy is getting better!’ Yesterday felt like I hit 4 for 4. Two walks! Oh my God.”
