Sal Perez homers twice for the Kansas City Royals then leaves game with a head injury
Even without playing all nine innings, Salvador Perez left undeniable marks on the Kansas City Royals’ performance in Chicago on Friday.
Perez, the All-Star catcher and middle-of-the-order power hitter, moved closer to a historic offensive benchmark despite having to exit the game early due to a foul ball that left him with a lump on his head and prompted the training staff to check him for a concussion.
He was scratched from the lineup Saturday shortly before the start of the Royals’ second game at Wrigley Field. Cam Gallagher got the start and batted eighth in the KC lineup.
Perez hit two home runs in the club’s series-opening 6-2 win over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago. He has hit a single-season career-high 32 home runs, and he’s on pace to hit 43. Only five catchers have hit at least 40 homers in a season all-time.
“There’s a different level of the everyday grind of this position, period, but to get banged up and then still be able to be the kind of offensive force that he is just such a rare mix,” said Royals manager Mike Matheny, a former major-league catcher. “… The guy loves to play the game, and I love watching him.”
Perez left the game after the seventh inning. Veteran outfielder Jarrod Dyson pinch hit for Perez when his spot in the batting order came up in the eighth inning, and Cam Gallagher took over behind the plate in the bottom of the inning.
Perez took several hits behind the plate over the course of the first six innings. Perez’s first visit from head athletic trainer Nick Kenney came early on when Ian Happ’s backswing hit the exposed index finger on Perez’s glove hand.
Later, Perez took a ball off the right thigh that left him staggered.
Then in the bottom of the sixth after he had hit his second home run, a foul ball straight back hit Perez directly in the helmet without hitting his facemask. Kenney and Matheny made another visit to evaluate Perez on the field, but Perez remained in the game.
“He had a headache, went through all the testing and everything came back clear,” Matheny said. “It just kind of got him right on top of the head. He’s got a big lump, and it kind of snapped his neck back a little bit too.”
Matheny said Perez had already started to make his case for being back in the lineup on Saturday.
“I know that shot to the head he took in the sixth was tough, but he still stuck it out for the rest of that inning and came out and caught the next inning, which just shows to you how much he cares to be out there and how much he loves to play this game,” Royals pitcher Brad Keller said. “… He’s tough as nails.”
Before he came out of the game, Perez logged the 11th multi-home run game of his career. Five of those multi-homer games have come in the first 121 games of this season, which set a single-season franchise record for multi-homer games.
Perez’s 32 homers moved him past Oakland’s Matt Olson for fourth-most in the majors heading into Friday night.
He started the Royals’ scoring with his fourth-inning homer. His second homer gave the Royals the lead, 3-2, for the first time in a game they went on to win 6-2.
“It’s so much fun watching him this season,” Keller said of Perez. “Honestly, every season that I’ve been throwing to him has been awesome. He does it on both sides of the ball, to come up huge with two home runs today. This whole season he’s having this year is incredible, and I’m happy he’s on our team. We feed off of his energy.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2021 at 7:28 PM.
