Homers by Merrifield and Perez pave way to Kansas City Royals’ third straight win
Home runs by Salvador Perez and Whit Merrifield provided the bulk of the offense for the Kansas City Royals, and the pitching staff decided to go for the degree-of-difficulty points by stranding 13 runners on base while giving up only one run.
With that, the Royals locked up a series victory in the Pacific Northwest as they defeated the Seattle Mariners 4-2 in front of an announced 24,575 in the third game of their four-game set at T-Mobile Park on Saturday afternoon. They also improved to 7-2 on their current road trip with their third straight win.
The Royals (59-70) put themselves in position to finish their 10-game road trip 8-2 with a four-game sweep if they win Sunday.
Perez’s 37th home run of the season moved him out of tie with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the second-most in the majors. Perez has now homered in four consecutive games, including grand slams in back-to-back games on Thursday and Friday.
Perez went 1 for 3 with a walk and a two-run homer on Saturday.
Merrifield started the day already having had a torrid road trip, and he only added to it. Through the first eight games of the 10-game swing, Merrifield batted .389 with nine runs scored, four doubles, a triple, a grand slam, nine RBIs, and three stolen bases.
So of course, Merrifield started the day off with a solo homer — his 10th of the season. It also pushed him past Carlos Beltran, Johnny Damon and Amos Otis as the lone player in franchise history with three seasons of at least 10 home runs and 30 stolen bases.
Merrifield went 2 for 5 on Saturday. His homer gave the Royals a lead just two pitches into the game.
Nicky Lopez didn’t hit a ball out of the ballpark, but he collected three hits (3 for 4) and scored a run while batting behind Merrifield and in front of Perez. Through the first nine games of the road trip, Lopez has batted .368 with five runs scored, five walks and three stolen bases.
“They’re applying pressure, non-stop,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “Whit and Lopey have done a fantastic job of causing enough distraction to all of a sudden find yourself in a mess and then you’re going to have to deal with that one guy. It’s just really kind of a group effort. We’re getting different production each night. I think it’s the consistency. It’s not a different approach. It’s a more consistent application to the approach.”
Royals starting pitcher Daniel Lynch weaved into and out of traffic yet somehow managed to avoid that big multi-car pileup.
The Mariners succeeded in putting men on base every inning against the rookie left-hander Lynch, but they couldn’t capitalize nearly to the extent they needed to overcome the momentum generated by the Royals’ homers.
Lynch stranded seven men on base in the first four innings. While he dealt with a rising pitch count that kept him from getting deep into the contest, Lynch held the Mariners to one run — which scored after he exited — on seven hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings.
“In the big leagues, I feel like you’re going to be defined by how you pitch when guys are on base,” Lynch said. “It’s not nearly as hard to pitch when there aren’t guys on base. I think there were a lot of guys on base that I shouldn’t have let on base today. But I think it definitely gives me confidence to be able to know that I can work myself out of those things and still make good pitches in those situations.”
The Mariners (69-61) scored their lone run in the fifth on a bases-loaded walk by relief pitcher Domingo Tapia. The runner who scored had reached against Lynch. The Royals were ahead 3-0 at the time thanks to Perez’s two-run homer in the top half of the fifth.
Emmanuel Rivera’s ninth-inning double and an RBI single from backup catcher Cam Gallagher accounted for the Royals’ other runs.
Two-out doubles by Mitch Haniger and Luis Torrens gave the Mariners a run in the bottom of the ninth, but they couldn’t complete a last-minute rally.
Royals reliever Joel Payamps pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief and earned his first major-league win in his 31st career appearance (all in relief).
“Excited, very excited,” Payamps said of getting his first win with assistant strength and conditioning coach Luis Perez serving as interpreter. “I’ve been waiting for it for a long time. Thank God it happened today. Hopefully more coming.”
The series wraps up on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 3:10 p.m Central time. The pitching matchup will feature Royals right-hander Brady Singer (3-9, 5.07) against Mariners left-hander Marco Gonzales (5-5, 4.13).
This story was originally published August 28, 2021 at 6:42 PM.
