How last year’s Royals trip to Seattle set stage for Salvador Perez’s historic season
For a four-game span last summer, a case could’ve been made that Kansas City Royals star catcher Salvador Perez’s exploits in Seattle were as worthy an attraction as the Space Needle, Pike Place Market or Mt. Rainier National Park.
In the midst of a record-setting season that set new standards for power production for a major-league catcher and matched a franchise home run hitting benchmark, Perez took the northwest by storm with a series that captured just how clutch and mesmerizing a season he’d enjoyed.
“You mean when Salvy hit a grand slam every at-bat,” Royals infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield said prior to Friday night’s game when asked about last year’s trip to Seattle.
Merrifield’s description is an exaggeration of course, but not as far-fetched as it initially seems.
From Aug. 25-29, Perez hit home runs in five consecutive games and tied a franchise record set by Mike Sweeney in 2002. Perez’s five-game stretch included him having hit grand slams in back-to-back games.
The entire four-game set against the Mariners was during that stretch in the same stadium, T-Mobile Park, where the Royals are playing a three-game series this weekend.
When reminded of that fact moments after he launched baseballs over the center field wall during batting practice on Friday, Perez simply shook his head and said, “What happened last year, was last year. OK, it’s a new season.”
A few hours later, Perez gave the “new season” a familiar feel when he hit his fifth home run of the season and notched his fifth consecutive game with a home run in that venue. It was the only run for the Royals in a 4-1 loss on Friday night.
Before the game in the visiting dugout as Perez put his batting helmet back on shelf and before he put his bats away, the baseball equivalent of a gunslinger holstering his pistols, he insisted there was nothing different about how he saw the ball in this ballpark or how he got ready to play in that series.
“I just try to do my job every day,” Perez said in a matter of fact manner. “That’s it. Nothing different. Stay the same.”
No inkling going into the series that something was different? No feeling that he was especially locked in or in the so-called “zone” at the plate?
“No, I just tried to compete,” Perez said. “That’s kind of how baseball is. Some days are good. Some days are bad. It’s just part of the game.’
Before he walked away to continue getting ready for the game, he reiterated that he prepared just the same as he had every day, including the way he was preparing for that night’s game.
A series worth remembering
“I think it just kind of showed how good of a year he was having,” Royals infielder/outfielder Hunter Dozier said. “The series here was stupid good. His season was ridiculous. It just kind of showed how good of a season this guy was having. It was really impressive to see, not just this series but all season.”
Perez started that eye-opening stretch with a home run in the final game of the Royals’ series in Houston the day before traveling to Seattle.
The next day, Perez blasted a sixth-inning grand slam to give the Royals a 5-4 lead in the series opener against the Mariners. They won that game 6-4.
In the second game of the series, Perez smashed another grand slam to turn a 5-1 deficit into a tie game. The Royals went on to win 8-7 in 12 innings.
“His year, last year, was one of the greatest performances, baseball-wise, that I’ve seen,” Merrifield said. “For him to do that as a catcher was pretty incredible on a team that wasn’t in playoff contention for most of the year.”
Merrifield, who was on base for both of Perez’s grand slams, then added with a smile, “As far as the grand slam streak, credit us for being on base. Right? He was going to hit a homer regardless. So credit to us for being on base. You can look at it that way, if you want. It didn’t matter if we had three guys on, nobody on, two guys on, chances are Salvy was going to hit a homer. We were just trying to get as many guys on base as we could.”
Perez didn’t hit a grand slam in the third game, but his fifth-inning two-run homer gave the Royals a 3-0 lead in a game they won 4-2. The run he scored proved the deciding factor in the outcome.
He homered again in the series finale and tied the score in the sixth inning.
With the team trailing in the eighth inning, he very nearly homered again right after Mariners manager Scott Servais made a mound visit to stress the importance of being careful how they pitched to Perez.
Perez’s deep drive to right field in the eighth hit the wall a few feet shy of being another game-tying homer. It went as an RBI single in a game the Royals lost 4-3.
Perez became the first player to homer in all four games of a series against the Mariners since the Chicago White Sox’ Paul Konerko did so in July of 2010.
Seattle a snapshot of a historic year
“It seemed like it was the series when more of the talk about potential records (picked up),” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “It seemed like that series is when it really turned up the heat, maybe, a little on him.
“He responded right away by doing even better things. It’s always a difficult point, I think, when you get the national attention that’s all of a sudden focused on an individual performance and they still keep doing it.”
During last year’s series in Seattle, Perez tied Mike Moustakas (38 in 2017) for the second-most home runs in a single season in franchise history. Perez also reached 12 home runs in August and tied him for the franchise record for homers in any calendar month along with Chili Davis (August 1997) and John Mayberry (July 1975).
Last season, Perez ultimately Perez tied the Royals single-season home run record (48) set by Jorge Soler in 2019.
Perez also won his fourth Silver Slugger award and finished seventh in the AL MVP voting after he led the majors in RBIs (121) and tied for the lead in home runs (48) along with Guerrero.
Perez became the sixth player in the last 30 years to lead the majors in both home runs and RBIs, having joined Giancarlo Stanton (2017), Chris Davis (2013), Miguel Cabrera (2012), Ryan Howard (2006, 2008), and Alex Rodríguez (2002, 2007).
Of Perez’s 48 homers, 18 gave the Royals a lead. That total matched St. Louis’ Nolan Arenado for the most in the majors. Perez also led the majors with 34 multi-RBI games, and he tied for third in the majors with 29 go-ahead RBIs.
His 48 homers were the most in a season for a primary catcher (at least 75% of games played at catcher) in major-league history. He surpassed the previous record of 45 set by Hall of Famer Johnny Bench in 1970.
Perez also joined Bench as the only primary catchers to lead the majors in both home runs and RBIs, Bench did so in 1970 and 1972.
This story was originally published April 23, 2022 at 3:55 PM.
