Freddy Fermin’s home run, long at-bat, game-calling help Kansas City Royals beat Twins
Catcher Freddy Fermin blasted a home run and worked another long at-bat against Minnesota Twins starter Kenta Maeda while calling a strong game behind the plate in the Kansas City Royals’ Sunday victory.
In the bottom of the second, Fermin started the scoring on an 0-2 count with two outs, crushing a Maeda splitter on the inner half of the plate for his sixth home run of the season. His 420-foot shot to left field exited at 102.6 mph.
Maeda slapped the air in disgust as the Royals (32-75) took a 1-0 lead in the series finale, which they ended up winning 2-1 to complete their first series sweep of the season.
“Freddy has been doing a great job of staying on the off-speed stuff, just to be in a position to stay back and hit that,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “Because you see when Maeda locates that pitch how tough it can be.”
Later, in the bottom of the fourth, Fermin fouled off five pitches in a nine pitch at-bat that worked Maeda close to 70 pitches.
Fermin eventually struck out looking on a fastball, but Michael Massey stole second on the pitch. After the intensity of that inning, which included two walks and saw the Royals load the bases with two outs, Maeda only lasted one more frame.
“All those breaking balls — I think they were breaking balls — he was fouling off, that’s why we kept starting Massey running,” Quatraro said. “Because I felt really good about Freddy putting the ball in play.”
Behind the dish, Fermin guided left-handed starter Ryan Yarbrough through seven innings for his longest outing of the season. Yarbrough navigated around seven hits and struck out five, allowing just one run. He threw 56 of 78 pitches for strikes.
“I think Freddy called a great ballgame,” Yarbrough said. “And we had a lot of good back and forth, especially in between innings of, ‘Hey, this is kind of what he’s seen last time. This is kind of what we’re trying to do,’ and had a good game plan. We made really good adjustments as we went when they started making adjustments.”
Yarbrough’s only significant mistake came in the top of the third, shortly after Fermin’s go-ahead homer. He hung a curveball to Matt Wallner, who walloped a tying solo homer 445 feet to right field, exiting at 113.7 mph.
The Royals’ starter said it was “tough to give it right back again,” but fortunately, the offense responded. Nicky Lopez, who was traded to the Atlanta Braves after the game, scored the go-ahead run on Maikel Garcia’s one-out double to left in the bottom of the third.
Following Yarbrough’s exit, Fermin caught righty Dylan Coleman in the top of the eighth and righty Carlos Hernandez in the top of the ninth. With Fermin’s help, Coleman pitched a scoreless frame and struck out two, while Hernandez worked around a walk and struck out two for his first career save.
In 43 games this season, Fermin is hitting .299 with a .346 on-base percentage and an .850 on-base plus slugging percentage. The 28-year-old is showing some promise at the right time as the Royals look to evaluate future pieces in the second half.
“Freddy puts in as much work as anybody on the prep, on the defensive side,” Quatraro said. “Knowing the opposing hitters, knowing our pitchers’ strengths. Every inning he’s back in there thinking about the next three hitters, so I feel really good about his game calling and his pitch presentation.”
This story was originally published July 30, 2023 at 5:48 PM.