How Salvador Perez helped Royals snap 6-game skid in I-70 finale vs. Cardinals
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- Salvador Perez hit a sacrifice fly and his seventh homer to lead Royals to a 2-0 win.
- Stephen Kolek pitched six innings, induced 13 ground balls and allowed four hits.
- Lucas Erceg recorded his 11th save to preserve the Royals' victory.
The Kansas City Royals simply needed a win on Sunday afternoon.
It had been a frustrating week — with six losses in a row.
They began their six-game road trip against the Chicago White Sox — an opponent against whom they’d enjoyed much success in recent years. That wasn’t the case this time around as the White Sox swept the Royals at Rate Field.
The road trip continued in St. Louis over the weekend. And after two disappointing losses to open this latest edition of the Interstate-70 Series on Friday/Saturday, KC was facing the prospect of another winless road trip.
Instead, Royals team captain Salvador Perez took a stand. Several days after vowing to play better, the veteran catcher came through at a critical juncture.
Perez had a home run and a sacrifice fly to lead the Royals to a 2-0 victory over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The win snapped their losing streak.
“I think winning every day is good,” Perez said. “It’s not about today. Just try to do our best every day and we got the W. Especially in situations like that, you know, lose the last five games (on the road trip) and win today was very important.”
Perez hit his sac fly in the first inning. Then he belted his seventh home run of the season in the fourth inning. The homer came against Cardinals starter Andre Pallante on a 77 mph knuckle-curve. Perez sent it over the left-field wall.
Perez finished 2 for 2 Sunday, reaching base four times. He is just eight homers shy of the Royals’ franchise record — currently held by Hall of Famer George Brett (317).
“He’s the captain and he is a great player,” Royals second baseman Michael Massey said. “He’s been doing it for a long time and we run through him. It was a good swing to get us going. Always good to play with the lead and kind of get your confidence going.”
The run support aided Royals starter Stephen Kolek. He rebounded from a difficult outing — five earned runs against the White Sox — to post a quality start.
“It was good to kind of bounce back from the last one,” Kolek said. “I kind of set out to fill up the (strike) zone and I thought I did a great job doing that.”
Kolek kept his pitches down in the strike zone. He pitched to contact, recording 13 ground balls across six innings.
The Cardinals (27-19) had just four hits against Kolek. At each turn, the Royals right-hander found a way to avoid trouble. He was aided by some solid defense, including Isaac Collins’ leaping catch in the third inning and a big double play in the fifth.
“They have a few more righties in this lineup,” Kolek said. “A lot more opportunity to use my sinker and that usually gets a lot more ground balls out of it.
“It’s definitely great to get a few more and let the Gold Glovers and Platinum Glovers behind me do their job.”
Kolek mix of pitches was well balanced. He utilized three different fastballs while also throwing his sweeper, slider and changeup. Per Baseball Savant, he produced a 27% called strikes plus whiff rate across 82 pitches.
In the seventh, the Cardinals brought the tying run to the plate. Kolek surrendered a single to Nolan Gorman before getting Masyn Winn to hit into a fielder’s choice.
Royals manager Matt Quatraro went to his bullpen, summoning left-handed reliever Daniel Lynch IV. He retired Nathan Chruch and Thomas Saggese to end the threat.
“They clutched up big-time,” Quatraro said. “Like we talked about before the game, it was pound the zone, you know, a ton of ground balls and trust your stuff. We played good defense behind them.”
Lynch pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. He has held opponents to a .141 batting average (10 for 71) this season.
“He trusts his stuff,” Quatraro said. “I mean, we’re using him regardless of handedness. I think we talked about it yesterday or two days ago, if he’s throwing 95-96 (mph), the other stuff plays up a lot more.
“And he’s always had a really good changeup. I think another big part of it is he’s locating and he’s building confidence in that role.”
KC closer Lucas Erceg shut the door in the ninth with his 11th save. The Royals improved to 20-27 and will welcome the Boston Red Sox on Monday night.
What’s next: The Royals return to Kauffman Stadium to begin a nine-game homestand on Monday. Right-hander Seth Lugo (1-3, 3.76 ERA) will start opposite Boston Red Sox right-hander Sonny Gray (4-1, 3.18). First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. Central Time.
This story was originally published May 17, 2026 at 4:11 PM.
