Five bonkers stats from Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez’s hot streak
Royals catcher Salvador Perez was in his usual playful mood during Sunday’s postgame news conference.
Perez joked with reporters about asking too many questions, many of which were about his hot streak that led to Perez winning the American League player of the week award.
“I feel great,” Perez said after Sunday’s game. “I’m so excited about what’s going right with me now. I always say I like to compete and I never like to quit.
“I thank God for everything and I feel really good at home plate right now.”
That’s an understatement. Perez has been crushing the ball.
Here are five statistics that illustrate just how good Perez has been this past week, month and season. The stats are from the Royals or my research.
1. Great eight
On the Royals’ recently completed road trip, Perez batted .324 with eight home runs, 16 RBIs and five walks. His on-base-plus-slugging percentage was 1.378.
Perez set a franchise record for most home runs in any single road trip. He is the first player in the majors to hit eight home runs on a road trip since the Nationals’ Ryan Zimmerman also had eight in a 10-game trip (Sept. 2-12, 2013).
2. Getting better with age
It’s easy to forget, but the 31-year-old Perez didn’t start all 10 games of that road trip.
Perez pinch hit in the ninth inning of the Royals’ 4-2 win over the Cubson Aug. 21 at Wrigley Field.
I plugged Perez’s eight home runs in nine starts in 10 road games into Baseball Reference’s Stathead search engine to see how many players in Major League Baseball history who were 31 or older have put up that many home runs in that span.
It’s only nine.
Perez joined Mickey Mantle, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Dave Kingman, Jim Edmonds, Kurt Suzuki, Matt Carpenter and Nelson Cruz on that small list.
3. Home Run Derby continues
With 17 home runs in 40 games since the All-Star break, Perez is tied with Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto (17 in 42 games) for the most in the majors in the second half.
Perez played in the All-Star Game and was in the Home Run Derby for the first time.
4. An august August
Perez has hit 12 home runs in the month of August, which is tied for the third-most by a player in any month this season. Only the Nationals’ Kyle Schwarber (16 homers in June) and Angels’ Shohei Ohtani (13 homers in June) have hit more.
The Royals have hit 27 home runs in August, meaning Perez has hit 44.4% of the team homers this month.
Perez has hit five fewer home runs than the Pittsburgh Pirates, who have 17 in 863 at-bats.
5. Going back to 2020
Over the last 162 games Perez has played (dating back to July 28, 2020), he is batting .291 with 47 home runs and 123 RBIs.
The MLB Network said Perez’s slugging percentage since the start of the 2020 season is .565. Among batters with a minimum of 500 plate appearances, that’s the fifth best in baseball.
Only Fernando Tatis Jr (.607), Ronald Acuña Jr. (.591), José Ramírez (.572) and Bryce Harper (.571) have a higher slugging percentage in that span, per the MLB Network.
Bonus: Franchise marks
Perez has 1,130 career hits, which is just two shy of Eric Hosmer for 10th place in Royals history.
With 190 career home runs, Perez is tied for fourth in Royals history with Alex Gordon. Amos Otis is third with 193 and Mike Sweeney is second at 197.
Perez is tied for second in career grand slams with five, which matches Danny Tartabull, and is one behind Royals’ all-time leader Frank White.
This story was originally published August 31, 2021 at 11:21 AM.
