Royals’ Salvador Perez hits two huge milestones with one swing vs. Phillies

The Kansas City Royals’ 8-6 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park had one bright spot as slugger Salvador Perez made history with a single swing.

The veteran catcher crushed a splitter from Phillies starter Taijuan Walker in the third inning, sending the ball into the left-center seats for his 300th career home run and 1,000th career RBI. The blast came just two innings after Perez had already taken Walker deep for a two-run shot, his 299th homer that pushed his career RBI total to 999.

Perez also became only the eighth primary catcher in Major League Baseball history (minimum 75% of games caught) to reach 300 home runs. The World Series MVP joined a list of legends that includes Mike Piazza, Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, Yogi Berra, Gary Carter, Iván Rodríguez, and Lance Parrish. Of those, only Parrish is not enshrined in Cooperstown.

Not only that, Perez also became the 13th active player with 300 home runs and the 10th active player with 1,000 RBIs. He is the third player this season to reach the RBI milestone, following Bryce Harper and Mike Trout. Within Royals history, the seven-time All-Star now stands in elite company as well. He is only the second Kansas City player to reach 300 homers, alongside franchise icon George Brett, whose club record of 317 home runs now sits just 17 ahead of Perez. On the RBI front, Perez became the third Royal to surpass 1,000, trailing only Hal McRae (1,012) and Brett (1,596).

The milestones added to what has already been a productive season for the 34-year-old catcher. His two home runs on Saturday gave him 27 for the year, keeping him within range of a second career 30-homer campaign. He also has an outside chance at reaching 100 RBIs on the season, sitting 16 shy with 14 games remaining.

Kansas City briefly appeared on track to spoil Philadelphia’s playoff push when Perez’s first-inning homer gave them a 3-0 lead. Vinnie Pasquantino doubled, Maikel Garcia singled him home, and Perez followed with the two-run blast. But Philadelphia quickly answered back. Brandon Marsh tied the game with a two-run double in the first, and Kyle Schwarber’s 51st homer in the fifth inning pulled the Phillies ahead for good.

The loss knocked the Royals below .500 again and hurt their fading postseason hopes, while the Phillies carried their winning streak to six games and reduced their magic number to clinch the NL East to one.

‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’

‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source sports.yahoo.com ’