Salvador Perez admits he must play better for Royals

Team captain Salvador Perez offered a succinct analysis of the Royals’ 6-2 loss Thursday evening at Rate Field as the White Sox finished a three-game sweep.

“It sucked,” Perez said. “We need to play better. They won because they played better than us.”

The Royals are tied for fourth place in the American League Central with the Detroit Tigers. The good news is they are just four games out of first place.

That’s why Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro and starting pitcher Kris Bubic spoke about the opportunity to turn things around starting Friday night in St. Louis.

Perez agreed about tomorrow being another day, but he acknowledged his part in the Royals’ recent stumbles. Their losing streak has reached four games.

“I need to figure out myself,” Perez said. “I left a couple guys in scoring position in the last three games, so I need to figure out how to get better and help my team to win.”

Perez had two hits Thursday and raised his batting average to .200 for the first time since April 5. But he also had a pivotal strikeout in the first inning.

Third baseman Maikel Garcia and shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. opened the game with singles and right fielder Lane Thomas hit a sacrifice fly to put the Royals up 1-0. Perez was next up and struck out on a 3-2 offering.

Second baseman Nick Loftin was hit by a pitch in the Royals’ next at-bat, but first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino struck out to end the inning.

Perez swung at a pitch up and out of the zone on his strikeout, and he rued the moment later.

“Everything changed after that,” Perez said. “Loftin was hit by a pitch. I chased a fastball up, so maybe now the bases are loaded and everything can change. It’s about one pitch, it’s about one swing. Everything can change. There was frustration. I need to play better.”

Perez, who had been limited to hitting but not playing a position for most of the month because of a sore hip, entered Thursday’s game with a 3.5% walk rate, according to Baseball Reference. That’s his lowest rate since 2023 and his second lowest over the past six seasons.

Plate discipline is an area of improvement for Perez.

“I try to chase too many pitches out of the strike zone and take what they give you,” he said. “They know I’m super aggressive, so if they give me some walks, try to be patient and keep the line moving. Go to first base and let the guy behind me do it.”

It’s roughly a one-hour flight from Chicago to St. Louis, and the Royals players didn’t plan to watch a TV show or read a book while airborne.

They want to figure out how to get back on track.

“Get together on the flight, talk about it, move on, that’s all we can do,” Witt said. “And so how quick can we reset? How quick can we get back to being ourselves?”

Perez believes self-analysis is the key for the flight.

“Try to figure out what we did bad here in Chicago” he said, “and try to play a better game in St. Louis.”