{"id":2430800,"date":"2026-05-25T00:21:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2430800"},"modified":"2026-05-25T00:21:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:21:33","slug":"salvador-perez-heating-up-at-right-time-for-kc-royals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/salvador-perez-heating-up-at-right-time-for-kc-royals\/","title":{"rendered":"Salvador Perez heating up at right time for KC Royals"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There are a lot of adjectives one could use to describe Kansas City Royals team captain Salvador Perez. Terms like \u201cspecial\u201d and \u201cphenomenal\u201d come to mind.<\/p>\n

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On Sunday at Kauffman Stadium, Perez exemplified another oft-used adjective in his playbook of descriptors:<\/p>\n

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Dangerous.<\/i><\/p>\n

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The Seattle Mariners intentionally walked slumping Royals slugger Vinnie Pasquantino to load the bases with two outs. This, after Mariners starting pitcher Bryan Woo fell behind Pasquantino on a 2-0 count.<\/p>\n

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That brought Perez to the plate. And giving Pasquantino a free pass turned out to be a big mistake, as Perez laced a 96.2 mph sinker<\/a> into left field, driving in two runs to give the Royals a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n

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The Royals went on to earn an 8-6 victory<\/a> in the series finale, the sixth game of a nine-game homestand. Perez accounted for three RBIs as Kansas City improved to 22-31 this season.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI always want moments like that,\u201d Perez said. \u201cYou know, doing that, it\u2019s not my first time in the big leagues. I get excited and just try to help my team to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There isn\u2019t much that Perez \u2014 who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs<\/a> \u2014 hasn\u2019t seen after 15 seasons in Major League Baseball. He has an innate ability to understand what every situation demands. On Sunday, the Royals needed him to come through with runners in scoring position (RISP).<\/p>\n

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That has been a tough spot for him in recent seasons. Perez entered Sunday\u2019s game batting .143 with a .442 on-base plus slugging percentage with RISP.<\/p>\n

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The Mariners opted to trust the numbers. In turn, Perez leveraged his wealth of big-league experience by being aggressive early in the at-bat.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m sure he takes a little extra pride, after the intentional walk,\u201d Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. \u201cYou know, he\u2019s been doing this for so long, that was really great.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Perez didn\u2019t let Woo dictate the situation. Instead, he jumped on the Mariners\u2019 pitcher\u2019s first offering and gave the Royals some momentum \u2014 on the field and in the dugout.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was looking for something in the strike zone and tried to do my job,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n

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The Royals certainly appreciated it. They\u2019ve gotten off to a disappointing start this season and tumbled down the American League Central standings. The last two games, however, serve as a reminder of what this club is capable of.<\/p>\n

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The Royals have emphasized better pitching and defense and timely hitting. Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia said KC was more aggressive against the Mariners and catcher Carter Jensen took cues from Perez in the game\u2019s biggest moments.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere wasn\u2019t a doubt in my mind that he wasn\u2019t going to get one through and do the job,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the greatest to ever do it for a reason. He\u2019s done it year in and year out. It\u2019s fun watching him do his thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Perez\u2019s sweet swing has returned to form in recent weeks. He has five multi-hit games in his last 12, dating to May 12. That span has coincided with a .289\/.340\/.489 (13-for-45) slash-line, with three homers, seven RBIs and an .829 OPS.<\/p>\n

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He leads the Royals this season with 24 RBIs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI like to compete every day and I prepare myself every day,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been hitting the ball hard right at it, so yeah, I feel pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He keeps getting it done defensively, too. In the ninth inning of Sunday\u2019s game he made a spinning throw to put out Mariners outfielder Luke Raley. He chased down a swinging liner near the third-base line and threw a strike to Pasquantino at first base for the game\u2019s final out.<\/p>\n

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It was the perfect cherry on top of his stellar Sunday effort. After the game, Perez came up with a playful name for himself.<\/p>\n

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\u201c\u2019The Black Gato,\u2019\u201d Perez said with a smile. \u201cYeah, I think it\u2019s a really good play to end the game. Just tried to get it as quick as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Royals will go as far as Perez can take them. He is one of the club\u2019s superstars and will remain needed if they are to overcome their early deficit in the standings.<\/p>\n

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Sunday\u2019s game was another step in the right direction. As the summer months heat up, Perez is usually operating at his best.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s reason enough to maintain there\u2019s more production in store.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe believe in him,\u201d Quatraro said. \u201cI know it\u2019s been a hard start to the year for him, offensively overall, but the guy can do it, man.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe can come through in big moments and get on those fastballs. We\u2019ve seen signs of it this week. To get those results today, in big spots was really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Related Stories from Kansas City Star<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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Jaylon Thompson<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Kansas City Star<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jaylon Thompson covers the Royals for The Kansas City Star. He previously covered the 2021 World Series and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Jaylon is a proud alumnus of the University of Georgia.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are a lot of adjectives one could use to describe Kansas City Royals team captain Salvador Perez. Terms like \u201cspecial\u201d and \u201cphenomenal\u201d come to mind. On Sunday at Kauffman Stadium, Perez exemplified another oft-used adjective in his playbook of descriptors: Dangerous. The Seattle Mariners intentionally walked slumping Royals slugger Vinnie Pasquantino to load the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2395777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2430800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/KC-Royals-snap-4-game-win-streak-in-5-2-loss-to.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2430800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2430801,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430800\/revisions\/2430801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2395777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2430800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2430800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2430800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}