Captain Fantastic

It was a sinker. Down a bit, but the delivery split the plate. That made it a tantalizing offering on 0-1. Salvador Perez planted his front leg, loaded his hands, dropped the barrel of the bat and rotated his hips. Movements synchronized, a concert of simplicity, smoothness and, most importantly, violence.

The impact was square. The ball launched. When it finally returned to Earth, it splashed down into the fountains as if orchestrated by NASA. An appropriate landing for a historic moonshot.

It was home run number 317 for Perez. He is now tied with George Brett for most home runs in Royals team history. Franchise icon meets franchise icon.

History is fun and everything, but even though the Royals are floundering this year, there is still business at hand. Baseball games are to be won. Perez’s home run kicked off a five-run seventh inning that powered the Royals to a 5-3 victory. The Royals swept the Giants out of Kauffman, winning all three games by a margin of a single run. They are now 5-1 since the All-Star Break.

For a moment, the good vibes have returned.

For all of Perez’s struggles this season, the guy can still handle the sinker. Coming into Wednesday’s game, he was hitting .364 against the pitch with a .659 slugging percentage. He’s swung and missed just 10 percent of the time against the sinker. And put it as close to middle-middle as starter Landen Roupp dropped it, and it’s just begging to get destroyed.

Officially, the ball left the bat at 109 mph with a launch angle of 25 degrees. That’s a barrel, for sure. It landed 437 feet from home plate. Splash!

If you’ll recall from Tuesday’s dispatch, I noted that Perez’s last two home runs were the longest he’s hit all season. This one was it’s equal.

The above table lists Perez's home runs that traveled at least 400 feet this year. There aren't many. That's why it's so good to see that cluster at the top. In this homestand he's hit—by far—his three longest home runs of the season.

Giants starter Roupp has been pitching extremely well of late. In his last start before the All-Star Break, he threw eight innings against the Toronto Blue Jays where he gave up one run on three hits. His most recent start he delivered seven shutout innings on two hits. On Wednesday, he cruised through six innings. He surrendered just two hits, hadn’t allowed a run and struck out seven. Maybe that makes what Perez did even more impressive. Heh. Maybe Perez launching bombs is impressive no matter who it’s against. In this homestand, we’re back to just shaking our head in disbelief when he turns on the power. I had all but written him off. Dumb. I don’t know why I do that.

As fun as that moment was, and it was plenty fun, there was still work to be done. When the inning started, the Royals were down 3-0, a scoreline that flattered the Giants. Seth Lugo was brilliant in his start, matching Loupp and cruising through the first six innings with the only blemish coming in the sixth when he walked the leadoff batter, Willy Adames. He then hit Drew Gilbert to put runners on first and second and no outs. From there, the Giants went sac bunt and sac fly to open the scoring. How very Royals of them.

It was in the seventh where things got away from Lugo. A walk to Rafael Devers and then a triple down the first base line from Jung Hoo Lee and an automatic double to Adames and the Giants pushed their advantage to three runs.

Lugo stuck to the script for the most part when it came to mixing his pitches. He went heavy with the four-seam the first time through the order, switched to the sweeper when facing batters for the second time and then leaned on the curve and cutter. It was as sharp as he’s been. The damage was self-inflicted: He walked two batters all game. Both came around to score.

The Perez home run in the bottom half of the seventh cut the Giants lead to one and chased Loupp from the game.

Enter reliever Sam Hentges. Michael Massey bunted for a hit and advanced to second on a throwing error from Hentges. After an Isaac Collins ground out, Starling Marte singled to right moving Massey to third.

Exit Hentges. Next man up for the Giants was Keaton Winn. At that point, the Royals had already announced Nick Loftin as a pinch-hitter.

Did you experience a case of déjà vu? The night before, in a game tied at two, Hentges was lifted for Winn with the bases loaded. The first batter Winn faced was Loftin. Loftin singled, driving in the go-ahead run.

On Wednesday, Winn threw a slider that was elevated and taken by Loftin for a strike. The next pitch was another slider, this one was put on a tee for Loftin. And, when you’re as locked in as Loftin, he’s not going to miss that. He dropped the offending pitch into shallow left-center to bring home the tying run. Loftin is now 6-8 this season as a pinch hitter. That feels kind of...I don't know...clutch?

You know how we feel about Ty France? It's possible the Giants feel that way about Loftin. All he did in the series was go 4-8 with three RBIs. Yet those runs he drove in? Absolute killers. On Monday, he walked it off with a bunt. On Tuesday, he drove in the aforementioned go-ahead run. And on Wednesday, he tied the game at three.

An out and a walk to Carter Jensen loaded the bases for Lane Thomas. Thomas, as previously noted, has been locked in this month. While he’s always been something of a platoon hitter, he’s seen more time of late. The Royals are just short of options at the moment. Thomas singled on a grounder to right, scoring two.

Five runs. The Captain lit the fuse. His offense took off.

There's always an air of inevitability around records falling like this. It's not like someone on the broadcast crew or media relations staff suddenly discovered that Perez was on the heels of Brett when it came to the most home runs in franchise history. This has been something that we've been tracking for years.

That doesn't distract from the coolness of the event. I remember when Brett was in the twilight of his Hall of Fame career and how, nearly every time he did something at the plate, he moved up some career milestone list. Perez's career isn't that epic, but there is something about a guy who produces at a high enough level long enough to tie a prestigious milestone record that belongs to a franchise. Salvy is the Royals. The Royals are Salvy. It was gratifying for him to tie a legend in the park where both spent their careers in Royals blue. It was huge for that hit to be the spark that pushed his team to victory. It was a special, special afternoon.

The Royals have had some great players in their franchise history. Many are in team Hall of Fame. Only two players (and one manager) have had their number retired. Someday, Perez's 13 will hang somewhere inside a stadium. It's a pleasure to watch him crush these home runs. The season has been incredibly frustrating, and Perez has worn most of that, failing to live to his usual power expectations. I'm glad that he went on a heater to tie the record. He didn't limp across the finish line. He catapulted over it. That's how legends operate.

I kind of love this from Sarah Langs:

Jake Eisenberg charted the path of Royals all-time home run leaders.

In a few days, Perez will be a new entry on that list.

I was really struck by Matt Quatraro’s postgame comments on Perez. We know that there’s not much that gets Q excited. He’s extremely even-tempered. Yet his voice broke early when talking about Perez and he had to pause a couple of times to collect himself.

“First of all, when the ball left the bat, that was impressive. That ball was crushed to hat part of the ballpark. where we were in the game, that was big. And then…I’ll get a little emotional talking about it but just the…you know, what that means to him and to the city and to the organization.”

Sam McDowell from The Star followed up:

“What makes you particularly emotional about seeing that?”

“Well, I love that guy. You know, what he does, the way he goes about it, the passion that he plays the game, it’s unrivaled. The guy’s a Hall of Famer and we’re getting to witness it.”

The words are classic Q. It reads dry. But I can assure you, there was some raw emotion coming from the manager. It's worth your time to watch the video if you can.

It's been a difficult season for everyone. I like seeing how much Q cares about his players and what they mean to him.

This wouldn't be a proper newsletter without the dreaded injury updates. And there are plenty. Ugh.

First, Bobby Witt Jr. landed on the IL with low back tightness. You'll recall that he missed Sunday's series finale against the Padres. He started on Monday but was pulled after four innings. This is the first IL stint of Witt's career.

Jac Caglianone exited Tuesday's game with right shoulder soreness after diving for a fly ball. He did not play on Wednesday.

Steven Kolek on the IL with a right flexor strain was already troubling. He will be going for a second opinion. That's really bad. Then, he was moved to the 60-day IL. YIKES! It's not official but all signs point to Tommy John surgery.