Dingers and comebackers
The Royals battle and then let it slip away. So close! Colby Wilson stops by to share his thoughts on what we'll see in September and the glory that has been Salvador Perez's season with the bat.
“Why in the world would Payamps go to first?”
—Robert Ford, Houston Astros radio
Ford, a former radio pregame host in Kansas City, is among the best at his craft. And he asked the question everyone watching the game had at this particular moment. Tie game. No outs. Winning run on third…
A comebacker off reliever Joel Payamps and with the winning run barreling down the third base line, and he went to first. The Astros win 6-5 in 10 innings.
Ahhhh…I don’t mean to pile on Payamps. Once that comebacker deflects off his hip and toward first base, the game is pretty much over. But shouldn’t you at least, I dunno, make the effort?
Had Payamps been able to make the throw home, it wouldn’t have had anything on it and likely would’ve arrived behind Alex Bregman’s slide. It’s not like his decision cost the Royals the game. But…optics. It’s just kind of a strange look to not at least try to get that out at home. Especially when the runner going to first doesn’t matter at all. It was just a weird end to a game where the Royals gave themselves a chance to win.
Dingers!
They gave themselves a chance to win because of a pair of home runs. That man, Salvador Perez, was at it again. Another dinger into the Crawford Boxes.
Actually, it wasn’t a cheapie. In fact, it would’ve left 29 out of 30 stadiums. I get a kick out of this…
That only helps underscore how impressive this power display from Perez has been. He plays half his games in a stadium that penalizes power, yet he’s marching toward a historic season. Colby Wilson has more on him in a moment.
The flip side to that would be Whit Merrifield’s grand slam, that, according to the trusty Would It Dong account, would’ve left only two MLB stadiums.
What was impressive about the Merrifield grand slam was that it capped a complete two-out rally to give the Royals the lead. In the seventh, the Royals opened the inning with a pair of ground outs. Then a Michael A. Taylor single followed by walks to Emmanuel Rivera and Cam Gallagher loaded the bases. Both the Rivera and Gallagher plate appearances went full. Both batters fouled off pitches to stay alive. Both kept the proverbial line moving.
The walk to Gallagher spelled the end of Lance McCullers’ day on the mound. Merrifield greeted reliever Christian Javier’s first pitch and gave the Royals the lead.
Flip the script
The Astros were able to exact some revenge in their half of the eighth against the Royals bullpen. Josh Staumont opened his day with a walk and one out single. After recording another out, manager Mike Matheny chose Scott Barlow to go after Michael Brantley.
Here’s what Matheny said about that:
“(Barlow’s) been throwing the ball much better. He’s in a tough bind right there. You’ve got one of the best hitters in the league and we got an opportunity to put our very best up there against him and let’s just take our shot.”
Indeed, Brantley is having another exceptional season with the bat. But the Royals have handled him better than any team in baseball this summer, holding him to .100/.250/.100 over 24 plate appearances. I get where Matheny is coming from…It’s clear he trusts Barlow in that situation over any other reliever in his bullpen, but I just wonder about letting Staumont see that situation through. Ahhhh…the glory of the ability to second guess.
Three Take Thursday: Beware the Hype Machine, the timeline is going to shift and more on the amazing Salvy Perez
I guess we’re doing this again. It’s August, the doldrums are… drumming… their… dols?... I guess? And the Royals? Well, they keep spotting dimes and eating onions, just like they have all year. The end is somehow in sight and yet clearly unfinished and undefined. Let’s get to it!
Take One: September is going to push the Hype Machine into overdrive heading into the offseason
This tale is as old as baseball itself. A young team, out of it, with the pressure off and some well-chosen talents from the top of the farm system getting some late-season action, put together some excellent September series and play spoiler to a number of teams in the postseason race, juicing excitement for both the immediate and long-term future.
The Royals young pitching at the big-league level is rounding into exceptional form of late.
They have talented players knocking on the door at Triple-A—Bobby Witt Jr., Nick Pratto and MJ Melendez are dominating at Omaha, which does have something to play for in terms of a postseason fight, if you’d prefer players play for a championship over playing at the highest level.
Jackson Kowar could get a late look after scuffling in his first appearances in Kansas City—he’s shoved at Omaha and could be following the Daniel Lynch Path, which is where you get your teeth kicked in your first run at MLB hitting and then settle in as a quality starter when you come back after another stint on the farm.
Adalberto Mondesi probably doesn’t need to play again this year, but if you’re going to insist on playing him, let him come back to Kansas City and ease him in with a middle infield rotation of the various characters currently comprising the roster. Please stop dropping him into the lineup four days in a row until his body proves he can do that without some part of it breaking.
The top-six in the regular order—Whit Merrifield, Nicky Lopez, Salvador Perez, Andrew Benintendi, non-injured Carlos Santana and Hunter Dozier—have rounded into something resembling a decent lineup.
Take away two of the best relievers in franchise history and there’s some real juice in the bullpen, all of it young and all of it throwing some blistering heat.
The Royals host three teams—the White Sox, A’s and Mariners—still in the thick of the postseason fight during September. All are three-game series; remember we had this talk if they go 6-3 in those series and rumblings of, “Hey, maybe these guys can fight for the rancid AL Central next year,” start growing louder.
Take Two: We’re not making nearly enough of Salvador Perez’s pursuit of 40 homers and what it means
In the history of the game, there have been seven 40-homer seasons by a catcher.
With a month to go, Salvador Perez is within shouting distance of making it eight.
For a guy who never topped 27 homers in a year before now, whose arm exploded two years ago and who is on what’s usually considered the wrong side of 30 at a premium, and demanding defensive position, this is… unprecedented?
Take stock of some of this:
In a post age-30 season, Perez already ranks ninth in single-season homers by a catcher.
This is just the fourth 30-homer season by a catcher, at any age, since 2004.
He has a chance to join this exclusive list of post age-30 catchers who eclipsed their previous career-high in home runs by 10 or more: 1922 Eddie Ainsmith, 1947 Walker Cooper, 1956 Stan Lopata, 1985 Carlton Fisk, 1992 Darren Daulton, 1993 Mike Stanley, 1995 Mark Parent, 1996 Benito Santiago, 1996 Terry Steinbach, 2006 (and rookie year) Kenji Johjima, 2012 A.J. Ellis and 2019 Roberto Perez.
Couple thoughts from the above bullet: boy, early-to-mid-90s catchers amiright? And also, the most homers hit in any of the dozen aforementioned seasons was Fisk’s 37 in 1985.
If this was 2001, we’d all be duly suspect of an aging slugger suddenly going off for a career-best power surge. Twenty years on, with all the latent advantages players enjoy due to advances in nutrition, exercise, surgical maintenance/repair, self-care and analytics—plus the fact that Perez only played 37 games from November 2018 until March 2021, an underrated thing that costs him historically but undoubtedly saved his body plenty of the usual wear and tear—it’s less skeptical and more awe-inspiring.
This proves two things, to me: one, that when Perez inevitably moves into a late-career role out from behind the plate, his bat will play. I don’t think anyone doubted this, but it’s nice to have some proof that he’s not just a good-hitting catcher—he’s a good hitter, period, full stop. And he’s not done yet—not with catching, not as a Royal, not as a productive big-leaguer. Two years ago, I worried Perez would either not be part of the next good Royals team or he would serve as a totem, a throwback to the good old days who hangs in the dugout and is good for morale, but not someone you’d feel comfortable with coming to bat when anything of substance was at stake.
I don’t worry much about that anymore.
Take Three: The Timeline is going to be pushed back this offseason
This won’t make sense, especially after Take One, but follow me on this journey.
The Royals didn’t sell at the trade deadline. Whit Merrifield and his team-friendly deal are still here. Carlos Santana is still around. Mike Minor continues to ply his trade. Brad Keller, Scott Barlow and Adalberto Mondesi are winding their way through the arbitration process. The young starters are coming along nicely, particularly over the last month. All signs still point to the Royals using 2021 to build toward competitiveness in 2022. This is Dayton Moore’s espoused plan.
Now, Moore is a sharp man who says the right things and has two pennants and a World Series to his credit, so take that for all it’s worth, good and otherwise. There’s no way, reasonably, he can claim with a straight face that some of the pieces that have gotten second, third and 66th chances will be on the next quality Royals team, and a lot of those guys are either inching toward arbitration or taking a slot on the 40-man from a player who needs to matriculate to the higher reaches of the organization to be evaluated and considered as part of that future or not.
So this offseason, I expect a flurry of small deals that make the Royals unproven on paper—people who have come up and had moments will be jettisoned because those moments were too few and far between or happened too long ago. 2022 won’t be a rebuild, but a cleansing, and that cleansing will make the Royals better in the future but reduce them (keep them?) at pretender status next season.
(Bet you don’t find that blurbed on the season ticket materials next year.)
—Colby Wilson
Central issues
Tigers 2, Cardinals 3 — 10 innings
Lars Nootbaar walked it off for St. Louis in the 10th. Jon Lester gave the Cards five innings of one-run baseball.
White Sox 1, Blue Jays 3
Robbie Ray shoved, striking out 14 over seven innings. Alejandro Kirk singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth and a bases-loaded walk to Randal Grichuk added some padding.
Twins 9, Red Sox 6 — 10 innings
A lot to unpack in this game. The Twins jumped out to a 4-0 lead over the first four innings, but the Red Sox stormed back by plating four over the final three frames to push the game to extras. Kyle Schwarber did the honors, hitting a game-tying dinger in the ninth. Then, the teams combined for seven runs in the 10th. Josh Donaldson and Jake Cave both homered for the Twins in their half of the inning. But maybe the biggest headline was Miguel Sanó’s 495 foot home run? Like I said, a lot to unpack.
Rangers 2, Cleveland 7
Zack Pleasac battled through 5.2 innings and Cleveland batters backed him with four home runs total.
Up next
The Royals travel to Seattle for some late night, west coast baseball. The Mariners have yet to announce their starters for the series beyond Thursday’s starter Yusei Kikuchi. Here’s how the Royals will line up their rotation for the four-game series:
Thursday — Brad Keller
Friday — Kris Bubic
Saturday — Carlos Hernández
Sunday — Daniel Lynch
Get the coffee and ice cream ready. First pitch on Thursday is 9:10 CDT.
I love take 3! Who do you think are the most likely trade candidates? My guess is Barlow, Zimmer, Staumont, and Merrifield.