Splashtastic!

Salvador Perez powers the Royals to a pair of weekend wins over Toronto.

I have to come clean.

When I came up with the name of the newsletter you are currently reading, the player I was thinking of was Jorge Soler. Soler Power, you know? How could you not have watched the 2019 Royals and not just been in awe of the power routinely flashed by the designated hitter who frequently (it seemed) would put one…into the fountains.

After this weekend, I’m having a bit of a rethink on that story.

On Saturday, with extra innings looming at the end of the second game of a Covid-special seven-inning doubleheader, Perez clubbed a center-cut, 79 mph slider from Joel Payamps for a triumphant walkoff. Into the fountains. A true Salvy Splash.

The ball traveled an estimated 459 feet, making it the longest Perez dinger of the Statcast era. Could I interest you in seeing a slider get vaporized?

Walkoff dingers are great. But this dinger…This is just an insane feat of strength.

And then he did it again.

Sunday afternoon, in the midst of a scoreless tie in the seventh, Perez once again put another one… into the fountains. (I’m sorry, but this is just too perfect.) This blast went 441 feet. Perhaps not as majestic as Saturday, but coming late in a scoreless game, just as important.

It was the eighth dinger of Perez’s career (again, Statcast era) that traveled over 440 feet. Do the fountains out at The K have some sort of magical power? Because it sure seems like Perez is swinging the bat like a man intent on getting some baseballs wet.

Prior to Perez’s blast, it seemed the Royals were intent on frittering away any advantage they could’ve had over the Blue Jays. Toronto starter Robbie Ray walked six batters in five innings while scattering four hits. The Royals loaded the bases with one out in the first inning and again an inning later with two down. They also drew back-to-back walks with two outs in the third.

What did the Royals have to show for all those baserunners?

Zip. Zero. Zilch.

Eight runners left on base through the first three innings of a game is simply impressive in its futility. If this was the Royals of 2018 or 2019—or even 2020—such a scenario would’ve frustrated but ultimately you would’ve understood. (Perhaps?) Those teams didn’t sport a balanced lineup. Runs weren’t easy to come by. Futility was an offensive strategy.

But these aren’t the Rebuilding Royals. So even while they were busy leaving runners on base at a downright alarming clip, there was always a glimmer of hope that a breakthrough was lurking somewhere in that lineup.

Nicky Lopez hustled a double to leadoff the fourth. Maybe this was the moment? Nope. He was stranded at second. Kyle Isbel opened the sixth with a single. Now? Forget about it. He was thrown out trying to advance to second on a pitch in the dirt. Maybe that breakthrough wasn’t there. Perhaps this was simply going to be one of those days.

Except suddenly it wasn’t. Carlos Santana led off the seventh lacing a single to right on the first pitch he saw. And Perez crushed the very next pitch.

Two pitches, two swings and everything changed.

Hot Salvy, Part 2

Perez opened up this current homestead raking and he simply hasn’t stopped. It started a week ago Monday with Perez going 4-4 while collecting the 1,000th hit of his career. Overall he’s hitting .393/.393/.786 for the last week with three home runs and seven driven in. That’s good for a 233 wRC+.

We’ve all heard about how a great player can put an entire ballclub on his back and carry it across the finish line. The championship teams were more of a total team effort when the collective 25 came together to give a new hero almost every night. What Perez has done in his limited time in 2020 and now in 2021 feels transformational. He’s not the George Brett type of player who is almost slump-proof. Perez is going to fish for pitches out of the zone and will have barren stretches of offense. But the hot streaks seem just a little more impactful for this team at this moment.

This is Perez’s ballclub.

One more note…According to the Royals PR department, the home runs this weekend was the 15th time of Perez’s career where he hit a go-ahead dinger in the 7th inning or later. The current leaderboard:

• George Brett - 22

• Frank White - 17

• Salvador Perez - 15

When Perez signed his contract extension a month ago, I wrote about how Perez was poised to establish himself as a franchise icon. He’s probably already there.

Singer paints a masterpiece

Is it possible the Perez power show overshadowed what was an outstanding start from Brady Singer? Perhaps, but it shouldn’t. In his third start of the season, Singer shoved in an artistic sense. He was Cézanne, working in three dimensions…an avant-garde performance on the edges, painting with a sinker with depth and a slider with bite.

Singer mixed those two pitches in almost equal parts—he threw 49 sinkers and offered 40 sliders—and, for the most part, was just masterful in his location. The Jays were more aggressive against the slider, swinging at 22 of them. They did put 10 in play (more on the contact in a moment) but they also whiffed on seven of them.

“I feel like I was on attack the whole game,” Singer said after the game. “I felt like I had good command. I didn’t feel like I was picking around too much…I felt like I was going right at ‘em.”

We’ve heard all about Singer’s bulldog mentality and if that’s how he looks when he’s in attack mode, he should stay there. All told, 15 balls were put into play against Singer. The average exit velocity of those was was 86 mph. Jays’ batters had only two hard-hit balls (exit velocity of 95 mph or greater) against Singer all afternoon. Both came in the fifth as Marcus Simien and Bo Bichette both grounded out. The Bichette grounder was scalded at 112 mph, but Carlos Santana made a nifty play going to his right for the out.

When Singer has full command of the slider like he did on Sunday, it is an absolute weapon against right-handed batters. Here are all the swings he got off his slider from righties. A true masterpiece:

One hard-hit ball in the bunch, the aforementioned Simien ground out in the top of the fifth. Almost half the swings from right-handed hitters came up completely empty. Like this…

The chart against left-handed batters isn’t as cool looking, but it was just as effective.

The sliders in the zone against lefties were fouled off and the two where batters reached were softly hit. (A 79 mph exit velocity from Joe Panik for a single and Rowdy Tellez reached on an error in the fourth on a ball with an 81 mph exit velocity.) All told of the 10 sliders the Jays put into play, the average exit velocity on those was 82.5 mph. That’s some weak contact.

It wasn’t the most dominant start we’ve seen from Singer, but there is more than one way to keep your team in the game and the opposition off the scoreboard. Dominance isn’t necessary if you’re finessing the edges and keeping hitters off-kilter. It was every bit as enjoyable watching Singer perform his artistry on Sunday as it was watching him blow away Cleveland or Detroit batters last September. Different method. Similar results.

After walking Alejandro Kirk on four pitches in the top of the fourth, and following a well-timed mound visit from Cal Eldred, he retired the final nine batters he faced.

Masterful.

Central issues

• Cleveland 6, Cincinnati 3

Shane Bieber becomes the first player in major league history to record 10 or more whiffs in each of his first four starts of a season.

• White Sox 3, Red Sox 2 - 7 innings

• White Sox 5, Red Sox 1 - 7 innings

In game one, Tim Anderson laced three hits, including a home run to leadoff the game. Dallas Keuchel goes five innings, allowing two runs.

Micheal Kopech made his first start since September of 2018 in game two and pitched three innings of one-run ball. The Sox broke the game open with a three-run fourth. Yermín Mercedes hit his fourth home run of the year.

• Detroit 2, Oakland 3

After sweeping the Astros in Houston the first part of the week, the Tigers are swept away by the A’s in Oakland. Jeimer Candelario can’t field a ground ball with two outs in the ninth and Matt Olson scampers from second for the deciding run.

• Minnesota @ Los Angeles — Postponed

After a couple of positive Covid tests, the Twins were postponed on Saturday and Sunday in Anaheim. And they’ve already had their Monday series opener in Oakland postponed. They’ll try to play two on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Royals are guaranteed to have sole possession of first place at least through Monday.

Up next

The Royals close out their 10 game homestand with a set against the Rays of the Tampa Bay Area. At this time a week ago, the Rays were closing out a homestead by hosting the hapless Rangers for four games. Tampa won the opener then dropped the next three, outscored 8-19.

But the Rays picked themselves off the mat, rolled into Yankee Stadium and caused the entire Bronx to burn, sweeping the Yanks in three.

Baseball, man.

The Rays are a difficult team to pin down for their rotation. The projected starters listed below are sourced from a combination of sources, including ESPN and MLB. We’ll see if it sticks.

• Monday - Josh Fleming (0-1, 1.80) vs Danny Duffy (2-0, 0.75)

• Tuesday - Rich Hill (1-0, 7.53) vs Brad Keller (1-1, 9.58)

• Wednesday - Michael Wacha (1-1, 4.20) vs Jakob Junis (1-0, 1.50)