Salvador Perez ends HR drought as Royals hammer Giants

Jaylon Thompson, The Kansas City Star on May 21, 2025

Published in Baseball

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The Kansas City Royals needed a team effort to secure a series victory over the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park.

More precisely, they needed their offense to carry the load.

The lineup answered the call as Kansas City earned an 8-4 victory Wednesday to close out a three-game series by the bay. Team captain Salvador Perez led the charge with three hits, including a long-awaited home run.

The bullpen took care of the rest.

The Royals improved to 28-23 with their 11th road victory of the season. The Giants committed two errors and fell to 29-21.

Here are some takeaways from the mid-afternoon series finale:

Perez snaps HR drought

It had been more than a month since Perez last circled the bases.

He’d been stuck in a rut of late and hadn’t displayed the power numbers fans were accustomed to seeing on a regular basis.

Perez entered Wednesday’s game with just two homers in 185 at-bats — and none since April 13 vs. Cleveland. His batting average was a paltry .213, with a .249 on-base percentage and 44 strikeouts.

Perez needed a spark in the worst way. He found it in the fourth inning, unloading his frustrations against right-handed Giants starting pitcher Logan Webb.

Perez launched a 397-foot homer over the right-center field wall.

It was the 276th home run of his career. He’s now just 24 shy of becoming the eighth primary catcher to reach 300 home runs. He ranks fifth all-time for homers by American League catchers.

Royals’ bullpen ropes Giants

The Royals waited until the last moment to divulge their pitching plans for Wednesday’s game.

They had plenty of options available to them. They brought Triple-A prospect Luinder Avila along on the taxi squad in case of an emergency — he was stretched out and could’ve started, if needed.

Instead, the Royals opted for a bullpen game. Manager Matt Quatraro turned to left-hander Daniel Lynch IV as his starter.

Lynch issued three walks in 1 2/3 scoreless innings. The silver lining is that he didn’t allow a run and thus navigated the Giants’ lineup unscathed.

After Lynch, the Royals turned to a procession of Jonathan Bowlan, Steven Cruz, Taylor Clarke, Angel Zerpa and Lucas Erceg.

They bullpen crew didn’t face much pressure. Their teammates at the plate generated enough run support that members of the relief crew were able to settle comfortably into their roles.

The Giants eked out four runs on eight hits. Each of those runs came via the long ball — from Matt Chapman, Patrick Bailey and Heliot Ramos.

Royals’ bats come alive

The Royals issued a reminder on Wednesday of just how destructive their offense can be.

Kansas City has been inconsistent at the plate all season. That was a problem again in this series, as the Royals logged a total of just five runs on Monday and Tuesday.

Wednesday was a different story.

The Royals had eclipsed the five-run mark by the fourth inning. They hammered Webb (5-4) early and forced him to work from the stretch. Webb’s day ended with six runs and 10 hits allowed in four innings.

The Royals opened the game with three consecutive singles. Then Vinnie Pasquantino drove in his 29th RBI for a 1-0 Kansas City lead.

The visitors followed a similar formula in the second inning. But his time it was singles by Michael Massey, Kyle Isbel and Maikel Garcia that did the damage.

Twelve of the Royals’ 16 hits Wednesday were singles. Perez (homer and double), Bobby Witt Jr. (double) and Drew Waters (double) had the lone extra-base hits. Perez finished 3 for 5.

Wednesday’s game marked the first time this year that the Royals have had 13 or more hits through five innings. Until this series finale, they hadn’t accomplished that feat since Aug. 17, 2024.

What’s next?

The Royals have a scheduled off-day Thursday before beginning a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins on Friday at Target Field in Minneapolis.

Rookie left-hander Noah Cameron will be Friday’s starting pitcher for the Royals. He will make his third appearance in a dynamic pitching matchup against Twins ace right-hander Pablo Lopez.

Right-hander Michael Wacha will start Saturday for Kansas City, with left-hander Kris Bubic lined up to start Sunday’s series finale.

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