By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Salvador Perez homered for the first time in more than a month, igniting the offense on way to an 8-4 series clinching win for the Kansas City Royals over the San Fransisco Giants.
For the Royals’ captain, it was an historic two-run blast that put him in fifth place all-time in homers (276) among catchers in the American League. The list of names ahead of him include Hall of Famers Carlton Fisk (376), Yogi Berra (358) and Ivan Rodriguez (281). Eight-time All-Star Lance Parrish (289) is also on the charts.
Kansas City started the scoring prior to Perez’s home run, backing up their bullpen as the Royals used six pitchers to work through this game in place of the injured Cole Ragans. Vinnie Pasquantino singled home Maikel Garcia in the first inning for the first run of the game. In the second inning, Garcia singled home Michael Massey and Bobby Witt Jr drove in Kyle Isbel with a sacrifice fly.
Matt Chapman homered off of Jonathan Bowlan in the third inning to get San Fransisco on the scoreboard, but in the fourth inning Witt Jr doubled home Isbel for a run before Perez hit his home run to right center field, the first home run for the Royals catcher since April 13th.
The Captain goes oppo! 🫡 pic.twitter.com/YwKzFgZrWu
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) May 21, 2025
The Giants did add another run in the bottom of the fourth, Patrick Bailey homering off of Steven Cruz, but Kansas CIty added their final two runs in the fifth inning as Massey singled home Drew Waters and a sacrifice fly from Garcia drove in Freddy Fermin.
San Fransisco brought across their final two runs in the ninth inning, on another home run, as Heliot Ramos hit a two run home run to left center field scoring himself and Lamonte Wade Jr.
Bowlan earned his first major league win, pitching 1 1/3 innings and giving up one run on two hits, striking out one. The Royals had 16 hits in the win, led by Perez (3-5, 1 HR, 2 RBI) and Massey (3-5, 1 RBI). Garcia, Witt Jr, and Waters each had two hits as well.
The Royals are off on Thursday. Kansas City goes to Minnesota on Friday for an AL Central matchup. St. Joseph’s Noah Cameron (1-1, 0.71 ERA) makes his third major league start for the Royals against Pablo López (4-2, 2.40 ERA) for the Twins. First pitch is at 7:10pm, pregame coverage begins on Friday at 6:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
