Perez returns behind the dish, provides some pop in Royals' loss

CHICAGO – For eight games over the past week and a half, the Royals’ catcher was someone other than Salvador Perez, a rarity for as long as the 36-year-old catcher has been with Kansas City.

Instead, Perez put together a longer stint as the Royals’ designated hitter and was out of the lineup completely on Sunday, part of an extended stretch in which the Royals planned and hoped would help him as he continues to deal with hip/groin soreness.

For the first time since May 1, Perez was back behind the plate in Tuesday’s 6-5 loss to the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field, a familiar sight again behind the dish despite the loss that opened the Royals’ road trip on a tough note.

“It was a good week from a recovery standpoint,” manager Matt Quatraro said of Perez. “... That was the plan, just rest. Obviously he was still DH-ing, so he works really hard with [head athletic trainer Kyle Turner] and the training staff and [strength coach] Luis [Perez] to keep himself ready when he’s healthy or not. It’s exciting that he’s able to get back in there.”

Perez, who will play through just about anything, was eager to get back to catching but acknowledged that serving as the DH does help him physically and mentally.

“You know me,” Perez said. “I like to catch every day. … DHing helps me. Especially when you take catching out of your mind, preparing for DH-ing is kind of easy. Just helping [Carter] Jensen, help [Elias] Díaz with scouting reports, and then do the meeting with the pitcher, and after that, just [concentrating] on hitting. That’s helped me a lot the last week.”

Perez helped the Royals get off to a fast start Tuesday by homering in the first inning, following Bobby Witt Jr.’s homer just two batters earlier. That gave Perez his sixth homer of the season and 309th of his career, putting him just eight behind George Brett’s franchise record (317).

The game flipped in the fifth inning when Royals starter Stephen Kolek allowed all five of the runs charged to him in 4 2/3 innings.

It was the first time Kolek hadn’t thrown a quality start in the seven starts he’s made for the Royals since he was acquired last July.

“I think I just maybe got greedy, if you would, just trying to expand the ball out of the zone,” Kolek said. “I know that they chase a lot. Just kind of playing into that, but they did a good job of laying off some of those pitches. I need to be more competitive in the zone.”

The Royals immediately punched back with a three-run sixth inning, starting with Jensen’s leadoff walk and back-to-back doubles from Isaac Collins and pinch-hitter Nick Loftin. Maikel Garcia provided the game-tying knock.

After Luinder Avila provided a shut-down sixth inning, Quatraro had his bullpen lined up where he wanted it, with Daniel Lynch IV throwing a scoreless seventh inning and Matt Strahm coming in for the eighth.

The White Sox countered Strahm’s entrance with three consecutive right-handed pinch-hitters, eliminating a trio of favorable left-on-left matchups. Strahm took care of two of them, but Derek Hill golfed a slider that was low and out of the zone 417 feet into left-center field for the game-winning home run.

“That’s baseball,” Strahm said. “Sometimes you just got to tip your cap. Unfortunate situation to have to do it. But that’s the game.”

Perez added: “That was a good pitch. That was down. Strahm has a lot of success throwing that pitch, [slider] down. I don’t know how he got to that one.”

Whether Perez gets back on a normal catching routine after Tuesday remains to be seen. The current plan is “literally day by day,” Quatraro said, with the Royals monitoring how Perez feels daily.

But there’s no question they’d love to have him catching as much as he can handle, especially with Jensen, a rookie, still going through the ups and downs of learning to catch every day in the big leagues.

“The leadership is huge,” Quatraro said. “Not that we were missing that with him. He was doing it in the dugout as a DH, but what he sees on the field, all the reps he has, the game planning, those are things you can’t expedite. He’s had [15] years of it. That experience is really hard to look away from.”

To his credit – and to no one's surprise – Perez was already hoping to catch Wednesday.

“I feel good today,” Perez said. “I felt good after the last inning. I don’t have any problems or anything, so I’ll do the cold tub and get ready for tomorrow.”