Salvy's mad dash home, slick slide 'fired up the boys' -- and a Royals legend

SEATTLE -- For the second straight game at T-Mobile Park, the Royals put Carter Jensen behind the plate, with Salvador Perez slotting in the lineup as the designated hitter.

“Just making sure that his legs feel good,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said pregame of Perez, who has dealt with hip discomfort early in the season.

The 35-year-old’s legs certainly looked like they felt good in the fourth inning of a 4-1 win over the Mariners that turned Kansas City’s first road series win of the year into a sweep -- its first vs. the Mariners since July 3-5, 2017 and its first in Seattle since July 5-10, 2010.

With two runs in and an out on the board, Isaac Collins lofted a fly ball 287 feet out to center field, where Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez -- who’s ranked in the 90th percentile or higher for arm strength every season since his debut -- camped under it. On third stood Perez, whose average sprint speed of 24.2 feet/second ranks 375th out of 381 qualified players, per Baseball Savant.

The five-time Gold Glove-winning backstop, whose last stolen base came in 2021, didn’t even hesitate.

“We’re going to play hard,” Perez said. “That’s the most important thing. Take what they give to us. If they give you 90 feet, [take] it.”

Rodríguez’s throw came out of his hand at 93.6 mph, but skipped three times in the infield before it got to Jhonny Pereda at the plate. That gave Perez a bit of a window, and the Royals captain took advantage, diving for the back corner of the dish and getting the tip of his finger in, just in time.

Home plate umpire Clint Vondrak originally called Perez out, but Perez immediately made his case to the dugout to challenge, and Quatraro -- after getting the go-ahead from replay coordinator Bill Duplissea -- quickly obliged.

“I knew I felt the tag late,” Perez said. “I was almost 100% sure that I was safe.”

It didn’t take long for the replay to come back the Royals’ way, making Kansas City 10-1 on the season on challenges.

“That was awesome,” Collins said. “After I hit it, I wasn’t sure if he was even going to go. But the fact that he took that risk and ran for me, I’ve got to give him a big shoutout for that. That fired up the boys. Head-first slide and everything, that was pretty cool.”

“He can be a little shifty when he needs to,” added starter Kris Bubic, who earned the win with seven innings of one-run ball. “I know he’s a big guy, but to see him avoid that tag was impressive.”

Within minutes, social media was going crazy. The best take may well have come from Perez’s former teammate Eric Hosmer on X, who simply posted, “that what speed do” with a pair of racecar emojis.

Perez’s mad dash was reminiscent of the Royals’ road trip to Seattle last July, when Bobby Witt Jr. capped a decisive three-run inning in the finale with a highlight-reel escape act of a slide, diving around a tag attempt from Cal Raleigh. That one was more noteworthy for the athleticism it took Witt to get out of a bad spot. This one, the shock value was more to do with who was pulling it off. But it drove home the Royals’ focus on taking 90 more feet whenever possible, no matter who’s on the bases.

“There’s nothing he doesn’t do to lead here,” Quatraro said. “It is a big thing, and you see it carry over. You see Jac [Caglianone] scoring from first. You see Maikel [Garcia] with the delayed [steal]. There were a lot of good things on the bases today.”

Kansas City entered the day as one of just three teams to have already posted multiple runs added on the basepaths, according to Baseball Savant’s Extra Bases Taken Run Value Leaderboard. That number’s only set to go up. Collins also logged an RBI double in the top of the sixth that scored Caglianone from first -- once again just beating a tag at the plate.

And it put the capper on a series where the Royals made the most out of just about every opportunity they got on the bases. Saturday’s win was full of “unorthodox” moments, particularly Michael Massey’s steal of third in the 10th inning after getting back-picked off second base.

Sunday, it was time for Kansas City’s captain to lead by example.

“He sets the tone for our team,” Collins said. “To see him after all these years, a catcher who’s obviously not the fastest guy still run hard for a sac fly when we have the lead, is huge. He didn’t have to run there, but he did. I owe him something, for sure.”