KANSAS CITY -- One big swing can do a whole lot for a team that needs something -- anything -- to get going offensively. Even more so when that swing comes from the captain.
That’s what happened in the sixth inning on Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium, with Salvador Perez sending a curveball 417 feet out to left-center field for a go-ahead home run in the Royals’ 8-2 win over the Brewers in Game 2 of the doubleheader.
Kansas City needed that swing in more ways than one after a 5-2 loss in Game 1 that saw the Royals leave 10 runners on base and go 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position. Game 2 wasn’t going much better despite Carter Jensen’s two-run double in the second inning; the Royals still had some opportunities they weren’t able to capitalize on -- until the sixth.
One swing from Salvy seemed to relieve some of that pressure.
“He’s the leader of this team,” left fielder Isaac Collins said. “We follow him. For him to break the ice a little bit, take the lead, and then we kind of just poured it on after that.”
Perez added: “I think every time we do something good, everybody gets excited. The guys behind me tried to do their job, and we were just trying to keep the line moving.”
After Perez’s second home run of the year and 305th of his career broke a 2-2 tie, the Royals kept the line moving with two-out hits from Jonathan India, Jensen and Collins to push Brewers pitcher Brandon Sproat from the game. When left-hander Jared Koenig entered, the Royals didn’t stop hitting: Kyle Isbel hit another two-out single, and Maikel Garcia followed with a double.
“India getting it started by squaring the ball up, I started to feel like, ‘All right, maybe we’re starting to see this guy a little bit,’ because that was two in one inning,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “And then Jensen had another good at-bat. It wasn’t like they were swinging from their heels. They were hitting balls hard through the middle of the field.”
The Brewers intentionally walked Bobby Witt Jr., committed an error on Vinnie Pasquantino’s sharp grounder and intentionally walked Perez again before recording the final out of the inning, adding up to a six-run frame.
Kansas City hasn’t gotten out to an especially hot start offensively, mainly because the middle of its order has been slow out of the gate. Witt has a .565 OPS to begin the year, Pasquantino has a .493 OPS and Perez has a .706 OPS. What has helped tremendously is the bottom of the lineup producing, just like Game 2 on Saturday when hitters Nos. 6-9 knocked six hits and drew two walks.
That gives the Royals optimism that when their stars break out like they have before, this lineup will look more consistently like what the sixth inning looked like in Game 2.
“That’s the key,” Jensen said. “Just keep the line moving. Get to the next guy. One through nine, we all trust in each other that we’re going to put together a good at-bat and make something happen.”
The big inning gave the Royals some breathing room with their pitching staff, which had been doing all it could to keep the Royals within striking distance in both games. After six scoreless innings from the bullpen in Game 1, the Royals looked like they might have to turn to their bullpen early again in Game 2 because starter Seth Lugo was already at 91 pitches after four innings.
But in true Lugo fashion, he got through five innings with 103 pitches and held the Brewers to just the two runs they scored in the third.
“They were kind of a scrappy lineup,” Lugo said. “Fouled off a lot of pitches, drove my pitch count up. But got through five. That’s OK. Obviously I want to pitch deeper, but getting through five, I think I helped the bullpen tonight.”
A scoreless sixth inning from Nick Mears earned him the win against his former team, and Eli Morgan, whom the Royals called up as their 27th man for the doubleheader, finished it with a three-inning save.
There was no talk of the Game 1 frustration by the time a long Saturday had concluded -- only the fact that the Royals could still win the series against the Brewers after bouncing back in Game 2.
“That’s the good thing about this group,” Perez said. “We lost the first game, we changed our minds and mentality and got ready for the second game. It’s easy to say, but that’s the way we have to be. It’s over, nothing we can change about that, just concentrate for the second game and try to bring the best.”