SAN FRANCISCO -- When Paul Hoover sat in the dugout before Friday’s series opener against the Giants at Oracle Park, he suggested a change of scenery, despite being on the road, might actually be a good thing for a Royals team struggling to string hits together and win games early in the season.

By the end of the day, the Royals interim manager was in the middle of a “very cold” beer shower to celebrate the Royals’ 3-1 win over the Giants -- Hoover’s first managerial win while manager Matt Quatraro, who got a champagne celebration earlier in the week for his first win, is away from the team with COVID-19.

“It was cold. Lost my breath,” Hoover said. “But it was cool that everyone got together to celebrate a team win.”

The Royals notched their second win of the season with timely hitting, strong pitching and a couple of breaks called their way. They outlasted a potential Giants comeback in the ninth, when closer Scott Barlow allowed a leadoff triple to Joc Pederson. Barlow then struck out Mike Yastrzemski looking on an outside curveball and got some help with a big play from third baseman Matt Duffy.

After walking Brandon Crawford, Barlow struck out Blake Sabol to notch his first save of the season.

It wouldn’t have been possible without the middle of the order coming through with big hits that have been lacking in the first week of the season. Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez both homered to build the Royals’ lead.

Pasquantino crushed a splitter off Giants starter Alex Cobb in the fourth inning to break a 1-1 tie, while Perez gave the Royals insurance with an eighth-inning, 416-foot blast to the left field bleachers for his first home run of the year.

“Thank God,” Perez said about what went through his mind when he connected with the pitch. “I hit that ball pretty good.”

Entering Friday, the Royals had been shut out three times and ranked last in the Majors in batting average (.167), slugging percentage (.278) and OPS (.537). Pasquantino and Perez were a combined 9-for-44, and Pasquantino had two RBIs, while Perez was searching for his first RBI of the season.
 
“We’re going to get on time,” Perez said. “It’s part of the game. We’ve only [played] eight games. We still have another 150-something. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time. The good thing about these guys is, they like to compete, they like to play hard. And they’re always ready to play.”

Friday showed more of what this offense could look like if the middle of the order starts to click.

“That’s what we hope and expect,” Hoover said. “Sal was on the barrel all day today, hit into a couple double plays, lineout, then homer. As the top goes, we’ll go. Hopefully those guys are getting comfortable, and we’ll start to go a little bit.”

Pasquantino had three hard-hit balls Friday afternoon, none harder than the 108-mph lineout to center field in the second inning. Hitting balls on the barrel into outs has been par for the course for the Royals in this first week of the season, but they’ve tried not to deviate from their plans at the plate, even as frustration set in during a 1-6 homestand.

So when Pasquantino stepped to the plate again in the fourth against Cobb, his approach stayed the same. And he lifted a pitch out of the ballpark.

“This game’s too hard to change your approach on a daily basis,” Pasquantino said. “It’ll beat you up if you do that. The only way to try to stay mentally sane is to be consistent. We haven’t been winning. We were able to get one today, and we’re happy about it. So hopefully we keep that going.”

Now that momentum is swinging their way, the Royals want to continue that consistency. And on Friday, they gave a look at what kind of team they can be when pitching and offense comes together.

“We’ve got a young group, and it’s fun with everyone clicking,” said starter Brad Keller, who allowed one run in 5 2/3 innings. “We saw it a little bit last year toward the end, once everyone’s on the same page. Seems like the first two series, we’ve been putting the barrel on the baseball, just right to people. For Vinnie to go out there and get us the lead was huge. Whenever we put it all together, it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s just a matter of time now.”