Salvador Perez caps Kansas City Royals’ four-run ninth-inning rally with walk-off hit
Kansas City Royals star catcher Salvador Perez played the familiar role of late-inning hero once again Tuesday night as he smacked a 1-1 pitch from Cincinnati Reds reliever Amir Garrett to the base of the wall in left field for a walk-off RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
Perez notched his third walk-off hit of the season and helped keep the Royals away from a three-game losing streak. Instead, they rallied from a five-run deficit in the final two innings to earn the victory.
Perez’s single drove in Nicky Lopez from third base and capped a four-run inning in a 7-6 win over the Reds in front of an announced 14,491 at Kauffman Stadium. Perez’s hit got over the head of left fielder Aristides Aquino, who gave chase.
“Aquino was playing in a little bit,” Perez said. “Kansas City is a big ballpark. So they’re kind of like it’s got to be over my head but we don’t want any bloopers or anything like that in front of us. I think he was kind of in a little bit. I hit it pretty good. It was a good pitch, down and in, a great pitch but I was able to put the barrel [on it] and hit it hard.”
The Royals (36-49) can win the series in Wednesday afternoon’s rubber match. They’ll have right-hander Brady Singer on the mound.
“There’s a lot of teams that won’t have something like this game happen all season long,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “To see it come when we haven’t been playing our best baseball and still have that hunger and belief [is special]. I know we make a big deal of it. Maybe too often, but I really don’t think so because if they don’t have that faith late in the game, that does not happen.”
The Royals trailed 6-1 in the eighth inning when Hanser Alberto reached on a passed ball after he swung and missed on strike three. Then with two outs — the inning would have been over if the Reds completed Alberto’s strikeout — birthday boy Andrew Benintendi, who turned 27 on Tuesday, lofted a two-run home run to right field.
Benintendi homered for the first time since he returned Sunday from the injured list because of a fractured rib, and it marked his ninth home run of the season. That pulled the Royals within three runs, 6-3, going into the ninth inning.
Right-hander Josh Staumont walked a batter and struck out two in the top of the ninth. He handed the ball over to lefty Richard Lovelady (2-0) for the final out of the inning. Lovelady got the Reds’ dangerous left-handed hitting veteran Joey Votto to fly out.
The ninth inning began with a Ryan O’Hearn walk followed by Hunter Dozier getting hit in the right wrist by a pitch from former Royal and current Reds reliever Brad Brach.
Reds third baseman Eugenio Suarez committed a fielding error on Michael A. Taylor’s grounder to third base, which allowed O’Hearn to score.
With one out, Nicky Lopez fought off an inside fastball and swatted it the other way for a two-run single into left field to tie the score. Lopez entered the day batting .352 with a .410 on-base percentage since June 7.
“I kind of changed my sights a little bit,” Lopez said of his final at-bat. “I got a little bit too pull-happy. Even though I was able to hit them hard, just to the second baseman. So I kind of tried to change my sights, tried to see something a little bit deeper. I got jammed pretty good, but since I saw it a little bit deeper I was able to get it to the left side. Luckily Mike (Taylor) was hustling and was able to score the tying run.”
Lopez finished the play standing on third base after he advanced to second on the throw from the outfield to home plate. That throw veered off-target and got past catcher Tyler Stephenson, which provided Lopez the opening to advance to third.
The next batter, Whit Merrifield, drew a four-pitch walk. The Reds then brought in left-hander Amir Garrett to pitch to the left-handed hitting Benintendi, who had homered in his previous at-bat.
With the Reds playing a five-man infield, Garrett struck out Benintendi when he couldn’t hold up on a check swing.
That brought Perez to the plate with two outs and the winning run still on third.
“It’s really impressive, just each guy kind of handing it to the next and then, obviously, our guy,” Matheny said, referring to Perez. “In those situations, it’s amazing how he slows his heartbeat and makes something happen.”
The Royals now have 21 comeback wins this season.
“This whole season we’ve been pretty good at being able to chip away late,” Lopez said. “Even if we get off to a slow start. We always seem to — in the eighth and ninth inning — put some good at-bats together and we go down fighting at least. So just kind of keep it close, get one guy on and just keep it moving, keep it moving. Big home run from Benny, obviously, to get it back into striking distance.”
This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 11:09 PM with the headline "Salvador Perez caps Kansas City Royals’ four-run ninth-inning rally with walk-off hit."
