Salvador Perez continues his resurgence as Royals pummel Cubs at Wrigley Field
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Salvador Perez hit two home runs and drove in four runs in Royals' 12-4 win.
- Perez has hit 15 homers and tallied 44 RBIs over his last 69 games since May.
- Reliever Hunter Harvey reached 99 mph in rehab as Royals eye bullpen return.
The whispers among Royals fans began in late May.
Royals catcher Salvador Perez had celebrated his 35th birthday that month, and some supporters wondered if his best days were in the rearview mirror.
But if there’s one thing most Royals fans have learned through the years about the team’s captain, it’s this: It’s unwise to count him out, no matter how bad things look.
Perez continued his remarkable resurgence Monday night by clubbing a pair of two-run home runs as the Royals crushed the Cubs 12-4 at Wrigley Field.
That continued his sensational run of play. After his average dipped to .214 with two homers on May 26, Perez has belted 15 round-trippers and driven in 44 runs in his last 69 games.
“It’s a long season,” Perez said. “You try to make adjustments.
“The big thing is making adjustments every day. You know, every day is something new. So ... yeah, my first half was kind of a little slow, and I just keep working. Talk to my hitting coach ... and try to do my best every time I step out to home plate and help my team to win.”
That included Monday’s pair of blasts that sparked the Royals’ rally from a 4-1 deficit against the Cubs, who were tied for the NL Central lead entering the game.
Perez has hit safely in 29 of his last 41 games and is batting .367 in the month of July. He has a team-high 17 home runs and is hitting .410 with eight homers, three doubles and 11 RBIs since July 6, a span of 11 games.
Perez also made a dazzling play to rob the Cubs’ Ian Happ, who hit a chopper in front of the plate in the sixth inning.
“It’s fun,” Noah Cameron, the Royals’ starting pitcher Monday, said of Perez. “We were hoping he was gonna get his third one (homer) off the position player there (Cubs third baseman Jon Berti, who came in to pitch the ninth).
“But he’s unbelievable. Just continues attacking every day. During the game, he made a nice play, and me and him had a pretty good moment. I’m like, ‘Man, you’re moving like you’re 24 out here.’ So it was fun. Just watching him do what he loves is a lot of fun.”
Cameron allowed four runs on seven hits in six innings with seven strikeouts. All four runs came in the second inning on just two swings: Carson Kelly hit a solo homer and Matt Shaw drilled a three-run shot.
“It was just two kind of bad pitches to those guys,” Cameron said. “Change-ups are usually pretty good to those guys; I just kind of missed location on those two homers. And obviously, yeah, did some damage there, but just kind of went back at them, just trying to attack the zone and just keep everybody off-balance.”
Cameron did that, retiring the final eight batters he faced.
Caglianone homers again
Rookie Royals outfielder Jac Caglianone hit an opposite-field homer to open the scoring. That one barely cleared the basket in left-center field.
Caglianone had two opposite-field hits on Sunday, and although it’s a small sample size, it’s encouraging to see him hit the ball to all fields of late.
It was Caglianone’s third home run in his last eight games and he also drew a walk in the eighth inning.
“I mean, he lined out the center ... took a walk, laid off some breaking balls below the zone,” said Royals manager Matt Quatraro, “so there have been a lot of positives lately.”
The Royals (49-52) won their second straight game Monday — they salvaged a win Sunday in their road-series final at the Miami Marlins — and pounded out 14 hits while setting a season-high for runs.
Injury updates
Royals relief pitcher Hunter Harvey, who has been coming back from a strained teres major muscle (located in the upper right back, near the shoulder blade) threw a scoreless inning Sunday for Double-A Northwest Arkansas while on a rehabilitation assignment.
“He had another really good outing last night. He threw nine pitches, 1-2-3 inning, two strikeouts,” Quatraro said. “He was up to 99 (mph), slider was upper 80s. So he said he hasn’t felt this good in a long time.”
Harvey will pitch again Wednesday and then the Royals will reevaluate him.
Also, Royals outfielder Mark Canha, who is out with an elbow injury, is back in Kansas City and Quatraro said he feels “significantly better.”
Up next
The Royals will play the Cubs again Tuesday at Wrigley Field. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. Quatraro said left-hander Rich Hill will start for the Royals, while the Cubs will start lefty Matthew Boyd.
This story was originally published July 21, 2025 at 9:40 PM with the headline "Salvador Perez continues his resurgence as Royals pummel Cubs at Wrigley Field."
