Salvador Perez left Saturday's game against the Chicago White Sox with an apparent knee injury.
The knee injury was suffered in the ninth inning. A low, looping foul ball came off the bat of Adam Eaton up the third base line. Perez jumped out of his crouch and sprinted to catch the ball. Cheslor Cuthbert was also running in from third, and after a late signal from Perez, Cuthbert tried to deviate but stumbled, colliding with Perez's left knee. Drew Butera finished out the game behind the plate. Cuthbert appeared to be fine following the collision.
Perez's left knee is the same knee that was surgically repaired following a meniscus tear in 2012. On the year, Perez was batting .277/.319/.494 with a 118 wRC+. His twelve-game hitting streak was snapped as he went 0-for-3 on the day.
This marks the third major offensive player for the Royals to become injured recently. Mike Moustakas is out for the season with an ACL tear. Alex Gordon will be shelved for a while longer when both he and Moustakas collided tracking down a foul ball of their own.
Kendrys Morales is also dealing with a hand injury and will miss a few games.
Update:
Salvador Perez has a quad contusion. He'll have an MRI tomorrow. No structural damage to knee, Yost says.
— Rustin Dodd (@rustindodd) May 28, 2016
Depending on how severe the quad contusion is, Perez could be looking at DL stint, Ned says. But looks like Royals avoided total disaster.
— Rustin Dodd (@rustindodd) May 28, 2016