Salvy’s heroics come up short, Royals lose 10-7

Let’s just start with the part you want to know about. Salvador Perez hit two more home runs, tonight. A two-run blast in the third and and a three-run wall scraper in the fifth.

The only bummer about the homers was that they each brought the Royals to within three.

Daniel Lynch did not have a good game. He gave up six runs, including a pair of long home runs, and couldn’t get out of the third. There was a pause earlier in the inning to check his fingers for injury but he was left in for a couple more batters before being pulled so it’s unclear if a potential injury had anything to do with either his poor performance or early exit.

Ervin Santana came on in relief and managed to scrape together 2.1 innings of work but allowed three more runs. Kyle Zimmer and Joel Payamps combined to get through two scoreless innings. Jake Brentz struggled through the eighth inning and was lucky to only allow one run thanks to a nifty play by Emmanuel Rivera to record a double play. The shell of Wade Davis struck out the side in the ninth, so that was nice.

Cam Gallagher got the Royals on the board in the third inning with an RBI single following an Emmanuel Rivera double. The other run was Carlos Santana’s first home run since July 24.

Notes

• Salvador Perez becomes the first catcher to reach the 40-home run plateau since Javy Lopez hit 43 in 2003
• Salvy is only two behind MLB leader Shohei Ohtani
• Tyler Zuber was demoted before the game so that Sebastian Rivero could be recalled. Rivero got into the game after Cam Gallagher experienced some left knee inflammation
• Edward Olivares was removed from the lineup to allow Gallagher to catch after Perez was moved to the DH spot at the last minute. This shifted Ryan O’Hearn into right field and he went hitless, extending his recent slump to 1-for-23.

The Royals have now lost five of their last six. They still have a chance to win the current series and the season series against Chicago tomorrow afternoon. Brady Singer (3-9 4.87 ERA) will go for the Royals with another opportunity to keep throwing his change-up. The White Sox will counter with Dylan Cease (11-6 3.82 ERA.)