Salvador Perez made Kansas City Royals history on Saturday. Perez and his team will now look to come away with a split of a four-game series in Detroit on Sunday afternoon.
Perez, who has spent his entire major league career with Kansas City, homered off Tigers reliever Kyle Finnegan in the seventh inning for his 318th career long ball. That put him atop the Royals’ all-time list, surpassing Hall of Famer George Brett.
During Perez’s postgame interview on the field, the entire team stood behind him after the 3-2 win. Perez, who made his major league debut in 2011, never dreamed when he started his career that he would reach this point.
“Just having fun. Play hard. Play as long as I can in the big leagues, just make it to the big leagues when I was in the minor leagues,” Perez said of his early years. “I never thought I would make it to 318 homers.”
It was a costly loss for Detroit, which saw its three-game winning streak snapped. The Tigers are desperately trying to get within striking distance of a playoff spot and convince their front office to not trade off key players and impending free agents such as Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize and Gleyber Torres.
“Obviously, you want to win them all, you want to execute perfectly,” manager A.J. Hinch said after his team’s setback. “Sport doesn’t always allow that.”
Framber Valdez will start the series finale for the Tigers. Valdez couldn’t get out of the first inning in his first start after the All-Star break.
Valdez was charged with six runs on five hits, two walks and a hit batter before Hinch pulled him after 42 pitches of an 11-2 road loss to the Chicago Cubs last Tuesday.
“(Tuesday) was the worst game ever for myself being on the losing side,” Valdez said through an interpreter. “It feels terrible.”
He’s eager to get back on the mound and redeem himself.
“I was questioning myself, what’s going on?” he said. “I’ll do my best to make adjustments, to never let this happen again.”
Valdez (5-7, 4.57 ERA) had delivered his best outing of the season in his last start before the break, holding the Athletics to one run and three hits with nine strikeouts in seven innings on July 9.
He also had a strong outing against the Royals on April 14, limiting them to one run and four hits in seven innings. He’s 2-3 with a 3.05 ERA in 10 career outings (eight starts) against Kansas City.
The Royals’ scheduled starter is rookie Luinder Avila (5-3, 4.86). The right-hander was sharp in his last outing on Tuesday, as he lasted a season-high 6 1/3 innings and held San Francisco to two runs and five hits with seven strikeouts in a 3-2 home victory.
“Right from the get-go, aggressive fastballs down in the zone, upper-90s velo with good sink, slider in the zone,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “I mean, it was exciting to watch. That’s the high-end stuff that we know he has, and the ability to get in the zone, I know he’s worked really hard between starts.”
Avila praised the coaching staff for his success.
“All the credit goes to the pitching coaches,” Avila said. “They’re always there working with me. I just try to execute whatever they say.”
Avila tossed an inning of scoreless relief against Detroit on May 8.
–Field Level Media
