The sonic boom erupted from ’s two-run seventh-inning home run, an encore to the thunderclap out of Bobby Witt Jr.’s triple two batters earlier on Saturday night at jam-packed Kauffman Stadium. It was part of a postseason vibe, really.
With fans on their feet in the ninth, that energy and buzz hovered through the end of the — whose fans appeared to represent half or more of the 36,799 at The K but were virtually muted in those marquee moments. When I asked Perez if it felt like a playoff atmosphere, he smiled and said, “36-37,000 people? That’s pretty cool. And the weather, too.
Kind of chilly a little bit. October baseball.” At least as much as you might be able to feel that in August, lest you’ve forgotten, as the Royals play meaningful baseball this late in the season for the first time since their 2017 hopes evaporated down the stretch.
But the beauty of a victory that boosted them to 65-53 — their best record to this point of a year since the 2015 World Series championship season (72-46) and a game better than the 2014 American League title team — wasn’t merely the deeds of one of the most popular players in franchise history and the surfacing superstar. It was broader, deeper and more reassuring than that — exhilarating as those two made it. The Royals’ MLB-leading 33rd comeback win was made of the stuff that suggests the capacity to generate wins that don’t depend purely on the two faces of the team.
Because it was built on scads of essential contributions all through the lineup, in the field, through a coaching tweak (at least one vital one) and on the mound. Let’s start with the pitching. Reflecting the resurrected rotation otherwise highlighted by , and , Saturday marked another sweet start by (8-2 with a 2.
59 ERA in his last 14 starts) — further testament to how that part of the game has fundamentally changed the trajectory of the Royals. And the game was capped with a four-out save by , who now has thrown 6 1/3 scoreless innings since the Royals acquired him from on July 30 and at least tentatively looks very much the part of the missing turn-to-in-the-crucible piece. “Amazing,” said Perez, glancing upward and adding, “Thank God we have him.
” Erceg’s continued flex amid the flux the Royals have had in their bullpen came with a thought-provoking flourish that perhaps can help them work around some of the volatility they’ve been dealing with: the capacity to pitch more than just one inning, as he’s done once before with the Royals and several times with Oakland. With the Royals leading 6-3 in the eighth, Erceg came in for with two on and two out to face — who had homered in the second inning. He struck out Goldschmidt and then came back out for the ninth, allowing some nuisance commotion with a couple baserunners before bringing it to an end by inducing an groundout to Perez.
While that kind of duty likely would be too taxing to employ all the time, manager Matt Quatraro said, the Royals are confident they can at least do it from time to time ...
unless Erceg’s arm starts telling them otherwise. But Erceg might not have been a factor, or even in the game, if not for all the small things that made the big things possible. Consider how the Royals manufactured their first run in the third inning.
Trailing 2-0, mustered a swinging-bunt single, advanced to second on a throwing error and to third on ’s groundout to first before Witt knocked him in with another groundout. But the Royals still were sputtering offensively until the sixth, when walked with two outs, blooped a single and Freddy Fermin lined DeJong home with a single to left to tie it. Then came the sort of pivot point in the game that turned on both a coaching gesture and an alert — and rare — type of play in the field.
With two Cardinals on in the seventh and stepping to the plate, slightly repositioned Perez at first. Next thing you know, Pham squibbed it right to Perez, who heeded second baseman Garcia calling for the ball instead of stepping to first. That became the start of the ol’ 3-4-5 double play, which I’ve seldom if ever seen before and wouldn’t have gone that way if not for the 24-year-old Garcia’s nimble thinking.
Maybe the bottom of the seventh would have gone the same way even if the Royals had fallen back behind in the top of the inning. But that play had the feel of a turning point, especially when Wacha ended the inning with a strikeout. And the Royals made that a reality starting with contributions from the less-celebrated likes of Isbel and Garcia, each of whom singled and stole second as the Royals took a 3-2 lead.
Then along came Witt with his 11th triple (part of his MLB-leading 295 total bases this season) to make it 4-2 and put him in place to score on Perez’s 21st home run. The Royals added a pair in the eighth courtesy of an double, an Isbel triple and a Witt single. On the 13th anniversary of Perez’s debut with the Royals, Witt afterward said he remembered watching Perez since he was 10 or 11 and called one of the favorite teammates he’s ever had.
Meanwhile, the two of them figure to be among the favorite Royals fans have ever had: Perez already has earned that over the years, including with his 2015 World Series MVP performance, and as one of the brightest young stars in the game. But Saturday was a great reminder that the reason this team has won 27 more games than it had at this time last season (38-80) extends beyond them. It’s the extreme makeover of the starting pitching, the , key moves at the trade deadline, the jelling of a second-year staff.
And then some. More to the point, it’s going to take more than just Witt and Perez to will this revival into a postseason berth. As we write this late Saturday night, the Royals are 3.
5 games behind in the American League Central race and 2.5 games ahead of for the third and last AL Wild Card berth. Starting in on Monday, they’ve got 14 series to go.
Seven of those, including against Minnesota, are with teams either at the top of their divisions or within three games of it. Only four are against teams with losing records. To this point, the Royals are 30-36 against teams .
500 and over and 35-17 against teams under .500 — including the well-known fact that they went 12-1 against the wretched . They owe no apologies for that.
But do the math, and they almost certainly have to play .500 or better against winning teams down the stretch to make the postseason. Saturday night was only one game, of course, but it also reflected a season’s worth of developments.
Ones that make it seem to me they’ve got what it takes to be playing in the chill of October that Perez felt the hint of on Saturday. At spring training, I spoke at length with reliever , who last year with the Rangers became the first player to ever have been part of winning three straight World Series with three different teams. .
“We could surprise some people. We could do some stuff.” At least in terms of reaching the playoffs, it only seems more so now.
