Salvy draws closer to history as Royals win 10-5

On a night where Salvador Perez tied Jorge Soler’s single-season homerun record, the Royals beat the Cleveland Indians 10-5 in an offensive battle. It was Kansas City’s 73rd win this season and the 4,000th in team history.

After Daniel Lynch allowed a run early in the first inning, the Royals roughly greeted Cleveland starter Zach Plesac, who was 8-0 in his career against Kansas City. Perez, a day after slamming his 47th home run, landed a three-point shot at a standstill – tying Soler’s record that was broken in 2019.

Unfortunately, Perez was later taken out of the game with a sprained right ankle, the club have announced.

Back on the mound, Lynch struggled to miss the bats. The southpaw worked over three innings and allowed four runs on seven hits with two strikeouts. Joel Payamps relieved him in the fourth, but Cleveland managed to tie the game in the fifth with a brace from Yu Chang.

Greg Holland pitched two perfect innings of relief in the sixth and seventh – preparing the Royals to damage the Indians’ bullpen. That’s exactly what Kansas City did in the bottom of the seventh. With two outs and runners in first and second, Hunter Dozier came at home to break the tie. On a 2-1 hanging slider, Dozier hit it off the wall in right center field – scoring two runs. In the ensuing strike at batting, Dozier came in to score on wild ground to bring the score to 8-5.

Domingo Tapia threw another perfect round in the eighth and Hanser Alberto and Cam Gallagher added some confidence to take the lead to five. Scott Barlow took the ball in the ninth and stopped things in a no-save situation.

The Royals, 73-85, finish their season streak with the Indians tomorrow. Angel Zerpa, 22, will make his major league debut and face former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. CT.