Ain't That Grand!

Salvy's grand slam in the sixth won someone a lot of money and the Royals another game. The guy is incredible.

When the top of the sixth began, the Royals were trailing 4-0 after Brad Keller and Joel Payamps had just given up three in the bottom of the fifth. They had one hit and didn’t look particularly close to getting another. It was at that time that I turned to my wife and said, “I’m not going to write Inside the Crown for tomorrow. Nothing to write about really.” She was surprised and I reminded her that I have my weekly column on Royals Review and then we turned back to the game.

Ryan O’Hearn singled.

Then Emmanuel Rivera singled.

Then Whit Merrifield doubled home O’Hearn and sent Rivera to third.

After that, Nicky Lopez walked.

That knocked Yusei Kikuchi out of the game because Salvador Perez was due up next and he’s absolutely destroyed lefties this year, which is especially crazy because he started off 0 for 25 (or was it 26? I can never remember) against them. So the Mariners brought in Joe Smith, who was acquired from the Astros before the trade deadline. He wasn’t especially good for Houston this year, but he had pitched 11 games for the Mariners and had allowed one unearned run on four hits in 8.1 innings.

His first pitch to Perez was a sinker in. So was his second pitch. The third pitch didn’t make it either inside or to Cal Raleigh’s glove.

Perez might have crushed lefties this year, but he absolutely demolished the 2-0 pitch from Smith with a grand slam. It was the first time in Royals history they hit grand slams in consecutive games, so that would be cool on its own, but it was also a Sonic Slam, which is really cool! So congratulations to David Dicus on his $25,000 that he got just for watching Perez hit a grand slam and congratulations to the Royals for giving themselves a 5-4 lead in a game that looked dead in the water.

The grand slam was Perez’s 35th home run of the year. That makes him the first American League catcher (and that’s used loosely, it’s just for players who play 70 percent or more of their games as a catcher) to hit 35 home runs since Ivan Rodriguez in 1999. We all know what an incredible season it’s been for Salvy, but it was really just another big hit in a series of big hits all season. It was the 19th home run he’s hit that has either tied the game or given the Royals the lead. It was the seventh such home run in the sixth inning or later. He’s been an absolute monster.

The game wasn’t always so much fun, though. It started off with a disastrous first inning from Brad Keller. He walked the leadoff man and then got an out on a really nice play from Nicky Lopez (what’s new?). That’s when the defense started to do its thing. Before the control issues really kicked in, Keller threw a 92.9 MPH sinker to Kyle Seager that he did exactly what you’d expect, but Michael A. Taylor and Lopez combined to make a perfect relay:

But then Keller lost the zone. He walked Ty France. Then on a 3-1 count, he got the weak contact he wanted from Abraham Toro, but it was so weak that he was able to beat it out. With the bases loaded, Keller walked Jake Fraley but then got Jarred Kelenic, who probably shouldn’t be in the big leagues, to strike out after the count went to 3-0. In all, he threw 36 pitches and 13 strikes. What does that look like? Great question.

It looks a bit like a Jackson Pollock painting. That might be some of the worst control I’ve ever seen from a pitcher and I remember Miguel Asencio’s big league debut. It was absolutely brutal, and for a team that likely needed some innings from Keller with Josh Staumont going on the IL earlier in the day, he was in danger of not getting out of the first. But he did, and that’s the important thing.

Then he was just a totally different pitcher. In the second, he threw 12 pitches and 10 strikeouts and got two strikeouts. He threw seven pitches in the third and got three quick outs. Suddenly, he was through three on 55 pitches, which is a lot, but when you remember the first, it was great. But the fourth, you could see things starting to unravel. Taylor made another outstanding play to start the inning.

But he gave up back-to-back singles and then after getting Raleigh to pop out, he walked the number nine hitter before getting J.P. Crawford to hit a ball to shallow center field that Lopez snagged and that was that.

Unfortunately, the fifth wasn’t so kind to Keller. He put another sinker right in the middle to Seager and it was crushed to give the Mariners a 2-0 lead. But after the pitch, Keller reached for the back of his arm and the trainer came out immediately and eventually that was the end of the day for Keller. It’s the second time in August he had to be pulled from a start, and if you remember, it was the start he struggled a bit in the third in Toronto, so that’s definitely worth monitoring. Joel Payamps replaced him, ended up giving up a two-run homer to Fraley and that’s when I figured I wouldn’t write.

But the excitement wasn’t over with the Salvy grand slam. The Mariners have made a habit of being a tough team to close out this season and they kept getting after it against Payamps. Raleigh doubled, which brought Richard Lovelady to the mound. He gave up an infield single to pinch hitter Luis Torrens and then he went to work.

He went up the ladder against Crawford to strike him out.

Then he went up the ladder against Mitch Haniger to strike him out.

And then he got a groundout to Merrifield that Hunter Dozier dove for, missed and still got up and got back to first to cover. Lovelady escaped. His number this season have been really impressive, maybe putting himself back on the map as an impact reliever for this team moving forward. He has a 27.2 percent strikeout rate and just a 6.2 percent walk rate. He’s inherited 16 runners in 19 games and while five of them have scored, three were in one game. It’s really been an impressive display for him after all that time of not getting the opportunity many believed he deserved.

I mentioned the Mariners have been a real pain this season, so insurance runs are pretty important, so after Rivera reached on an error by Toro, he stole second with Lopez at the plate. As improved as Lopez is, that’s a smart risk with two outs and a lead because Lopez still isn’t likely to put a ball in the gap to let Rivera score from first. So he stole second and picked a good pitch and then on the very next pitch, Lopez just went right up the middle to give the Royals a 6-4 lead.

With the bullpen in need, Matheny turned to an unlikely setup man - Ervin Santana. And the guy was freaking great. He got the Mariners 1-2-3 in the seventh. When he came out in the eighth, he did make a mistake to Kelenic who took a legitimately beautiful swing on a slider that didn’t quite slide enough and he belted one to left-center.

Another outstanding play, this one from Andrew Benintendi, who actually had a really nice play earlier in the game as well. This shot of Kelenic at the end of that play sums up the night for the Mariners.

And then Santana got the next two to send the game to the ninth. It was a really impressive performance from the veteran, who has been quite good lately. He didn’t pitch from July 10 all the way to July 25. Yeah, the break was in there, but he just didn’t get an opportunity. And when he did finally pitch that day, he couldn’t get an out with a 6-0 lead. But since then and including last night, he’s pitched in 11 games and gone 15.1 innings with one run on seven hits allowed. He’s picked up 13 strikeouts and walked just three. Not too bad.

Not to be forgotten, it was a nice bounceback game for Scott Barlow, who didn’t pitch especially poorly in Wednesday’s loss, but he did throw a ton of pitches and allowed his inherited runner to score to tie the game in the eighth. He had a real easy bottom of the ninth on eight pitches to give the Royals their fifth win in seven games on this long road trip. The Royals went 2-18 on the road between June 7 and the break, but since the break, they’re now 10-8 on the road, which is better. Personally, I like the better record more.