KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Salvador Perez put himself in the company of some Hall of Famers at his position.
Perez and Jorge Bonifacio hit back-to-back homers during a four-run sixth inning, Heath Fillmyer pitched into the eighth and the Kansas City Royals held on for a 6-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday night.
The loss by the Twins, who occupy second place in the woeful AL Central, reduced the division-leading Cleveland Indians’ magic number to two.
Perez’s 420-foot drive to left field was his 25th homer. He became the first AL catcher with back-to-back seasons of at least 25 home runs since Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez, who did it three straight years from 1999-2001. Another Hall of Famer, Mike Piazza, had eight consecutive seasons of 30 or more homers, ending in 2002.
Perez hit a career-high 27 homers last year.
“As a power hitter, he gets better every year,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “That was a huge hit there to give us the lead. Up to that point, we were really scuffling. We hadn’t gotten a hit until that inning and Salvy came in and gave us a big boost.”
The Royals trailed 2-1 and were hitless until Hunter Dozier greeted Alan Busenitz, the Twins’ third pitcher of the game, with a leadoff double to left field in the sixth. Perez and Bonifacio followed with home runs.
“(Busenitz) tried to go up and missed right in the middle,” Perez said. “I took a pretty good swing.”
Busenitz (4-1) faced three batters, all of whom scored, inflating his ERA to 7.71.
“It’s very frustrating because I know what I’m capable of and I’m not doing it,” Busenitz said. “You’ve got to work on it and get better. You’ve got to learn from it and not make the same mistakes, you know?”
Fillmyer (3-1) worked 7 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on five hits and matching his career high with six strikeouts. In his previous start, the Twins bludgeoned him for six runs in 2 1/3 innings.
Jake Cave hit a two-run homer, his 11th of the season, in the second against Fillmyer.