Perez breaks out of funk with homer as Kansas City Royals stop slide by beating Astros

For at least one day, all went right in the Kansas City Royals kingdom. Star catcher Salvador Perez seemingly dismissed any questions about the lingering effects of his thumb injury when he hit a home run, doubled and drove in three of his team’s six runs in a win over the AL West-leading Houston Astros.

The victory stopped the Royals’ five-game slide. Left-hander Kris Bubic tossed five scoreless innings in his first start since having been demoted to the minors. Seven Royals players collected hits for they went 4 for 9 collectively with runners in scoring position.

The Royals scored all six of their runs in the sixth inning or later and all with two outs to beat the Astros 6-0 in the second game of the three-game series in front of an announced 14,663 at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday. Rain delayed the start of the game by 51 minutes.

The win, the Royals’ fourth shutout of the season, also marked their 2,000th regular-season victory at Kauffman Stadium. It also evened the weekend series between the teams at a game apiece and set up a rubber match for Sunday afternoon.

Perez went 2 for 4 with a double, his seventh home run of the season and three RBIs for the Royals (17-34).

Perez’s 321st career multi-hit game moved him past Alcides Escobar for sole possession of ninth place on the franchise’s all-time leaderboard for multi-hit games.

“That’s what I try to do every time, try to help my team win,” Perez said. “I just try to swing at good pitches. Hopefully, the team starts to go a different way (with) what happened today. Every time we win, it’s a great game.”

Whit Merrifield went 2 for 4 with a run scored, while Nicky Lopez went 2 for 3 with a double and a run scored.

Rookie shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. went 1 for 4 with an RBI, a stolen base and a run scored, and Hunter Dozier went 1 for 4 with two RBIs.

“You just knew Salvy was going to do Salvy things throughout this year,” Witt said. “Maybe he was just in a little bit of a funk here and there, but he’s back to being him. It was great to see him do that and just see that Salvy smile on his face.”

Andrew Benintendi’s career-best on-base streak ended at 24 consecutive games.

Bubic stepped into the rotation spot vacated by Zack Greinke going on the injured list, and he didn’t allow a run in his first start for the Royals since May 4.

The Royals optioned right-hander Ronald Bolaños to Triple-A Omaha following Friday night’s game to make room on the roster for Bubic.

In the sixth inning with the score 0-0 and neither offense having mustered much, Perez hit his first home run since May 14 (he was on the IL from May 17-28), to give the Royals a 2-0 edge. He also snapped a personal 0-for-21 stretch

Merrifield singled to start the inning, but the next two batters — Benintendi and Witt — hit fly balls to bring Perez to the plate with Merrifield still stuck at first base.

Perez, who’d been mired in a career-worst five-game hitless slide, blasted a 1-2 fastball left up and out over the heart of the plate. The two-run homer, which landed in the visiting team’s bullpen, tied Perez with Witt for the team lead in home runs.

“I think (Friday) I got two or three strikeouts with the fastball up,” Perez said. “So I kind of tried to make adjustments. That’s why I like this game a lot, because we get opportunities. We just need to try to make adjustments, think what they’re going to try to do to you.

“When I got a fastball up. I think it was. It was a good pitch too. I just put the barrel (on it).”

In recent days, Perez has publicly put the onus on himself to produce more at the plate to help his team score runs and win games. He entered the day batting .182 this season.

“When a team is fighting to just find themselves and trying to find some good, you want your biggest voices using that voice,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “And it’s hard to do it when you’re fighting different things and you’re not feeling like you’re producing like you want to.

“As much as we all know he has the credibility in that clubhouse and the utmost respect, he just wants to do his part too. To be able to do that just sent a jolt through that dugout. Obviously, we needed some runs, but the fact that he did that made it that much sweeter.”

In the eighth, with the Royals still holding on tight to a two-run lead, Lopez’s double put an insurance run in scoring position to start the inning.

After a strikeout and a flyout, it looked like they might have to make the two runs stand up. Then Witt smacked an RBI single to center to score Lopez. Witt stole second to put himself in scoring position, and Perez hit an RBI double over the head of left fielder Yordan Alvarez.

The Royals didn’t stop there. MJ Melendez singled to put two men on, and Dozier ripped a two-run single to get them to six runs.

The Royals bullpen quartet of Collin Snider, Arodys Vizcaino, Josh Staumont and Scott Barlow pitched one inning apiece to secure the shutout.

The teams will conclude their three-game series on Sunday afternoon. The Royals will hand that ball to right-handed starter Jonathan Heasley (0-2, 4.66), while the Astros list left-hander Framber Valdez (5-2, 2.57) as their scheduled starter.

Taylor returns

Center fielder Michael A. Taylor made his first start since returning from the IL on Friday. Taylor, last year’s AL Gold Glove winner at the position, hadn’t played since May 17.

Taylor missed 14 games when he went on the IL for COVID-related reasons per the MLB health and safety protocols. He did a two-game minor-league rehab assignment with Triple-A Omaha this week.

He did not have a hit (0 for 4) in his first game back.