Salvador Perez’s walk-off blast gives Royals doubleheader split against Blue Jays

The ball got up and out so quickly it appeared as if it had been launched out of a cannon.

Kansas City Royals All-Star catcher Salvador Perez hit a walk-off solo home run in the seventh inning of the nightcap of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays to assure the Royals of at least a series split in the four-game set — the Royals lost the first game of the doubleheader earlier in the day.

Perez’s 459-foot blast to center field gave the Royals a 3-2 win over the Blue Jays in front of an announced 8,950 at Kauffman Stadium. It was the Royals’ first walk-off win since the final game of the 2019 season. The teams concluded the series Sunday afternoon.

“It’s pretty fun every time you have the opportunity like that,” Perez said. “It’s good for the team, good for everybody, good for the players. The most important thing is that we win the game. That’s all that matters, play hard to the last out and see what happens. Everything is about wins.”

The Royals (8-5) were down to their final out in the seventh inning, when Perez stepped in and smoked a 1-1 slider from Joel Payamps to the left-center field side of the batter’s eye. By the time it splashed down in the fountain, his teammates had already begun pouring out of the dugout in celebration.

Perez, who now has a team-leading four home runs, had no doubt off the bat that the ball would get out of the ballpark.

“One hundred percent,” Perez said when asked if he knew right away. “I hit that pretty good. I got that ball pretty good.”

The towering blast marked the third walk-off homer of Perez’s MLB career and the fifth walk-off hit of his career. The three walk-off homers tie him with Bob Hamelin for the second-most in club history behind George Brett (six).

“How about that one,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said at the start of his postgame press conference, peeling off his mask and revealing a big grin. “Salvy never ceases to amaze us with what he does.”

The game came with a decidedly throwback vibe as Jarrod Dyson tripled and scored in the game and Ervin Santana made the first start of his second stint with the Royals. Greg Holland, also on his second stint with the organization, pitched a scoreless seventh in earning the win.

Royals’ offseason acquisition Carlos Santana went 2 for 3 with a RBI double. Perez, Dyson and Carlos Santana each had two-hit games.

Ervin Santana, who was added to the active roster on Tuesday, pitched three innings and allowed one run on two hits. He struck out one.

“What a great job he did for us. We knew we were probably going to have to be aggressive with our pitching today,” Matheny said. “But he did a really nice job getting us off to a good start.”

Ervin Santana’s last appearance for the Royals in a major-league game came in 2013. That season, he made 32 starts and posted a record of 9-10 as well as a career-best 3.24 ERA.

Since then, Ervin Santana has pitched for the Atlanta Braves (2014), Minnesota Twins (2015-18) and Chicago White Sox (2019).

He did not pitch in the majors last season. The Royals signed him to a minor-league contract this winter. He worked as both a starter and a reliever this spring.

“I know I don’t have any role yet, but I’ll be ready for anything they need me — be in the bullpen or a starter,” Ervin Santana said. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll be ready for it.”

The Royals scored two in the bottom of the third to take a 2-1 advantage. Dyson’s leadoff triple on a ball that just stayed inside the first-base bag and trickled into foul territory along the right-field line. That put the Royals in prime position to score early in the frame.

“I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit and ended up squeaking a ball down the line,” Dyson said. “When I seen it go past him, I knew I had two. I wasn’t sure of three, but I just took my chances and said, ‘What the heck with it.’ I made it there. I was happy I made it there for the team.”

After the Royals’ Whit Merrifield grounded out sharply to shortstop against a drawn-in infield, Dyson was off on contact when Andrew Benintendi grounded to Blue Jays first baseman Rowdy Tellez.

Tellez’s throw to the plate was off-target. Despite Dyson having missed the plate initially in an effort to avoid running into the catcher, Dyson had time to step on the plate as the ball squirted away into foul territory.

Benintendi advanced to second base on the errant throw, and he scored when Carlos Santana rocketed a double into right-center field.

However, the Blue Jays evened the score in the top of the fourth after Royals reliever Jake Brentz gave up a walk, a single and a sacrifice fly against the first three batters of the inning. Brentz took over for Ervin Santana to start the fourth.

The score remained tied until Perez’s walk-off.