SB Nation Kansas City - Rays Down Royals 8-7 With Five Runs In The Bottom Of The Ninth; Spoils Melky Cabrera's Five RBI'shttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/48935/kc-fave.png2011-08-10T21:40:25-05:00http://kansascity.sbnation.com/rss/stream/21199292011-08-10T21:40:25-05:002011-08-10T21:40:25-05:00Rays Down Royals 8-7 With Five Runs In The Bottom Of The Ninth; Spoils Melky Cabrera's Five RBI's
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<p>Ugggggggggly.</p>
<p>Wednesday evening the Royals gave up five runs in the bottom of the ninth to Tampa Bay in an 8-7 loss that spoiled a five RBI effort by centerfielder <span>Melky Cabrera</span>. Still slowed from an injury obtained last week, Cabrera's sac fly in the fifth gave Kansas City a 3-0 lead, and another sac fly in the seventh inning gave the <a href="https://www.royalsreview.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Royals</a> a little more breathing room at 4-2. Then in the ninth inning to cap off his evening Cabrera went deep facing <a href="https://www.draysbay.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Rays</a> pitcher <span>Jake McGee</span> for a three-run shot that made the score 7-3. The Melkman, as he is called, is now batting .306 with 14 home runs and 67 RBI in his first season with the Royals.</p>
<p>The Royals got a solid major league debut from <span>Salvador Perez</span> both behind the plate and in the batters box. Perez picked <span>Casey Kotchman</span> off first base in the fourth inning, and then would later catch <span>Sam Fuld</span> off third base. At the plate Perez was 1-for-3 with a RBI sacrifice fly. During the top of the ninth he just missed belting his first career home run when he fly out to the wall in left facing Rays pitcher <span>Brandon Gomes</span>.</p>
<p><span>Johnny Giavotella</span> and <span>Alcides Escobar</span> would contribute to the Royals efforts with two hits a piece. Escobar had two doubles, giving him 18 for the season. He is now batting .251, also picking up his 16th stolen base of the year.</p>
<p>On the mound <span>Felipe Paulino</span> gave the Royals five inning of three hit baseball as the Rays scored just one run against the big Venezuelan. </p>
<p>With the home run by Cabrera, closer <span>Joakim Soria</span> took a seat and Aaron Crow hustled to get loose and enter the game in the bottom of the ninth. Crow would give up leadoff singles to <span>Matt Joyce</span> and <span>Johnny Damon</span> before he was pulled by Ned Yost in favor of Soria.</p>
<p><span>Evan Longoria</span> doubled to score one run after Soria entered. <span>Ben Zobrist</span> gounded out to second base, but would drive in another run to make it 7-5.</p>
<p>An infield single and RBI by Kotchman drew the Rays closer at 7-6, but alas Soria would strike out <span>B.J. Upton</span> giving the Rays two outs and hope of a victory. However Sam Fuld had other ideas as he hit an RBI triple and scored on an error for a walk off 8-7 victory in which they scored five runs in the bottom of the ninth.</p>
<p>Kansas City falls to 49-68 as Soria falls to 5-5 in taking the loss.</p>
https://kansascity.sbnation.com/2011/8/10/2356502/rays-down-royals-8-7-with-five-runs-in-the-bottom-of-the-ninth-spoilsMatthew Hays2011-08-10T06:32:38-05:002011-08-10T06:32:38-05:00Royals Continue Youth Movement As Catcher Salvador Perez Gets The Call
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<p>The youth movement continues as the Royals called up the youngest prospect to date, and catcher of the future, Salvador Perez.</p> <p>The future has definitely started to morph into the present as Kansas City called up yet another piece of the puzzle following <a href="http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_08_09_kcamlb_tbamlb_1&mode=box&c_id=kc" target="_blank">Tuesday's 4-0 loss to the Rays</a> as the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.royalsreview.com/">Royals</a> have purchased the contract of catcher <span>Salvador Perez</span> from AAA Omaha.</p>
<p>The opportunity to bring up Perez was made available as Kansas City has allowed catcher <span>Brayan Pena</span> to be with his wife who is expecting sometime this week. I would expect the Royals will be placing Pena on the bereavement list which allows a player to be away from the team for personal matters they may have to attend to.</p>
<p>Perez, 21, comes to the Royals with much hype as a stellar defensive catcher. In 292 career games in the Royals minor league system Perez has thrown out 42% of runners attempting to steal. The 6'3" 230 lb catcher was originally signed as a 16-year old in September '06 as an international free agent from Venezuela. He becomes the youngest player on the team and the first player to have been born in the decade of the 90's to join the big league club.</p>
<p>Among the many accolades Perez has received, <a href="http://www.baseballamerica.com">Baseball America</a> had named Perez the top defensive prospect in the Royals farm system each of the past three seasons. He was an All-Star in 2010 in Class A's Carolina League, and this year he was a AA All-Star with Northwest Arkansas in the Texas League. He had recently been called up to Omaha were he played in 12 games, hitting .333/.347/.500. For the year Perez is batting .290/.331/.437 with 10 home runs and 53 RBI. This season he has thrown out 46% out attempted stolen bases by the opposition.</p>
<p>Though he is notably defensive minded, Perez's offensive power has seemed to grow with his age as he has a career high in home runs this season and had equaled the same number of RBI he had last season with Wilmington.</p>
<p>Attached is a <a href="http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13160049" target="_blank">highlight video</a> from MLB.com of Perez throwing out a <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.gaslampball.com/">Padres</a> base runner during Spring Training. You can view Perez's career numbers <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=perez-001sal" target="_blank">here</a>. An additional video of Perez batting was found via youtube<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn3q8zkul2E" target="_blank"> here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=perez-001sal" target="_blank"></a>Nothing has been made official as far as announcing a move on the 40-man roster to allow Perez to join Kansas City, however there has been speculation that a pitcher such as <span>Jesse Chavez</span> will be removed to make room.</p>
https://kansascity.sbnation.com/kansas-city-royals/2011/8/10/2354664/royals-continue-youth-movement-as-catcher-salvador-perez-gets-the-callMatthew Hays