Bobby Witt Jr., Salvador Perez Make D-backs Pay as Royals Win Series

Salvador Perez had a lot to say as he rounded first base following a line drive homer to left in the top of the fourth inning. He had just gone back to back with Bobby Witt Jr., who launched a 425-foot homer of his own prior to Perez's blast.

That gave the Royals a 2-0 lead against starter Anthony DeSclafani. They were the opening salvos in an eventual 4-0 loss for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Perez was hit high on the shoulder on the first pitch of his at-bat in the second inning. Three D-backs had been hit by pitch the night prior, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Blaze Alexander and Geraldo Perdomo. Eugenio Suarez was hit on Friday. Royals Jonathan India was hit twice on Friday as well.

There might have been some bad blood carrying over from the 2024 season. In July of that year, Humberto Castellanos hit Bobby Witt Jr., who was going for the cycle.

Kansas City retaliated by hitting Gabriel Moreno. Warnings were issued and Lovullo came out to argue, at which point Perez and Lovullo had a verbal confrontation.

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Whether or not any of this was a factor may not be totally clear. For his part Torey Lovullo said he was not aware that Perez was barking rounding the bases. He also insisted that there was no intent to hitting Perez.

"Salvy is a great player. He possibly thinks we hit him on purpose. I don't believe in it. We did not hit him on purpose. He's a great player. I don't know what happened on that pitch, but I don't necessarily agree with anybody that says we did it on purpose. But more power to him. If he feels like we hit him on purpose and then he rounded the bases and had some things to say, I have no problem with it. He's a great player and a great human being."

With that said, Witt, Perez, and the Royals got the early upper hand, and never looked back. Kansas City scored two more off DeSclafani in the fifth, and that was more than enough to insure a victory against the D-backs hitters.

Michael Lorenzen threw seven shutout innings, allowing only two hits. He walked one and struck out seven. The Royals bullpen completed the shutout, just the second time all year Arizona has failed to score. The first time they were shut out was April 11 versus the Brewers.

Corbin Carroll, who was just named as an All-Star team reserve along with Eugenio Suarez, went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. He's hitless in nine at bats since coming off the IL with a fractured wrist.

The lone bright spot was Bryce Jarvis. He came in and threw four scoreless innings of relief after just being called up to replace the injured Ryan Thompson.