Major League Baseball announced today that Salvador Perez has been named American League Player of the Week for the period of August 23-29, a stretch in which he hit .357 (10-for-28) across seven games and led the Major Leagues in both home runs (6) and RBI (14).
Perez is the first Royals player to earn the award since Adalberto Mondesi from September 21-27, 2020.
Perez homered in six of seven games last week, including each of the last five, matching a Royals record for consecutive games with a home run, previously set by Mike Sweeney from June 25-29, 2002. The five-game homer streak, which Perez will carry into tomorrow night’s game vs. Cleveland, is tied for the second-longest run in the Majors this season, trailing only Joey Votto, who homered in seven straight games from July 24-30.
A week ago today in Houston, Perez reached safely four times, including a solo home run off Zack Greinke, en route to a 7-1 win. On Wednesday in Houston, Perez hit a game-tying home run off Lance McCullers Jr. in the fourth inning in a game the Royals lost in 10 innings.
Salvy homered in all four games vs. Seattle last weekend, including a grand slam in back-to-back games on Thursday and Friday, becoming just the 25th player in AL/NL history, according to Elias, to record a grand slam in back-to-back team games. Thursday’s slam turned a 4-1 deficit into a 5-4 lead in an eventual 6-4 win, and Friday’s slam was one of his three hits that night and tied the game at 5-5 in an eventual 8-7 win in 12 innings.
On Saturday, Perez hit a two-run home run that proved to be the difference in a 4-2 win, and on Sunday, he hit a game-tying solo home run and an RBI single in the eighth. The homer on Sunday was the 190th of his career, matching Alex Gordon for the fourth most in the 53-year history of the franchise. It was also his 38th home run of the season, which are the second most in the Majors, and matches Mike Moustakas for the second-highest single-season total in Royals history.
Perez reached in 15 of his 33 plate appearances last week for a .455 on-base percentage. Among players with at least 30 plate appearances last week, his 1.455 OPS led the Majors. He led the Royals to a 7-3 road trip that began on August 20, a stretch in which he hit eight home runs and 16 RBI, becoming the first player in Royals history with eight homers on a single road trip, and the first on any team to do it, according to Elias, since Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman from Sept. 2-12, 2013.
Here is the MLB scoreboard from Monday, August 30, 2021:
St. Louis Cardinals 3, Cincinnati Reds 1
Texas Rangers 4, Colorado Rockies 3
Minnesota Twins 3, Detroit Tigers 2
Toronto Blue Jays 7, Baltimore Orioles 3
Tampa Bay Rays 6, Boston Red Sox 1
Los Angeles Angels 8, New York Yankees 7
Houston Astros 4, Seattle Mariners 3
Philadelphia Phillies 7, Washington Nationals 4
San Diego Padres 7, Arizona Diamondbacks 5
Milwaukee Brewers 3, San Francisco Giants 1
Los Angeles Dodgers 5, Atlanta Braves 3
