Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez smashed his 46th home run of the season, breaking the all-time record for catchers set by Hall of Famer Johnny Bench in 1970, with the Royals going on to complete a doubleheader sweep of the Cleveland Indians on Monday.
Perez’s historic blast came in the fifth inning of the first game of the twinbill, moving “Salvy” into the MLB lead in homers with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays and putting the KC backstop into the MLB lead in RBI’s with 115. Kansas City hit four homers in total in a 7-2 win.
In Monday night’s Game 2, Perez doubled early in the game before striking out against Anthony Gose, with the Royals winning 4-2.
In Milwaukee on Monday night, St. Louis lefty Jon Lester earned his 200th career victory, with Nolan Arenado providing the offensive punch with a two-run homer, as the Cardinals beat the Brewers 5-2 for the ninth consecutive victory for a franchise closing in on a National League wild-card berth.
St. Louis is three games ahead of Cincinnati, with San Diego 4 back and Philadelphia 4 1/2 games off the pace for the second and final available Wild Card position in the NL, with just under two weeks left in the season. St. Louis is approaching the franchise record winning streak of 14 games, set by the Dizzy Dean led squad of 1935.
