KANSAS CITY — What’s the easiest way to inject some energy into a ballpark that needed it and get a long homestand off on the right foot?
How about a pair of game-flipping home runs?
“That’s a huge swing right there,” Isbel said of Perez’s game-tying homer. “Huge swing of energy. Kind of knew after that swing we’re going to win the game.”
Isbel made sure it happened with his fourth home run of the season and first since May 6 against the White Sox, snapping a drought of 204 homerless at-bats. And it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Monday’s series opener kicked off a 10-game homestand over the next 11 days and an excellent opportunity for the Royals (59-60) to get on a roll with six games against the Nationals (47-71) and White Sox (43-76) this week and a four-game set next week with the Rangers (61-59) — the team Kansas City is right behind in the American League Wild Card standings.
As anyone with the Royals will say, though, they can only take it one day at a time. Perhaps Monday’s game, then, was their greatest opportunity yet. It did not start well, with lefty Bailey Falter surrendering two runs in the first inning and working around a ton of damage. The Nationals put 10 balls in play against Falter; nine of them were hard-hit (95+ mph). He struck out five but walked three and was out of the game after four innings and 76 pitches.
“The stuff could be better, especially my secondary stuff,” Falter said. “I’m not really the biggest fan of it right now. But this pitching staff sees a lot of potential in it, so I’m excited to get better.”
Twice the Royals were trailing by two but came back to tie it, in the second inning and sixth. Kansas City had yet to truly figure out Nats starter Cade Cavalli until the sixth, when Maikel Garcia walked and Perez launched a Statcast-projected 404-foot shot to left-center field, his 21st of the season, to tie the game.
Perez had flied out in his previous at-bat in the third inning on a 101.1 mph deep ball to center field. So when the Nationals sent Cavalli out for the sixth inning to face Perez again, manager Matt Quatraro said he got excited.
“I felt really good about that at-bat,” Quatraro said. “But you never know, right? And then a lot of things kept happening that inning, some really good at-bats down at the bottom of the order, and Izzy coming up big with the homer.”
Isbel isn’t a home run hitter, something he’s well aware of but has truly started to embrace this year as Kansas City’s No. 9 hitter, who is hitting a career-best .264 overall and .333 since the All-Star break. Instead of trying to pull the ball so often, Isbel is focused on the left-center gap recently at the urging of Adam Frazier, who has been a huge boost for the Royals since rejoining them at the break.
“He was like, ‘How many homers have you hit in your career?’” Isbel said. “I told him, ‘22 or 23.’ He goes, ‘All right, stop trying to pull the ball.’ … Unlocking that opposite side of the field, if I do hit it over there, cool, but I also have the whole rest of the field to play with, rather than thinking straightaway right field.”
Isbel also knew that he hasn’t hit sinkers well this year (.152 average entering Monday), and Nationals reliever Jackson Rutledge is a sinker-heavy pitcher. With two outs and Nick Loftin on first base, Isbel needed to find a way to get on base.
“So I was just trying to look for something over the heart of the plate, drive a ball into left-center field,” Isbel said. “If I was thinking pull right there, I’d probably roll it over or hit it into our dugout.”
Isbel hit the middle-middle sinker pull-side anyway and into the Royals’ bullpen instead — and into the bare right hand of bullpen coach Mitch Stetter. It was unclear whether the dugout was more excited about the homer or the catch.
“It was actually the second time he’s done it this year,” Isbel said. “I’ve hit him two balls. It’s kind of crazy.”
