Salvy’s clutch jack gives Royals back-to-back wins

ST. PETERSBURG — Salvador Perez’s two-run homer in the seventh led the Royals to a 3-2 win over the Rays on Tuesday night at Tropicana Field.

The back-to-back wins for the Royals were their first since June 29-30. Meanwhile, the Rays’ record in one-run games fell to 7-18.

The Royals trailed, 2-1, entering the seventh when the Rays brought in Xavier Cedeno to start the inning. Eric Hosmer greeted the Rays southpaw with a single to left. One out later, Perez stepped to the plate and watched Cedeno’s first pitch hit the dirt for ball one. Perez then re-routed an 88-mph fastball into the left-field stands for his 16th homer of the season and a 3-2 Royals lead.

The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the first on Hosmer’s RBI single. The Rays answered in the fifth when Logan Forsythe scored from second base after Yordano Ventura fielded Kevin Kiermaier’s bunt single and threw wildly to first. One out later, Kiermaier scored from third on Desmond Jennings’ groundout to put the Rays up 2-1.

Chris Young earned the win to move to 3-8, while Cedeno took the loss to drop to 3-3.

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDSalvy goes boom: A few moments after Kendrys Morales was called out on a strike that replays suggested was ball four, Perez jumped on a pitch by Cedeno and rocketed it into the left-field seats. The exit velocity on Perez’s homer, his 16th this season, was 98.7 mph, according to …

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