Perez’s clutch hitting helps KC Royals overcome early deficit, beat Minnesota Twins 5-4

It took until the final homestand of the season, but the Kansas City Royals finally got the come-from-behind monkey off their backs. For the first time all season (67 opportunities), the Royals came back to win a game after they’d trailed by three runs or more.

The win came at the expense of their AL Central Division rivals, the Minnesota Twins, who’ve dominated the season series against the Royals. Kansas City entered this series with the bitter taste in its mouths after a dreadful showing last week in Minnesota, where the Royals were swept in a three-game series.

In the seventh inning after Royals rookie MJ Melendez got thrown out at the plate trying to score from second on a double by Bobby Witt Jr., veteran catcher Salvador Perez came through with a clutch RBI double to drive in Witt and give the Royals a one-run lead on their way to a 5-4 win in front of an announced 14,508 in attendance for the first game of a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday night.

The Royals victory snapped a streak of seven consecutive losses to the Twins.

The notoriously free-swinging Perez quipped that his approach in that decisive at-bat was “swing at everything if it’s close to the zone.”

Perez hit a first-pitch slider off the outside edge of the plate from Twins reliever Michael Fulmer and notched his 72nd RBI of the season in 103 games.

“I think a game like that, it’s great experience for the young guys,” Perez said. “Hopefully, they learn from that and bring it into next year and play like that every day.”

Perez went 1 for 3 with the game-winning RBI, while Melendez and Witt each went 2 for 4 with a double. Melendez also homered and drove in two runs, while Witt drove in a run and scored a run.

Hunter Dozier went 2 for 4 with a home run, while Vinnie Pasquantino went 1 for 2 with two walks. Edward Olivares also doubled, and Nate Eaton had a hit, a stolen base and a run scored for the Royals (59-89).

The Twins (73-75) had won 12 of the previous 16 meetings between the teams this season.

“That was big for us,” Dozier said. “Minnesota has kind of had our number this year. We haven’t really played great against them. We got down early, but it was good to answer back and then get the win.”

Royals starting pitcher Zack Greinke allowed four runs on 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out three, and he did not factor into the decision.

Greinke’s inning-ending strikeout of Twins outfielder Jake Cave in the third marked the 1,000th of his Royals career. His first stint with the Royals went from 2004 through 2010. He returned this spring training as a free-agent.

The Twins scored the game’s first three runs, all in the second inning. After inducing a pop-up to start the frame, Greinke gave up an infield hit, a single and an RBI double by Matt Wallner.

Then with two outs, Carlos Correa — Greinke’s former teammate with the Houston Astros — hit a two-run single to give the visitors a three-run advantage.

“The stuff wasn’t the absolute sharpest that has been,” Greinke said. “Changeup was pretty good. The curve — their team sees my curve pretty good compared to other teams. Last outing, they saw it good and took good swings on it. The time before, they took good swings on it. Today, they took good swings on it. That’s, a lot of times, my best pitch. So it makes it a little harder.”

Wallner’s double came on a curveball.

The Twins’ lead shrunk to a single run in the third inning thanks to a two-run blast by Melendez, the 16th home run of his rookie season. The 421-foot blast to center field came with two outs after Olivares doubled to start the inning.

The Royals grabbed a lead in the fifth after Dozier’s solo homer (his first in 115 at-bats) and a two-out infield single by Witt scored Eaton.

Greinke gave up a double to Gio Urshela to start the sixth, and the Twins tied the score when reliever Amir Garrett gave up a double to right-center field by Cave.

Garrett entered the night having stranded 32 of 35 inherited runners this season, the highest stranded runner rate (91.4 percent) among pitchers in the majors with at least 30 inherited runners this year.

After Dylan Coleman pitched a scoreless seventh inning, Jose Cuas ran into trouble with one out in the eighth. Cuas hit a pair of batters and put the tying and go-ahead run on base.

Royals closer Scott Barlow pitched the final 1 2/3 innings for his 22nd save of the season.

“Scott was coming in for the fourth hitter,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “... Scott has had three days off. That’s a time when we’ll stretch him a little bit. When he has had more than a couple day or at least two days off in a row, we can push him one plus. Today was one of those days. As soon as we got to the fourth hitter, we knew we were going to him.”