Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals announced that catcher Salvador Perez and left-handed pitcher Noah Cameron have both unanimously been named Royals Player and Pitcher of the Month, respectively, for July. The awards are determined by a local media vote.
Perez slashed .337/.379/.719 (30-for-89) across 24 games last month and paced the club with 16 extra-base hits (7 doubles, 9 home runs). His .337 batting average ranked 10th in the American League and his 9 home runs were tied for the 3rd most in the league, trailing only Seattle’s Randy Arozarena and the Athletics Nick Kurtz (11 each).
Additionally, his 1.098 OPS ranked 2nd in the league, trailing only Kurtz (1.433), and his 16 extra-base hits ranked 3rd, behind Kurtz (25) and Boston’s Jarren Duran (17). His 1.098 OPS was his 2nd-highest mark in any calendar month in his career (min. 50 PA), behind only his 1.197 OPS in September 2020.
Perez recorded multiple hits in 10 of his 24 games and notched multiple extra-base hits five times, including a pair of multi-homer games on July 9 vs. Pittsburgh and July 21 vs. the Cubs at Wrigley Field. He drove in 21 runs last month—tied for the 3rd most in the American League—and his 156 career RBI in the month of July are the 4th most in Royals history, behind only George Brett (304), Amos Otis (174) and Hal McRae (160).
He capped his dominant month with a walk-off single on Wednesday vs. the Braves, giving the Royals a 1-0 win in the 10th inning to mark his 10th career walk-off plate appearance and 9th career walk-off hit. Perez matches McRae and Willie Wilson for the 3rd-most walk-off plate appearances in franchise history, behind only Brett (15) and Otis (12).
This marks his ninth career monthly honor, which are tied for the 4th most since the Royals instituted the award in 1995, trailing only Alex Gordon (13), Mike Sweeney (13) and Eric Hosmer (11).
Cameron went a perfect 3-0 over 5 starts in July, with a sparkling 1.84 ERA (6 ER in 29.1 IP). That marked the 6th-lowest ERA ever by a Royal in the month of July (min. 5 GS), behind only José Lima in 2003 (1.44), Kevin Appier in 1992 (1.55), Rich Gale in 1978 (1.74), Larry Gura in 1980 (1.74) and Bruce Dal Canton in 1974 (1.82).
Among the 85 Major League pitchers who made at least 5 starts last month, his 1.84 ERA was the 5th-best mark, behind only Nathan Eovaldi (0.59), Paul Skenes (0.67), Nick Pivetta (1.17) and Eury Perez (1.29).
He struck out 33 batters over 29.1 innings (10.1 K/9, 28.4 K%), which were tied for the 5th-most strikeouts in the American League, trailing leader Logan Gilbert (38 K).
The Royals went 4-1 in Cameron’s 5 starts last month, and he held opponents scoreless in 3 of his outings, including 4.2 innings on July 2 at Seattle, 6.2 innings on July 13 vs. the Mets and 5.0 innings on July 27 vs. Cleveland.
He lowered his season ERA to 2.44 (22 ER in 81.0 IP), nearly a full run lower than the next-closest rookie (min. 10 GS), Cade Horton (3.42 ERA).
This marks Cameron’s first career monthly honor, as he made his Majors debut for the Royals on April 30