Jeremy Guthrie pitched seven innings and got help from Alex Gordon and Johnny Giavotella who homered in a 6-3 victory over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night. It was a defensive play by catcher Salvador Perez that helped settle Guthrie down.
He gave up five hits to his first 10 batters, and didn’t allow another hit after Ian Kinsler led off the third with a double. Elvis Andrus bunted him to third, but Perez picked off Kinsler with Josh Hamilton at the plate. Guthrie said that play was huge.
“The big momentum shift was the throw by Salvy,” Guthrie said, who won his fourth straight decision with the Royals. “That was a huge sigh of relief for me. I scuffled up to that point. It gave me a big boost.”
Perez is tied with Yadier Molina with three pickoffs, for the league lead, this season even though he didn’t play until June 22 after having knee surgery in spring training.
