DETROIT — Salvador Perez ambled to the mound repeatedly a few nights ago in his work as the Kansas City Royals' catcher, and on Saturday, Tigers manager Brad Ausmus agreed that Perez probably leads the league in meetings with his pitcher. To Ausmus, a longtime catcher, this is a good thing, a reflection of Perez's emotional involvement in the game, in his pitcher, in his attention to detail.
Perez turns 25 on Sunday, and he presumably will catch when the Royals play Detroit on Sunday Night Baseball, the final game of a three-game series. It's a matchup between division rivals — with first place on the line — but you probably will not see him strolling to the mound nearly as much.
The 35-year-old Chris Young is expected to start for the Royals, whereas on Friday, 23-year-old Yordano Ventura was on the mound for Kansas City.