Fermin extends Royals' home run streak to 11 games 

MILWAUKEE -- On Thursday afternoon, backup catcher Freddy Fermin laid down a perfect safety squeeze to give the Royals’ a walk-off win over the White Sox. By Friday night in Milwaukee, he was unleashing his power with a 423-foot tank of a home run.

That offense wasn’t nearly enough to power the Royals in their 5-1 loss to the Brewers at American Family Field in the series opener, but it did extend Kansas City’s home run streak to 11 consecutive games. It’s the longest active streak in the Majors, and it matches the third-longest homer streak in franchise history, joining the 2004 club (Sept. 17-27) and the 1987 club (Aug. 9-19).

The Royals’ franchise record for most consecutive games with a home run is 15, which came from April 6-22, 2001. If the Royals homer on Saturday, it’ll match the '85 club (Aug. 31-Sept. 10) for the second-longest streak at 12 games.

“I can guarantee you they’re not going up there thinking about homering in 11 straight games,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “They’re just trying to have productive at-bats. Being on time is usually a good thing, and you make better swing decisions.”

Kansas City entered Friday night ranking atop the Major Leagues in several offensive categories since the calendar flipped to May and their homer streak started: Second in runs per game (6.7), batting average (.292), on-base percentage (.365) and home runs (18).

But on Friday, to open a nine-game, 10-day road trip, they ran into one of the top pitchers in the National League in Brewers ace Corbin Burnes, who shut the Royals out for six innings.

"First time through, they were aggressive, and then they kind of changed their approach a little bit, tried to start waiting it out,” Burnes said. “The cutter, for the most part, I was able to get ahead in the count. … The pitch efficiency the first three innings was not good, so just having to fill the zone, get ahead more.”

The Royals drew four walks against Burnes and ran his pitch count up to 104 pitches -- including 63 by the end of the third inning -- but Burnes worked his way out of each jam he created. The Royals had two on base in the second when Nick Pratto singled and Hunter Dozier walked, but Jackie Bradley Jr. grounded into a forceout and Fermin flew out to deep center field.

In the third, Edward Olivares and MJ Melendez walked with two outs, but Maikel Garcia struck out swinging.

“He doesn’t give in,” Quatraro said of the 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner. “You lay off one, he walked a few guys, but he’s not going to give in to the next guy. He’s going to force you to beat him every time.”

While Burnes flustered the Royals' offense, the Brewers stacked a steady lead. They scored in the first off opener Josh Taylor when Willy Adames walked, stole second and went to third on Fermin’s errant throw. Then they scored two off bulk pitcher Max Castillo, who gave the Royals 4 1/3 innings on three days’ rest and worked his way out of several jams with key double plays.

“I have to work a little bit more on my slider,” Castillo said. “That was my goal today -- to locate my slider down and away. When I did that, the results look better.”

The Royals recalled Fermin on May 2 to give the club a true backup catcher as MJ Melendez focuses on right field for the foreseeable future. All Fermin has done since is play in eight games (starting five of them) and gone 8-for-20 with four extra-base hits and five RBIs.

“When he’s hit them, he’s hit them a long way,” Quatraro said.

Salvador Perez hasn’t played the past two games because of blurry vision, and the Royals want to be careful with their longtime catcher to avoid long stretches of games he’s behind the plate. So Fermin -- a 27-year-old Venezuelan catcher who signed with the Royals back in 2015 -- is doing whatever he can to help Perez, the pitching staff and the offense.

One day that’s laying down a bunt, the next it’s sending a pitch to the left-field stands. In between, he’s working on his defense and learning how best to guide pitchers through a game.

“Learn about the pitchers,” Fermin said of his focus right now. “Keep [working on] my defense. Sometimes I don’t do well, but you got to keep going. But just learn about the pitchers [is the goal].”