36-year-old Salvador Perez treated us to an extremely rare sight on Sunday.
The longtime Kansas City Royals catcher Perez got a base hit in the second inning against the Detroit Tigers at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. Then on 2-1 pitch to teammate John Rave, Perez stunned everybody by making a break for it.
Perez went scampering (or perhaps more accurately, rumbling) towards second base and successfully swiped the bag without even so much as a throw from Tigers catcher Eduardo Valencia (who was likely stunned into total inaction). In response to the surprise feat, Perez received a loud standing ovation from his hometown fans.
Here is the priceless video.
How do the Tigers allow a 36-year-old Salvador Perez to steal a base pic.twitter.com/VHwOJ2jxCi
— 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔇𝔢𝔱𝔯𝔬𝔦𝔱 𝔗𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔰 (@the_det_times) August 23, 2026
For those keeping score at home, that was Perez’s first stolen base in over five years. His last successful swipe came on July 21, 2021 during a game on the road against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Sunday’s caper also marked just the seventh stolen base of Perez’s entire MLB career. In fact, you have to go all the way back to July 20, 2017 for the last time that Perez swiped a bag in front of his home crowd in Kansas City (which was also coincidentally during a game against the Tigers).
The nine-time All-Star and former World Series MVP Perez is now in his 15th career MLB season. But this might be Perez’s most entertaining year yet as he also produced a triple during a game in late July against the Minnesota Twins as well as some other hilarious moments on the field.
