Royals, Indians:

Salvador Perez hit his 46th home run, breaking Johnny Bench’s record for homers by a catcher in a season, and the Royals beat the Indians 7-2 on Monday in the first game of a doubleheader in Cleveland. Perez hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning, topping Bench’s total from 1970 for the most by a player who played at least 75% of his team’s games at catcher. Starting again behind the plate — the durable All-Star has seen some time at designated hitter — Perez drove a 1-2 pitch from Triston McKenzie into the left field bleachers, a drive that traveled 429 feet. Perez pointed to the sky after crossing home plate and was hugged by several teammates as he entered the dugout. Perez also moved into a tie for the major league lead in homers with the Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Perez leads the majors with 115 RBIs. The Jays played the Rays later Monday. Hunter Dozier and Andrew Benintendi also hit two-run homers for the Royals. Brady Singer (5-10), activated from the COVID19-related injured list before the game, allowed two runs in seven innings . ... Former OF Anthony Gose was called up from the minors by the Indians, this time as a hard-throwing lefty reliever. The 31-year-old Gose last played in the majors in 2016 with the Tigers. Gose didn’t pitch in the first game of the doubleheader against the Royals. Drafted by the Phillies in the second round in 2008, he spent parts of five seasons in the majors with the Blue Jays and the Tigers before returning to the minors as a pitcher in 2017. Gose is in his third year in the Indians’ minor league system and drew attention with his performance at Triple-A Columbus this season. Gose struck out 49 in 33 innings, hitting 100 mph on the radar gun and consistently throwing in the upper 90s. He walked 28 and was 6-1 with a 3.55 ERA in 28 games. Gose has pitched 13 scoreless innings, striking out 21 and walking six, in his last 11 appearances. This summer, Gose pitched four scoreless innings for the U.S Olympic team in Tokyo.

Yankees: Pitcher Luis Severino was activated by the Yankees before the team’s series opener against the Rangers. Severino missed last season after making just three regular-season and two postseason appearances in 2019. Yankees manager Aaron Boone plans to use the two-time All-Star out of the bullpen. “He could find himself in the highest-leverage situation or whatever and could evolve into a multi-inning role,” Boone said. “We feel like we got a really good pitcher that we got to add to the mix today.” The 27-year-old right-hander had Tommy John surgery on Feb. 27, 2020. He made four minor league appearances totalling 10 innings, allowing four runs, five hits and one home run with three walks and 15 strikeouts. Severino’s rehab was slowed when he injured his right groin June 12 in his second minor league appearance, for Hudson Valley at Brooklyn. Severino returned to pitch for Somerset on Aug. 3 and 8, then was scratched from an Aug. 13 outing for Triple-A Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre because of shoulder tightness. A 19-game winner in 2018, Severino signed a fouryear, $40 million contract before the 2019 season. He was limited by shoulder soreness to three appearances in 2019, the first on Sept. 17 and the last on Sept. 28, plus a pair of postseason starts in the ALDS and ALCS.