Royals shatter scoreless streak with 3 homers in 4-1 win over the Marlins

Hooooommmeee ruuunn!

Entering the game, the Kansas City Royals were losers of 11 of their last 14 and brought a scoreless streak of 22 innings. But the Royals this year have been a totally different team at home, and they used some Kauffman Stadium magic to pull off a convincing 4-1 victory over the Miami Marlins.

The nice part about having an ace is that he can be a stopper for losing streaks—when you really, really need a win, your ace can nearly will it to victory. Tonight, Cole Ragans did just that, in a truly dominant fashion.

Now, Ragans didn’t always have the easiest time, especially with two outs, as the Marlins put together multiple gutsy two-out rallies against Ragans. In the second, Otto Lopez singled with two outs. In the fourth inning, Lopez again singled with two outs, and Nick Gordon followed it up with a double. An Emmanuel Rivera walk loaded the bases. But in both innings, Ragans was able to get the final out without any damage.

The Marlins did manage to tag Ragans for a run in the third inning, the middle of three consecutive innings where they notched a hit with two outs. Ragans watched Jazz Chisholm Jr. and gave up a double to Bryan De La Cruz.

Otherwise, Ragans was unbelievable. His 11 strikeouts were the most for any Royals pitcher since Danny Duffy’s 16-strikeout start against Tampa Bay in 2016. He got 26 whiffs and discombobulated hitters with every one of his pitches.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Royals began the game in the same kind of funk that they’ve had since Friday evening (the last time they scored a run). Bobby Witt Jr. walked in the first inning, but Vinnie Pasquantino immediately hit into an inning-ending double play. In the second inning, MJ Melendez and Hunter Renfroe walked, but CJ Alexander showed his nerves in a terrible three-pitch strikeout where he made the wrong decision on every pitch.

Fortunately, the Royals finally scored in the fourth inning. In three consecutive pitches, Pasquantino and Salvador Perez homered, and Michael Massey singled. The Marlins coaching staff then pulled the equivalent of a basketball time out to try and cut the Royals’ momentum.

It didn’t work. Melendez walked again to put Massey in scoring position, and the Royals assembled a two-out rally of their own by a Kyle Isbel single. And in the sixth inning, Kansas City added an insurance run off the bat of Hunter Renfroe, a mammoth shot that he knew was gone as soon as he finished his swing.

The Kansas City bullpen then did something remarkable: they didn’t do anything remarkable! Outside of an error by John Schreiber, the combination of Chris Stratton, Schreiber, and James McArthur didn’t give up a single baserunner and struck out four Marlins over three innings’ worth of work. It was a nice change of pace.

Tomorrow, the Royals continue the series against Miami with Seth Lugo on the mount. Kansas City is 43-37.