By MATT PIKE
The Kansas City Royals lost their shutout late, giving up four runs in the ninth inning, but still avoided being swept by the Miami Marlins and backing a strong start from Kris Bubic, winning 7-4 on Sunday afternoon.
Maikel Garcia's sacrifice fly in the fourth inning got the scoring started, driving in Bobby Witt Jr after he doubled earlier in the inning with one out. With Vinnie Pasquantino at first base, his single having moved Witt Jr to third, Salvador Perez moved him to third with a ground rule double, before both scored as Jac Caglianone doubled right behind the vetereran catcher to put the Royals up 3-0.
Kansas City added onto their lead with three more runs in the fifth. After Freddy Fermin reached on a fielding error and Kyle Isbel singled, Jonathan India doubling to drive both in. India moved to third on a wild pitch and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Pasquantino putting the Royals up 6-0 at the end of five.
The final run of insurance was put on the board in the eighth inning, courtesy of the captain, as Perez hit his 15th home run of the season to left field to put the Royals up 7-0 going into the final inning.
Andrew Hoffman came onto pitch in the ninth inning with the big lead, but ran into trouble, despite getting two outs. Hoffman walked Heriberto Hernandez with one out, and then with two outs walked Jesús Sánchez, before Javier Sanoja reached on an error by India to load the bases. With the bases loaded Xavier Edwards singled to drive in Hernandez and Sánchez, and then gave up a double to Agustín Ramírez scoring Sanoja and Edwards, prompting the Royals to call on Carlos Estévez for the save.
Estévez did give up a single to Otto Lopez but then got LIam Hicks to flyout to earn his 26th save of the season.
Bubic earned the win, improving to 8-6 on the season, pitching five shutout innings and giving up just three hits while walking one and striking out two. At the plate, Perez was 2-for-4 with a double, the home run, and one RBI. Isbel was 2-for-3 with a walk.
Kansas City will now travel to Chicago to face the Cubs. Noah Cameron (3-4, 2.31 ERA) will open the series for the Royals against Ryan Brasier (0-0, 1.04 ERA) for the Cubs. First pitch will be at 7:05pm, pregame coverage will start at 6:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.