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Royals harpoon Marlins 5-2 as Dyson dazzles

All bow to Jarrod.

By Matthew LaMar
Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Look, I'm aware that there was a baseball game, and that it was one involving the Kansas City Royals in their underdog quest for another postseason birth against an intriguingly unfamiliar opponent.

But there are 162 games in a regular season, and there is only one Jarrod Dyson, and there is only one Jarrod Dyson play to watch for the rest of time:

Enhance:

How far did he run, how fast, and how accurate was it? Ridiculously, is the answer.

Alright alright, this is a recap, and I'll do the recap now, but don't you dare forget about that Dyson play.

The Kansas City Royals, in their last game in a National League park barring a third consecutive trip to the World Series, beat the Miami Marlins 5-2 for their sixth consecutive series win. Kansas City utilized great defense and timely hitting to harpoon the Marlins.

It took until the third inning for anybody to score. Cheslor Cuthbert swatted a double to place himself at second base with one out. After Lorenzo Cain grounded out, Marlins' starting pitcher, Tom Koehler, decided to intentionally walk Eric Hosmer for some reason. It didn't work out, as Salvador Perez crushed a double of his own to score Cuthbert and give the Royals a 1-0 lead. In the fourth inning, the Royals doubled their lead, as Alcides Escobar slammed his third homer of the season.

As a sidebar, Escobar has two home runs in his last 18 games. Hosmer has two home runs in his last 22 games. Hosmer has been very bad for a long time this year.

The Marlins responded in kind in the bottom half of the fourth inning. Edinson Volquez, who had hitherto been pretty decent despite some underwhelming stuff, fell apart a bit. A single with one out by Marcell Ozuna was followed by Volquez hitting J.T. Realmuto. After Ichiro groundet out, Xavier Scruggs sharply grounded to Cuthbert. Though Cuthbert's dive saved two runs from scoring, his errant throw to Hosmer allowed two runs to score.

Fortunately, that would be the only runs scored by Marlins against Volquez, whose final line was five innings pitched, two strikeouts, one walk, three hits, and two runs, both of which were unearned.

The Royals have went on this scorching-hot streak in part by their mechanical bullpen, which has been humming along so nicely that Wade Davis himself, currently in the process of rebooting in the minor leagues, would approve. For a spell, it seemed as if the Marlins would crush the streak immediately.

But first, a joke! How do you waste millions of dollars?

young

Chris Young's ERA has just recently slipped below 6 (though his FIP stands at almost 7), and tonight Young seemed unsure if he wanted to keep it going down or wanted to go back to the good old days earlier in the season when his ERA was the size of Donald Trump's ego. After getting two quick outs, Young coughed up three consecutive singles (including one to Jeff Francoeur!), loading the bases for Matt Strahm to clean up his mess.

Strahm, of course, did clearn up his mess, because Strahm has been otherworldly in his first handful of games in the big leagues.

Strahm only struck out two batters tonight, lowering his K/9 from 16.39 to 16.03. Sad!

The Royals had grabbed the lead in the top half of that inning, as an Alex Gordon single, Escobar double, and a pinch-hitting Kendrys Morales in the pitcher's spot (necessitating Young's insertion into the only the sixth inning) gave the Royals two more runs to make the game 4-2.

Strahm pitched a scoreless seventh (because of course), Joakim Soria pitched a scoreless eighth (Soria has not allowed a run in his last ten outings, with a 11:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio over that time), and all of a sudden it was the ninth inning for Kelvin Herrera's ninth save opportunity. Herrera had a full three runs to work with, as Raul Mondesi walked, stole two bases, and then went home on a throwing error to score the Royals' fifth and final run in the top of the ninth.

The Marlins stood no chance. Herrera accrued a pair of strikeouts, extending the Royals' scoreless bullpen streak to an unbelievable 38 2/3 innings.

Tomorrow, the Royals head to Boston to face the Red Sox, who are fighting for the AL East pennant as well as a Wild Card spot.

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