Miami Marlins maul miserable Midwest monarchy 6-1

Miami used a homer and a late rally to put up six runs and Kansas City’s offense offered little resistance as the Marlins won 6-1 to complete the sweep.

Jordan Lyles and Edward Cabrera both did their jobs early on, with each offense managing just one baserunner through the first two innings. Kansas City struck first in the third. Maikel Garcia led off the inning by smacking a single up the middle. He advanced to second on a Jackie Bradley Jr. groundout and then scored on a nice oppo single from Nick Pratto.

Unfortunately, the Royals did not manage to keep the inning going and Miami immediately answered. With one out, Lyles committed the cardinal sin of walking the nine-hitter (with four non-competitive pitches to boot). Luis Arraez did Luiz Arraez things with a soft single. Lyles managed to get the second out before hanging an 0-1 changeup to Jesús Sánchez, who nuked it to center field to give Miami a 3-1 lead.

There’s frankly not much else to write as the rest of the game was pretty uneventful. Nobody seemed interested in scoring and, aside from a leaping catch in center field by Garrett Hampson to take extra bases away from Bobby Witt Jr., there weren’t really defensive highlights either. The Royals got the leadoff man on in four consecutive innings, three of which came via base on balls, and managed just one run out of those opportunities thanks to a caught stealing and two double plays. Even with Cabrera leaving the game early with an injury, Kansas City couldn’t manage anything off the Miami bullpen either.

Credit to Lyles for having the kind of outing the Royals envisioned when they signed him. He wasn’t dominant by any means, but he gave the Royals seven innings and gave them a chance to win. He allowed a boatload of hard contact but, after a leadoff single in the fourth, he retired 12 straight batters. Unfortunately, he ran out of gas in the eighth and allowed the first two batters to reach base. Jose Cuas entered in relief and promptly hung a slider to Bryan De La Cruz, who crushed it into the left field gap to bring both runners home. Sánchez brought him home with a knock to put the game out of reach for Kansas City’s pathetic offense.

Some nuggets:

• Pratto has a hit in every game this month. He’s also still striking out a ton, but I’m sure that .444 BABIP is sustainable.
• Vinnie Pasquantino’s double in the ninth inning was the team’s first extra-base hit since the sixth inning yesterday. After a pretty good offensive showing in game one, they managed just two runs and two extra-base hits in the final two games.
• This game took just two hours and three minutes, giving Miami fans plenty of time to catch their Heat in the NBA Finals.
• The last plate appearance really summed it up this series:

The loss drops the Royals to 18-44. Watching this game reminded me why I’ve been watching way more college ball this year. The Royals have been swept six times this season, which is twice as often as they’ve won a series. They’re on pace for 47 wins. This is year six of a “rebuild” and somehow this will be the third straight year that the team’s winning percentage has gotten worse. I remember a commenter a few years ago calling the upcoming wave of prospects “a fart in a bathtub” and whoever that was, you’re looking prescient. If you’re a masochist, you can watch this team play against a real baseball team starting Friday in Baltimore.

Jordan Lyles: 7.0 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR

Edward Cabrera: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HR

Nick Pratto: 1-3, RBI, BB

Jesús Sánchez: 3-4, HR, R, 4 RBI