Royals Report: Marlins Snap Royals 9-Game Win Streak With 3-0 Win

The Royals failed to extended their winning streak to ten straight games by falling to the Marlins 3-0 in Miami on Wednesday night. The KC Royals could not score against Marlins ace Jose Fernandez supported by two shutout innings from the Miami bullpen.

The Kansas City Royals fell to 65-61 by losing 3-0 on Wednesday. They remain within 7.0 games of AL Central leading Cleveland. The Royals fell to 4.5 games behind the Orioles for the second AL wild card pending the results of Wednesday’s games. The Marlins improved to 66-61 and remain second place in the NL East.

Kansas City’s no. 5 starter Dillon Gee matched zeros with Jose Fernandez through five innings until running into trouble in the sixth.

Fernandez slapped a one-out single to begin the trouble. Dee Gordon and Martin Prado followed with singles to load the bases, before Chris Yelich slapped a single to right to drive in two runs. Peter Moylan then relieved Gee.

Marcell Ozuna hit a fly ball to left that appeared to give Alex Gordon a chance to throw out the runner at home plate, but catcher Salvador Perez missed the tag due to a great slide by Prado. That play put the Marlins up 3-0. In the end, that rally was all the help that Fernandez, and the Marlins bullpen, needed.

Gee made valiant attempt to take down the Miami ace; but he didn’t get the job done.

Kansas City Had Plenty Of Chances

KC squandered multiple chances to score runs, including leaving the bases loaded in both the second and ninth innings. They also failed to score in the fourth despite a one-out double in the fourth by Alcides Escobar, and opening the sixth with singles by Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez.

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Overall, the Kansas City Royals stroked eight hits and walked three times, but stranded 11 runners on base.

Peter Moylan and Chien-Ming Wang combined for 2.2 innings of scoreless relief behind Gee to extend the bullpen’s scoreless streak to a franchise high 34.2 innings. However, that record was cold comfort after the team fell short of their tenth straight win.

The KC Royals weren’t going to go undefeated for the rest of the season. But, Thursday’s game will be a big opportunity to restore their momentum with an immediate win. The last thing Kansas City needs is to sink back into a negative mentality by beginning a road losing streak.

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Edinson Volquez (9-10, 5.02 ERA) will match up against Miami’s Tom Koehler (9-8, 3.82 ERA) on Thursday night in the rubber game of the series. If KC manages to win, it will be their sixth straight series victory in August.