Royals comeback effort falls short in 8-7 walkoff loss to Marlins

The Royals took a 7-5 lead into the bottom of the tenth but couldn’t hold it.

All-Star Carlos Estévez came on for the 10th inning and gave up three runs, two on a Kyle Stowers homer hit to Mars, to blow the game and lose 8-7 on a walkoff.

New half of the season, same story in some cases. Different story in others.

In the first AND sixth inning, the Royals had two guys on base and did not score any of them. In the first, the boys got two runners on after a walk and single, but a dribbler groundout ended the inning. In the sixth, a double and walk were followed by a groundout double play and another groundout to end it. However, that was not the only part of this game’s story.

The Royals plated their first run in the fourth with some small ball. A Maikel Garcia single on a hard-hit ball, a Salvador Perez single on a bloop moving Garcia to third, and a Nick Loftin chopper scored the first run. Loftin managed to beat the throw too. With two runners on, the Royals finally found the stands with John Rave hitting his first MLB homer on a 99mph fastball down the middle.

The Marlins were blasting the ball all over the park and scoring lots of runs doing so. Against Seth Lugo, lefty outfielder Jesús Sánchez started auditioning for other teams with a homer in the bottom of the first. Lugo meant to throw a front-hip sinker, my favorite pitch, to jam him but left it over the middle of the plate. Sánchez hit it into next week, when he might possibly be playing for some other team (maybe the Royals???).

Lugo did the same thing to Kyle Stowers, except with a changeup. It wasn’t exactly middle-middle, but it was far too hittable for an 87mph changeup. Stowers also hit it into next week, with one runner on. A double, double, single scored another two runs in the third inning to total five runs.

Lugo managed to go six innings despite giving up five runs. He started rolling after the third inning and totaled five strikeouts in those six innings. He had no walks.

Going into the ninth inning, the score was 5-4 Marlins. I was getting ready to call it a game, and then John Rave showed up again to be the hero to extend the game. The Marlins closer, Calvin Faucher, left a cutter over the middle. Rave, once again, did not miss and went opposite field to tie the game and get to the bottom of the ninth.

Lucas Erceg made it interesting in the bottom of the ninth, allowing several baserunners, but he held the Marlins scoreless to send the game to extras. In the 10th, Bobby Witt Jr legged out an infield hit to put runners on the corners with no outs. Witt then stole second. Maikel Garcia struck out, bringing up 2024 Royals and new acquisition Adam Frazier, who lined a double into right field to score both runners to make it 7-5 Royals.

With Estévez coming in for the tenth and having that insurance run, it felt like the Royals were about to steal a win from the jaws of defeat. Alas, the Marlins’ best hitter took a 97mph fastball to the upper decks to win the game for the fish. John Rave’s heroic effort was wasted.

The Royals drop to 47-51. The Marlins improve to 45-51. The two teams will play again tomorrow at 3:10pm US Central.