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Source: FanGraphs
Attendance: 17,760
Hero of the Game: A.J. Ramos (0.248 WPA)
Goat of the Game: Placido Polanco (-0.065 WPA)
Play of the Game: Justin Ruggiano singled to center field in the fourth inning. Adeiny Hechavarria scored. Jake Marisnick advanced to second base. (+0.126 WPA)
The Miami Marlins had a very strange game in which the score did not reflect the closeness of the game. The FIsh fell down early 1-0 and 2-1 before scoring four straight runs to seal the game, but the early portion of the program was riddled by poor pitching from Jacob Turner. Turner lasted just five innings before giving way to the bullpen, and they may have been five of the uglier innings he pitched all season long. Turner walked five batters and failed to strike a single Royals hitter out. He was wild out of the zone multiple times and ended up with four out of his five innings with multiple runners on base. Turner got just one hitter to swing and miss at one two-seam fastball from his, with the remainder of his offerings either left alone or contacted. That is a pretty terrible outing. The Marlins were lucky to escape with just two runs after Turner left.
The Fish needed luck on offense as well to succeed. Royals third baseman Elliot Johnson made two flubs on defense that allowed the Fish extra baserunners and almost cost the Royals an extra run. Johnson allowed a grounder from Jake Marisnick to squib past him with runners on first and second. Greg Dobbs charged home from second and was thrown out easily by Alcides Escobar, who backing up the play and threw an accurate bullet to catcher Salvador Perez. One plate appearance later, Justin Ruggiano singled to drive in Adeiny Hechavarria as the only run of that inning.
Ruggiano did indeed single, and in fact he got three hits in four plate appearances, thus avoiding the dreaded hitless streak record.
Johnson made another mistake in the seventh inning, with the Fish down 2-1. Koyie Hill led off with a double, and Christian Yelich got on board on an error through the legs of Johnson, allowing the runners to reach second and third. Two consecutive groundouts scored both runs on heady baserunning.
The Marlins tacked two more runs in the ninth inning off of Luke Hochevar and the Fish picked up the series win with a 5-2 victory. Steve Cishek got his 26th save of the year.