Marlins vs. Royals: Start time, how to watch, game thread and Fish Picks—September 8, 2019

Welcome to Sunday’s Marlins (50-91) vs. Royals (53-90) game thread.

Throughout the 2019 season, Fish Stripes is your home for daily Fish Picks prop bets. The monthly points leader for September wins a Fish Stripes merchandise prize. We’re also saving something special for the overall full-season points leader.

Browse through our regular store here, or be the first to own this original t-shirt celebrating the Marlins’ home run sunglasses tradition!

“We Just Homered!” t-shirt

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Royals Lineup

1. CF Whit Merrifield
2. SS Adalberto Mondesi
3. RF Jorge Soler
4. 3B Hunter Dozier
5. 1B Ryan O’Hearn
6. LF Ryan McBroom
7. C Nick Dini
8. 2B Nicky López
9. SP Mike Montgomery (4.42 ERA, 5.05 FIP, 18.6 K%, 44.3 Hard Hit% in 73.1 IP)

Notes: Exactly as advertised, Soler already has four batted balls in this series with 100-plus miles per hour exit velocity, including a solo home run in the ninth inning on Saturday...Montgomery’s season has been split between the Cubs and Royals, with much-improved performance since being traded to the latter (3.69 ERA, 4.38 FIP in 46.1 IP). The tall lefty quietly ranks as one of this generation’s leading ground ball machines—his career 53.8 GB% is very similar to Henderson Álvarez’s.

Baseball Savant

Marlins Lineup

1. SS Miguel Rojas
2. 3B Starlin Castro
3. RF Garrett Cooper
4. C Jorge Alfaro
5. LF Harold Ramirez
6. 1B Martín Prado
7. 2B Isan Díaz
8. CF Lewis Brinson
9. SP Sandy Alcantara (4.26 ERA, 4.75 FIP, 17.7 K%, 33.6 Hard Hit% in 162.2 IP)

Notes: Alcantara pitches for the first time as a 24-year-old. He has also never faced the Royals before in his career...Not only has Cooper been an extra-base-hit machine lately, but he’s delivering in high-leverage moments. So far in September, the slugger ranks third in the majors in Win Probability Added (0.94 WPA), trailing only old friends Christian Yelich and J.T. Realmuto...Make sure to bring all your pups out to Little Havana this afternoon for the fourth and final Bark at the Park promotion of the 2019 season...Per usual, Christian Cevallos put together your Marlins weekly news roundup.

How to watch/listen/follow

The game gets underway at 1:10 p.m. ET. Watch on FOX Sports Florida and via MLB.TV or listen on 940 WINZ.

Fish Picks

Please comment below or tweet to @fishstripes with your picks for the following props. The contest locks at first pitch.

1. Which team scores the last run of the game? (Royals/Marlins)
2. Over/Under 0.5 Marlins home runs? (Over/Under)
3. Over/Under 97.5 pitches for Sandy Alcantara? (Over/Under)
4. Will Isan Díaz get a hit? (Yes/No)
5. Who wins? (Royals/Marlins)