Quantrill completes six, Marlins edge out Royals to win another series

MIAMI, FL—In what may have been his final home start as a member of the Miami Marlins, Cal Quantrill turned in six shutout innings. Thanks to late-game heroics from Otto Lopez, the Marlins defeated the Royals by a final score of 3-1.

The Marlins have kept Quantrill on a short leash all season. He entered Saturday averaging only 4.54 innings pitched per start, never completing a full six innings. In his final outing prior to the All-Star break, he was given the opportunity to reach that milestone, but wasn't able to record an out in the sixth on the way to a 7-2 loss.

Quantrill made it look easy against Kansas City, only allowing two hits in the process, issuing no walks and striking out three. He generated a 62.5% ground ball rate, which matched a season-high.

Marlins manager Clayton McCullough praised "the efficiency at which he was able to do it."

"Collected a lot of early outs and really for the most part, he kept them off the barrel," added McCullough. "First couple innings, defense made some very nice plays behind Cal, kind of got wind at his sails and never really was threatened, or there wasn't a whole lot of really traffic, and he kept filling it up. It was a really great outing."

A big reason for Quantrill's efficiency on Saturday was his 63.2% first-pitch strike rate.

"I think for most guys, that's a good sign," Quantrill said. "You'd like to have a little more swing-and-miss if you can get it, but today was one of those days where they weren't going to let very many strikes go without swinging and that's fine—you can pitch to that. I was really happy with the game plan. I thought we executed at a high rate. Ground ball outs are generally pretty safe."

The 30-year-old Quantrill is the only pending free agent on the Marlins roster. He isn't scheduled to make another home start until after the MLB trade deadline passes on July 31. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported earlier this week that the team is "very open" to moving him to a contender.

For the second time this series, the Marlins were on the board in the bottom of the first inning. Xavier Edwards led the inning off with his second triple of the season. After Jesús Sánchez popped out, Otto Lopez grounded out to third, but it was enough to drive Edwards in, giving the Fish a 1-0 lead.

With a 1-0 lead in the top of the eighth inning, Ronny Henriquez surrendered a game-tying solo homer to longtime Royals catcher Salvador Pérez. The Marlins bullpen has blew a one-run lead on Friday.

In the bottom of the inning, Graham Pauley led off with a walk, followed by an Edwards double, moving Pauley to third. Once the Royals intentionally walked Sánchez, Otto Lopez smacked a 108.2 mph double off the left field wall, driving in both Pauley and Edwards, giving the Marlins a 3-1 lead.

"It starts a lot with his improved plate discipline," said McCullough. "The ability to check off on some of those sliders, check off on some of the chase pitches. He got a ball elevated there, put a great swing on it. We think Otto has been in a really good place now for a while. It goes back to he's got always had high contact ability. He's showing some more ability to impact. It's the key for the run of success he's been on."

With the win, the Marlins are now 46-51 on the season. They've won back-to-back series and six of their last eight.

The Fish aim for a series sweep on Sunday with Janson Junk taking the mound. For the Royals, it'll be Kris Bubic. First pitch is at 1:40 pm.