Gamethread XCIX - Royals at Marlins

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Last night was not fun, until it was, until it wasn’t again. But that was yesterday, and today is another chance to try to get things back on track before the whole thing derails.

Michael Wacha will pitch for the Royals today. He’s been pretty good for the Royals all year, and in his last start before the break, he bounced back from a couple of stinkers to give the Royals five innings of one-run ball before the bullpen let things fall apart. In his career, Wacha has a 3.66 ERA in six starts against

the Marlins. Interestingly, he has a 2.25 ERA in loanDepot Park. The Royals would surely take a similar effort from him today.

The Royals managed to get to Sandy Alcantara last night early, and then to the bullpen late. Tonight they’ll face another struggling starter in Cal Quantrill. Quantrill should be familiar to Royals fans as he started his career in Cleveland. After a subpar rookie season, he put together three straight years of pitching pretty well before things fell apart again for him in 2023. It’s all been downhill from there, leading to a 5.62 ERA for the Marlins this season, who keep sending him to the mound for a lack of pitching depth.

Quantrill has a career record of 6-0 with a 2.96 ERA against the Royals in 10 appearances, including seven starts. But the last time he saw KC was in 2023, when he pitched 5.2 innings and allowed two runs. Weirdly, hitters have gotten to him a little better at home with an .872 OPS versus an .811 OPS on the road, but his home ERA is much better at 4.91 versus 6.20 on the road. He hasn’t given up fewer than two runs or pitched more than five innings since May 30. One of his worst starts of the season was the last one before the break when he allowed six runs, five earned, to the Reds more than a week ago, last Thursday.

Lineups

Michael Wacha takes the bump.

— Kansas City Royals (@royals.com) 2025-07-19T15:57:52.043Z

Jac Caglianone will get a rare day off for Kansas City, while Tyler Tolbert will make only his second start of his big league career. That might make you wonder if Quantrill is a lefty, but I assure you he is a right-hander. He does have exceptionally pronounced reverse-splits this year, with righties hitting much better.

I don’t know what to tell you about the Marlins’ lineup except I don’t really understand why the team’s absolute best hitter is batting fifth. Though I guess it worked out pretty well for them last night.

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