Royals vs Marlins Game 98 Gamethread

The Royals hope to come out of the break swinging.

The not-quite-second-half of the MLB schedule resumes today. The 47-50 Royals head to Florida to face the 44-51 Miami Marlins tonight in a three-game weekend series. The Marlins are in a surprising third place in the NL East, ahead of the Braves and Nationals. However, ever the small-market farm club, many of their players are the subjects of trade rumors this time of year (including some potential outfielders for the Royals – Dane Myers and Jesús Sánchez I think…probably not Kyle Stowers at this point). We’ll get a good up close look at these dudes over the weekend.

The Royals will start Seth Lugo, who has done a good job of limiting damaging contact on the way to a 2.67 ERA on top of his 4.28 FIP. However, the last few of Lugo’s starts have felt more like the Lugo of last year, where he’s keeping hitters off-balance with his kitchen sink of pitches and getting good strikeouts as a result. Anytime he’s on the mound, the Royals have a good chance of winning.

The Marlins will start Sandy Alcantara, who after missing 2024 has not had a good return in 2025. He’s got a 7.22 ERA (!) on top of a 4.59 FIP. Strikeouts are down, walks are up, homers are up…everything you don’t want as a pitcher. A glance at his game log doesn’t seem to reveal any trends. He’s just been bad the whole season.

With these two guys pitching, it feels like as favorable a matchup as any for the Royals to start the not-quite-second-half on the best foot possible.

The game starts at 6:10pm US Central time at loanDepot park in Miami. You can watch on FanDuel Sports Network Kansas City or listen on the Royals Radio Network.

Lineups (the recently-acquired Adam Frazier will not get a start tonight)