Quantrill quiets doubts with his 1st quality start of '25 to seal series win

MIAMI -- One of the Marlins’ recurring first-half storylines was right-hander Cal Quantrill’s inability to go deep into ballgames.

Quantrill got over the hump to begin his second half, tossing six scoreless innings in Saturday’s series-clinching 3-1 victory over the Royals at loanDepot park.

“We were efficient,” Quantrill said. “We attacked hitters, stayed ahead, we got the early lead. I thought that me and [Liam Hicks] were on the same page today. When you're not shaking a rookie catcher, it's really, really impressive what he's doing back there. I was really happy with it, and it's nice to finally get through six. It feels like it's been a talking point, but it's also been a fight this year. [I] feel like a couple times I probably could have, but this time we did, and that's good.”

Quantrill allowed just two hits -- both singles -- while striking out three and walking none in a 69-pitch, 46-strike outing. He retired the last 10 batters he faced, and half of the 18 outs he recorded were on three pitches or fewer. No Royals baserunner reached scoring position with him on the mound.

• First-round pick Arquette signs with Marlins for $7.15 million

The defense behind Quantrill also came through. Shortstop Otto Lopez went deep into the hole and fired a one-hop throw across his body that first baseman Eric Wagaman picked to beat Jonathan India to begin the game.

In the third, Tyler Tolbert singled with one out but was erased on Quantrill’s pickoff. Wagaman made another nice pick on third baseman Graham Pauley’s throw to end the third.

“The efficiency [in] 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,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “First couple innings, we made some really nice defensive plays behind Cal, kind of got wind at his sails, and [he was] never really threatened, or there wasn't really any traffic. And he kept filling it up. It was a really great outing. Six innings there, the efficiency, how he used his cutter and his split to righties was good today. So [it was a] big time outing from Cal.”

Going that deep into a ballgame had been elusive for the veteran Quantrill this season, whom Miami signed to a one-year free-agent contract at the beginning of Spring Training. He had the most starts (18) without completing six innings or tallying a quality start of any Major Leaguer before Saturday’s outing.

The 30-year-old entered Saturday with a 3.33 ERA in innings one through three and a 10.08 ERA in innings four through six. In the two previous instances Quantrill pitched into the sixth this season, he gave up seven runs (six earned) on eight hits.

With Quantrill at just 59 pitches heading into the sixth, McCullough allowed the righty to start the frame against the bottom of the order while reliever Tyler Phillips warmed up in the bullpen.

Though Quantrill fell behind 2-0 in the count to leadoff batter John Rave, who homered twice in Friday’s series opener, he bounced back to induce a groundout to second. Quantrill proceeded to retire the next two batters to cap his outing and set the Marlins up to complete a sweep on Sunday.

“I think a lot of times, you like to put all the eggs on the sixth inning,” Quantrill said. “A lot of times, it's what you did before: How you got guys out the first time through the order, and then what you have left to show them the second time through. So today, I thought that we did a really good job of having two or three different methods of getting guys out and not having to kind of show them whatever it was we wanted to do the first time, which made it a little easier the second time.”

With Saturday’s win, which featured some more late-inning magic, Miami (46-51) is just five games below .500 for the first time since April 29 thanks to the club’s 21-10 record since June 13.

After righty Ronny Henriquez surrendered a game-tying solo homer to Salvador Perez in the eighth, the Marlins regained the lead in the bottom of the frame. Graham Pauley led off with a walk, Xavier Edwards doubled and Jesús Sánchez was intentionally walked to load the bases. Lopez, who produced an RBI groundout in the first, then lined a two-run double off the left-field wall.

“We have [had] that mentality since the beginning of the season,” Lopez said. “We didn't start how we wanted, but right now, if we just keep going and going, [we will] see what happens.”