Wacha's strong start, Salvy's heroics not enough for struggling Royals

MIAMI -- The All-Star break might be behind them with the unofficial second half offering a chance at a reset, but Saturday’s game against the Marlins looked like so much of what the first half was for this Royals squad.

Another quality start from Michael Wacha, anchoring one of baseball’s best rotations.

And another frustrating day on offense.

The Royals lost, 3-1, to the Marlins on Saturday at loanDepot Park, clinching a series loss and the sixth consecutive defeat in Miami dating back to Sept. 7, 2019.

For the second day in a row, the Royals tied the game late, this time on Salvador Perez’s 14th home run of the year. Just as quickly as the Royals got the energy back on their side, the Marlins stole it right back.

“That was a big hit for Salvy,” reliever Lucas Erceg said. “That was sick, right? I was ready to go if we tied the game or took the lead, and Salvy did that. It was up to me to do my job, and I didn’t do it today.”

Erceg walked Miami’s No. 9 hitter Graham Pauley -- including two pitches that looked close in what was a tight strike zone all day -- and the top of the Marlins order came through again; Otto Lopez ripped a two-strike double off the left-field wall on a hanging slider that Erceg knew out of the hand wasn’t thrown with “conviction,” he said.

“And bad things happen when you don’t pitch with conviction,” Erceg said.

The Royals (47-52) are teetering, and they needed a strong start out of the All-Star break with the July 31 Trade Deadline looming. Instead, they’ve lost the first two games of a six-game road trip and are on the verge of being swept by the Marlins (46-51) with Sunday’s series finale on deck.

“They’re losses,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “You’re losing big, you’re losing late -- whatever. They’re losses. But it’s not going to change our attitude or our effort coming into tomorrow to try to win tomorrow.”

Results over the next week will determine what path the Royals take at the Deadline as buyers or sellers. Realistically, they could be a little of both. What’s clear as day in the murky standings -- with Kansas City one of six teams within six games of an American League Wild Card spot -- is what the Royals need.

Offense. Any way they can get it.

On Saturday, as Wacha worked around a leadoff triple that led to the Marlins’ only run against him in six innings, the Royals were shut down by old foe Cal Quantrill, who used to haunt this team when he was with Cleveland. Quantrill entered Saturday with a 5.62 ERA this year in Miami and had not finished the sixth inning in any of his 18 starts.

In his career against the Royals, though, Quantrill had a 2.96 ERA. Saturday’s start was more in tune with history against Kansas City than recently with the Marlins.

The Royals managed two hits off the righty in six scoreless innings. One of those hits was center fielder Tyler Tolbert’s single in the third inning, but Quantrill picked Tolbert off at first base, with replay overturning the original safe call.

Tolbert drew the start Saturday because Kyle Isbel was banged up after a collision in the outfield Friday, and righties were batting .371 against Quantrill entering the day.

“He was quicker than we had in the report,” Tolbert said. “He made one good pick, and then the other one, he threw a little bit more toward me. And the replay monster got me. … It’s tough. I should have let India do his thing. But at the same time, I’m trying to make something happen. Get in scoring position. Get going. We’ve got to stay aggressive.”

One can hardly fault Tolbert, the Royals’ fastest player, for trying to get in scoring position. The Royals only had one batter in scoring position at all on Saturday, and that was in the eighth inning when John Rave and pinch-hitter Adam Frazier drew walks.

Plus, the Royals were looking to give Wacha some run support. The veteran righty is 4-9 through 20 starts this season, and the Royals offense has provided him with one run or fewer of support in 13 of those 20 starts. They’ve given him a total of 27 runs in his 112 innings pitched.

Wacha’s run support average lowered to 2.25 after Saturday.

“I envision every inning as a 0-0 game,” Wacha said. “Just trying to keep them right there and get back into the dugout to give our guys a chance to go score some runs as quickly as possible. Nothing really changed, to that end.”