June 29, 2024

By Fred Liggett
sports.lstribune08@gmail.com

The Kansas City Royals began a season long 10 game homestand on Monday, Jun. 24 and for over 16,000 baseball fans they saw something rare at Kaufman Stadium. The Royals continued the 2024 season with an interleague series against the Miami Marlins.

The Royals won the first game of the series 4-1 and it was the Royals first win over the Marlins since before the COVID pandemic. A win over the Marlins at the K was even longer going back to Aug. 12, 2013. While Major League Baseball has increased interleague play this season, a Royals vs Marlins series is rarely seen.

When the three game series ended on Wednesday, Jun. 26 the Royals had taken two of three games and now stand even at 12-12 all-time vs the Marlins. The Royals are now 7-8 in interleague play this season and have homered in 11 of the 15 games.

Despite the two teams not seeing much of each other over the years Marlins manager Skip Schumacher knows first year Royals pitcher Michael Wacha. The two were teammates while playing for the St. Louis Cardinals. Schumaker, in his second season guiding the Marlins, said of Wacha “has a really good sinker, is having a really good year.”

The Marlins dugout has a few familiar faces in it thanks to a pair of former Royals on the coaching staff. First base coach is Jon Jay and John Mabry is the teams hitting coach. The Royals won the first game of the series 4-1, lost the second game 2-1 and won the last game 5-1 to improve to 44-38 on the season.

The Royals will play three more National League teams in July, the Arizona Diamondbacks, rival St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs. For one week in June the Royals and their fans enjoyed seeing a team from South Florida.