KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Christian Yelich singled home the go-ahead run with one out in the 10th inning Tuesday night and the Miami Marlins beat the Kansas City Royals 1-0 after a tidy matchup of contrasting starters.
Hard-throwing Marlins prodigy Jose Fernandez and wily Royals veteran Bruce Chen each lasted seven innings before handing the scoreless game over to their bullpens.
It continued to extra innings before Kansas City reliever Kelvin Herrera (4-6) brushed the jersey of the Marlins’ Jake Marisnick with a pitch in the 10th. Marisnick stole second and then scored on Yelich’s single through the right side of the infield, his third hit of the game.
Chad Qualls (3-1) earned the win for Miami, while Steve Cishek worked around a single in the bottom half of the 10th for his 25th save.
The Royals remain six and a half games back of first place Detroit in the AL Central, but Cleveland has slid ahead into second place. Kansas City didn’t lose any ground to the Tigers, who lost 4-3 to the White Sox in 11 innings, but the Indians beat the Twins 5-2.
Kansas City is still four games back in the AL wild card behind Tampa Bay and Oakland.
The rubber game with the Marlins is Wednesday afternoon at 1:10pm at Kauffman Stadium.
