Two doubles, two sacrifice flies, and Salvador Perez’s 15th home run of the year allowed the Kansas City Royals to sail past the Miami Marlins 7-4 on Sunday, July 20 at LoanDepot Park, avoiding the sweep.

Maikel Garcia brought home the first run of the game in the top of the fourth, sending a sacrifice fly to center field that allowed Bobby Witt Jr to score from third. Perez and Jac Caglianone then delivered back-to-back doubles, allowing Perez to score as well as Vinnie Pasquantino. A fielding error and single at the start of the fifth set up a two-run double by Jonathan India. After advancing to third on a wild pitch, India would come home on Pasquantino’s sacrifice fly to left field. The final run for the Royals came in the eighth, when Perez led off the inning with a home run to left field.

The Royals pitched a shutout heading into the ninth, before Andrew Hoffmann ran into trouble with two outs and a runner on first. After allowing another walk and a fielding error by India to load the bases, Miami got their four runs on a single by Xavier Edwards and double by Agustín Ramírez. Facing a save situation, the Royals brought in Carlos Estévez, who allowed a single but then got a flyout to foul territory to end the game, avoid the collapse, and record his 26th save of the season.

Kris Bubic went five scoreless innings for the win, allowing just three hits and a walk, while recording two strikeouts. Janson Junk took the loss, allowing six runs (five earned) in five innings on six hits and a walk, while claiming a strikeout.

The Royals improve to 48-52, 11.5 games behind Detroit in the AL Central (who played Sunday night at Texas) and 5.5 games behind Boston and Seattle for the third wild card spot. Interleague action continues for the Royals, as they travel north to Wrigley Field for a three-game series at the Chicago Cubs. Noah Cameron is expected to get the start Monday night, with pregame coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m. on KMMO-FM 102.9 and first pitch at 7:10 p.m.