MIAMI _ On Tuesday afternoon, on his way to Marlins Park, Eric Hosmer peered at the downtown skyline and considered the length of his journey.
When he was a boy, growing up between Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Miami, he would sometimes make a similar drive with his parents, Mike and Ileana, and older brother Mikey. They would drive to Sun Life Stadium, the old home of the Florida Marlins, and Hosmer would make it a point to watch batting practice. Sometimes, he said, he would pick out one player, shagging baseballs during batting practice.
Some day, he thought, that's going to be me.
"It's kind of what inspired and started it all," Hosmer said.
All these years later, Hosmer returned to south Florida on Tuesday and played his first professional game in his hometown. With close to 50 or 60 friends and family in attendance, he finished 0 for 3 with a walk and left two men left on base. And by the end, he got exactly what he wanted.
On the first night of a six-game road trip, the Royals edged the Miami Marlins 1-0 in front of a crowd of 18,513. As starter Yordano Ventura tossed six scoreless innings, Kansas City stretched its winning streak to nine games and improved to 14-2 since Aug. 6.
Lorenzo Cain broke a scoreless tie in the top of the sixth, lacing an RBI single to center field off Marlins starter Andrew Cashner. Ventura and the Royals' bullpen seized control of the game in the final innings.
Rookie Matt Strahm struck out two during a scoreless seventh, running his streak of scoreless innings to nine. Joakim Soria worked his ninth straight clean appearance in the eighth. Kelvin Herrera notched his eighth save in the ninth.
By the end, the Royals' bullpen had run its streak of scoreless innings to 32.
For six innings, Ventura and Cashner dueled. Ventura stranded six runners through the first four innings. The Royals, meanwhile, struggled to do damage against the 6-foot-6 Cashner.
Finally, they broke through in the sixth. The inning began with a single from Paulo Orlando, which represented just the third Royals hit in five-plus innings. Orlando would steal second base before Cheslor Cuthbert grounded out to third base.
Cain watched three balls before whacking a 3-0 pitch into center field. For the Royals, it was all the offense they needed.
The streak stretched for another night.
