Luis Arraez, Marlins pound their way past Royals

Luis Arraez stroked three hits to improve his major league-leading batting average to .399, leading the host Miami Marlins to a 9-6 win over the Kansas City Royals on Monday night.

Arraez went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, one double and one run as the Marlins won their fourth straight game.

The Marlins, who trailed 4-0 in the third inning, finished with 11 hits, including Bryan De La Cruz's two-run home run.

Braxton Garrett (2-2) earned the win despite allowing six hits and four runs in five innings.

Dylan Floro earned a two-pitch save, getting a double-play grounder. It was his seventh save of the season.

MJ Melendez, who played high school ball in Miami, led Kansas City's offense, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Teammate Nick Pratto slugged a solo homer. Pratto and Salvador Perez each had two hits and one RBI.

Reliever Mike Mayers (1-1) took the loss, allowing nine hits and seven runs (six earned) in three innings.

Kansas City opened the scoring in the first on Melendez's opposite-field RBI double that got past a diving De La Cruz in left. Pratto, who had singled, scored from first.

Melendez then scored on Perez's ground-ball RBI single that deflected off the glove of shortstop Joey Wendle.

The Royals made it 3-0 in the third on Pratto's leadoff homer. The rally continued as Bobby Witt Jr. singled, stole second and scored when Melendez blooped an opposite-field single to left.

In the bottom of the third, Wendle hit a leadoff double and Jon Berti singled. Miami cashed in on Jonathan Davis' RBI groundout and Arraez's run-scoring double, cutting the Marlins' deficit to 4-2.

Miami took control of the game in the fourth. Berti's two-run, opposite-field triple to right tied the score 4-4. The Marlins continued the fourth-inning rally with an RBI double by Davis and Arraez's run-scoring single.

Nick Fortes' RBI single in the fifth gave Miami a 7-4 lead, and De La Cruz's homer in the sixth made it 9-4.

In the eighth, Kansas City finally ended Miami's stretch of nine straight runs as Perez smashed a leadoff double, advanced on a groundout and scored on Maikel Garcia's sacrifice fly.

The Royals cut their deficit to 9-6 in the ninth as Edward Olivares tripled and Drew Waters pounded an RBI single. But Pratto struck out, and Witt hit the double-play grounder to end the game.