(Photo credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)

The Miami Marlins, one of most surprising teams in the majors, are set to start the second half of the season on Friday night against the visiting Kansas City Royals.

Miami, which lost 100 games last season, entered the All-Star break on a hot streak, going 19-10 since June 13. Overall, the Marlins are 44-51.

'It was nice for us to go into the break with a really good feeling,' Marlins rookie manager Clayton McCullough said. 'We've been on a good run.'

The Marlins could be built for the long haul, with just about every player (except for starting pitcher Cal Quantrill) under team control past this season.

Left fielder Kyle Stowers, Miami's only All-Star this season, is hitting .293 with team highs in home runs (19), RBIs (54), runs (46) and OPS (.911).

Rookie catcher/DH Agustin Ramirez has been a revelation in just 71 games, hitting 20 doubles and 14 homers with a .759 OPS. He's a Rookie of the Year candidate.

Infielder Xavier Edwards leads the Marlins with 16 steals in 22 attempts. He owns a .352 on-base percentage, and he surely wants to continue to drive that number higher.

Meanwhile, the Royals (47-50) placed four of their players in the All-Star Game: shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., third baseman Maikel Garcia, starting pitcher Kris Bubic and closer Carlos Estevez.

Witt, already a two-time All-Star at age 25, is the face of the Royals, especially after having won a batting title last year. This season, he leads the league with 32 doubles and also has three triples, 14 homers and an .849 OPS.

Here's the scary part for Royals' opponents: Witt, in his brief career, has been better after the All-Star Game. Last year, for example, he had a 1.054 OPS in the second half of the season.

Garcia, a 25-year-old Venezuela native, is a first-time All-Star who's hitting .297 with 25 doubles, three triples, eight homers, 18 steals and an .808 OPS. Unfortunately for him, he has been caught stealing a league-high nine times.

Bubic, another first-time All-Star, missed most of 2023 following elbow surgery. The lefty was exclusively a reliever last year. This season, he is 7-6 with a 2.48 ERA in 18 starts.

Estevez, a two-time All-Star whose fastball tops out at 98 mph, is 4-2 with a 2.36 ERA and an American League-high 25 saves. He was a free-agent signing by Kansas City in January, and he is under team control for three years.

The Royals have not yet announced their starter for Friday's game.

Miami will start Sandy Alcantara, who has faced Kansas City just once before, blanking the visiting Royals on Sept. 8, 2019. Alcantara struck out eight batters in nine innings, allowing just four hits and two walks.

Then again, that was Alcantara before the elbow surgery that caused him to miss the entire 2024 season.

This season, Alcantara has among the worst ERAs of any qualifying starting pitcher in the majors. He is 4-9 with a 7.22 ERA.

That's a long way from Alcantara's 2022 season, when he went 14-9 with a 2.28 ERA. He was the National League's Cy Young Award winner that season.

--Field Level Media