MIAMI -- Yordano Ventura escaped two threats before turning the game over to the bullpen with a 1-0 lead, and for the Kansas City Royals, that meant another victory.Ventura pitched six innings and the Royals extended their winning streak to nine games Tuesday by beating the Miami Marlins 1-0.Three relievers closed out the win and extended the bullpens streak of 32 consecutive shutout innings since Aug. 10. That broke the franchise record of 29 2/3 consecutive innings set in 1969.Kelvin Herrera pitched a perfect ninth for his eighth save. The longest winning streak since June 2014 by the Royals (65-60) has gotten them back in the mix in the AL wild-card race.The team youre seeing is the team we are, Ventura said.Were definitely confident right now, right fielder Lorenzo Cain said.The Royals won with six hits. They scored the lone run in the sixth when Paulo Orlando led off with a single, stole second and came home on Cains single.Ventura (9-9), who reached 101 mph on the scoreboard radar gun, allowed six hits and one walk while striking out six. The Royals starters have an ERA of 1.69 during the winning streak.Those guys have been outstanding, Cain said. It has been lights out every night.Andrew Cashner (4-10) had his best outing in five starts for the Marlins but fell to 0-3 since joining them on July 30. He allowed one run in six innings.The Marlins had won three straight but were shut out despite totaling seven hits. They went 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position.It was one of those games tonight where you didnt feel it was going to take too much, Miami manager Don Mattingly said. Our guy was throwing the ball good, their guy was throwing it good. We just couldnt really break through.Miami loaded the bases with two outs in the third, but Marcell Ozuna flied out to end the inning. Ventura pitched around a leadoff double by Ozuna in the sixth.The Marlins played their 15th consecutive game decided by three runs or less, a club record. They are 7-8 during the stretch.DEPARTUREOzuna left the game in the eighth inning because of a family emergency. Mattingly said he didnt know whether Ozuna would be available Wednesday.HOSMER HOMECOMINGThe Royals played in Miami for the first time since 2008, and it was Eric Hosmers first game in his hometown. He went 0 for 3 with a walk.REVERSALCain was caught stealing in the sixth when the initial call of safe was overturned by replay.TRAINERS ROOMMarlins: Cashner pitched with a blood blister under a nail on his pitching hand. Tonight was worse than it has been, but I found a way to get it done, he said.Royals: LHP Jason Vargas, who is coming back from Tommy John surgery, made his first Triple-A rehab start Monday and allowed three runs in three innings for Omaha.UP NEXTRHP Jose Fernandez (12-7, 3.05) is scheduled to start Wednesday for Miami against RHP Dillon Gee (5-6, 4.52). In his past four starts, Fernandez is 0-3 with an ERA of 6.00. Air Force 1 Alte Just Do It . The All-Pro lineman got the leg bent under him while trying to make a tackle during the first half of a 22-20 overtime loss at Miami on Thursday night. The medical staff initially thought hed torn the ligament, and the test a day later in Cincinnati confirmed it. Air Force 1 Basse Italia . That gave fans outside Joe Louis Arena another chance to ask for autographs from the 19-year-old whose stardom in the NHL has arrived earlier than most expected. http://www.airforce1outletitalia.it/scontate-sf-air-force-1-mid-bianche.html . In taking its goal tally to 99 in all competitions already this season, City delivered another demonstration of its lethal firepower at Etihad Stadium to set up a fourth-round match at home to another second-tier team -- Watford. Air Force 1 n7 . The news was first reported on Gonzalezs Twitter account and confirmed by the Rockies. Gonzalez has a six-week window before position players have their first workout at spring training in Arizona. Air Force 1 Scontate Uomo . Peter Gammons, an analyst for Major League Baseballs network and website, drew the ire of hockey fans on Sunday when he criticized the two NHL teams on Twitter for their physical game the night before. Kirk Cousins is going to be rich.All right. Lets amend that. Because unless youre, say, Joe Flacco or Eli Manning, you read that first sentence and said to yourself, Kirk Cousins is already rich. And youre right. Cousins is playing this season on a one-year franchise contract thats paying him $19.953 million. But this much is also true: As long as he finishes the season healthy, Cousins is going to get a monster raise -- and likely a monster long-term contract -- in the offseason.The Washington Redskins franchised Cousins because they wanted to see more. They didnt want to turn over a hefty franchise-quarterback deal to a guy who had an 11-14 career record, even if he had just led them to a 2015 NFC East title. They basically told Cousins, Do it again.And he has. After a rough 0-2 start to the season, Cousins team has gone 6-1-1 to stay not all that far behind the surprising Dallas Cowboys and the surprising New York Giants in the division race. Cousins threw an interception on 2 percent of his attempts last year, and hes at 1.8 this season. His yards per attempt last season were 7.7, and this year theyre 8.0. If Cousins mission was to show Washington that last year wasnt a fluke, hes doing just that. And Sunday nights 375-yard, three-touchdown eye-opener, in which he was the best quarterback in a game that featured Aaron Rodgers, was the latest negotiating point in his favor.Washington could franchise Cousins again for next year, but it will cost them at least $23.94 million to do that. The more likely outcome is that he does get that long-term deal this time, and that it at least challenges -- if not surpasses -- the $24.594 million average annual salary of?Andrew Lucks new deal with the Colts.Cousins isnt the only quarterback playing himself into unheard-of money this season. Detroits Matthew Stafford, signed through 2017, could get a contract extension next summer that pushes him well past that $25 million average. Atlantas Matt Ryan has two years left on his deal. But based on the way this season has gone so far, when those guys try to set benchmarks in their next contracts, it could be Kirk Cousins whose deal theyre trying to beat.Some other stuff we learned in Week 11:The Buccaneers might want to think about movingOr becoming one of those full-time rover teams that plays only road games. Tampa Bay is 1-4 at home this year and 4-1 on the road, including wins at Atlanta, Carolina and, most recently, Kansas City. Jameis Winston said after the game that the Chiefs fans in-game chant fired him up because it was the same one he used to hear at home games at Florida State. Bit of a research failure by the Chiefs fans, that.In all seriousness, though, Winston had eight interceptions in his first four games this year but has only two (to go with 12 touchdown passes) in his past six. His passer rating over that time is 102.2 -- eighth-best in the league. The Bucs are only a game out of first place, but even if they dont have enough to make a serious run this year, theres a lot to feel good about in Tampa. The only hitch is that the fans may have to get on a plane to see the team win.?The Vikings cant win when their offense has to provide all of the offenseSix of Minnesotas 22 touchdowns this year have come on defense or special teams. The Vikings are 4-0 when they get a defensive or special-teams touchdown, and 2-4 when they dont. They needed a 100-yard Xavier Rhodes interception return and a 104-yard Cordarrelle Patterson kick return to beat the Cardinals by six points at home on Sunday.Only the Browns, Bears and Rams have a lower averaage of offensive points scored per game than Minnesotas 16.dddddddddddd3. No team averages fewer yards per offensive play than the Vikings 4.67. This is not a sustainable formula. But at least you know, if youre watching the early game Thursday and the Vikings score a non-offensive touchdown, that theyre probably going to end the day in first place.The new extra point rule is totally in the kickers headsNFL kickers have missed on just 10 out of 251 field goal attempts 33 yards or shorter this season. However, on Sunday alone, NFL kickers missed TWELVE extra-point attempts. The extra point, as of the start of the 2015 season, is the distance equivalent of a 33-yard field goal.Obviously, its not equivalent in a lot of other ways, because otherwise these professional kickers wouldnt be turning to pudding when they line up for a one-point kick. In Week 11, NFL kickers were a perfect 23-for-23 on field goal attempts of 33 yards or shorter -- and 41-for-47 on field goals of any distance. But 52-for-64 on extra points.Potential solace: Buccaneers rookie kicker Roberto Aguayo, who only last week succeeded in officially having the word beleaguered removed from in front of his name on all documentation, was 4-for-4 on field goals and hit his only extra point attempt Sunday. So it can get better, kickers. It can get better.Jared Goff is a project ... and thats OKThe Rams have made it clear theyre determined to take things slowly with the No. 1 overall pick, who made his debut Sunday against a tough Dolphins defense and looked like a young player with a lot of work still to do. Chris Weinke, the Rams quarterbacks coach, told me last week that Goff was mentally ready after a half-season-plus of working on his cadence, his huddle presence and his fluency in the Rams offensive terminology. But its clear that the Rams viewed Sunday as simply the latest step in Goffs development. They drafted him to be the answer for the long term, and if hes not the answer for 2016, they all have to live with that.And its not fair to laugh because Dak Prescott was taken 134 picks later and has led the Cowboys to a 9-1 record. Prescott has a monster offensive line, a true No. 1 wide receiver and a star running back. Goff has, at best, one of those things. We all want to see what it looks like when someone gets open down the field and Goff airs it out. But we have to wait, and so does he, and so do the Rams. That doesnt mean he wasnt worth taking No. 1 overall. We wont know for years whether he was. It just means that not every recipe takes the same amount of time to cook. If theres a concern about Goff, it should be about whether this Rams coaching staff is the right group of chefs to help him become great -- and about how long theyll get to prove it.The NFC playoffs could look a lot different this seasonOf last years six NFC playoff teams, only Seattle and Washington would make it if the playoffs started today -- and Washington would be the No. 6 seed. The Packers, Vikings and Cardinals are a combined 3-10-1 over the past five weeks, showing no sign of turning things around. Defending conference champ Carolina has won three of its past four to improve to 4-6, but two of those wins were three-point squeakers wrapped around a crushing collapse against Kansas City. With road games in Oakland and Seattle the next two weeks, things look bleak for Carolina, and 2015 disappointments such as the Cowboys, Giants, Lions and Falcons see opportunity. ' ' '