The St. Louis Cardinals came off a rest day on Monday to begin a three game series at Marlins Park in Miami to face off against the Miami Marlins, who featured Major League Baseball’s home run leader, Giancarlo Stanton, who entered the game with 25 home runs already.
And during Tuesday night’s game against the Cardinals, he added another to the list, and it played a role in getting the Marlins on an early roll.
Despite that, however, St. Louis would comeback from being down 3-0, and emerge victorious 4-3.
The pitching matchup for the game featured Carlos Martinez (7-3, 2.80 ERA) vs Jose Urena (1-3, 4.18).
Urena started the game off for the Marlins by pitching a quick 1-2-3 inning. In the bottom of the first inning, with two outs, Christian Yelich singled. Up next stepped Stanton, who hit a 484 feet two run home run to make it 2-0 Marlins. It was his 26th home run of the season, and tied his longest hit home run as well (which is also longest in the majors).
In the bottom of the second inning, Marcell Ozuna led off with a double, and twas followed by a strikeout from Justin Bour. Adeiny Hechavarria singled sharply to center field, scoring Ozuna to make it 3-0 Marlins early on.
Behind three runs, the Cardinals entered the top of the fourth inning looking to get on the board. Mark Reynolds led off by flying out, bringing up right fielder Jason Heyward with one out. Heyward, who has been on a hot streak as of late, hit a solo home run (whis eighth home run of the season) to put St. Louis on the board and make it 3-1.
Yadier Molina then hit an infield single, and Jon Jay followed with a walk. With two on and one out, Xavier Scruggs doubled deep to center field, scoring both Molina and Jay, and tying the game 3-3.
Both Martinez and Urena would follow by throwing two shutout innings in the fifth and the sixth.
St. Louis capped off their comeback in the top of the seventh inning. Scruggs led off with a single, and during the next at-bat, Martinez was hit by the pitch. Kolten Wong grounded into a force out Randal Grichuk was also hit by a pitch. With the bases loaded and one out, Jhonny Peralta struck out.
Reynolds stepped up to the plate again, and singled, scoring Scruggs.
After a relief appearance by Kevin Siegrist in the eighth inning, Trevor Rosenthal entered the game to pitch the ninth inning to try and close the game out. Hechavarria grounded out to lead off the inning, and Donovan Solano followed with a single.
With one out, and a man on first, Dee Gordon grounded into a game-ending double play, and the Cardinals defeated the Marlins 4-3. The Cardinals improve to 46-24, and the Marlins drop to 30-42. Rosenthal earned his 22nd save of the year.
The final line of the evening for Martinez, who improved to 8-3 on the season: 7 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 9 Ks.
Tomorrow, Jaime Garcia will get the nod on the mound for St. Louis, who has now won eight of their last 11 games.
(Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images)
