The St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night came back from being down 3-0 against the Miami Marlins, and improved to a 46-24 record in their 4-3 victory. On Wednesday night, they looked to win the series against the fourth place Marlins.
And on Wednesday night, while down 1-0 early, St. Louis carried the momentum the rest of the way as they defeated the Marlins 6-1.
The pitchers on the mound to star off the game were Jaime Garcia (2-3, 1.76 ERA) for the Cardinals and Mat Latos (2-4, 5.37) for the Marlins.
Both pitchers started off the game with a 1-2-3 inning, as the teams headed to the second inning. After Latos threw a scoreless top of the second inning, Garcia headed back onto the mound in the bottom of the inning. But Giancarolo Stanton, the Major League Baseball home run leader, who already hit his 26th home run on Tuesday, hit his 27th off of Garcia to make it 1-0 Marlins.
In the top of the third inning, with Randal Grichuk on second base, Kolten Wong stepped up to bat. Wong was 2 for his last 21 at-bats. But on this at-bat, he gave the Cardinals the 2-1 lead with a big home run out to right field. Garcia then held the Marlins scoreless in the bottom half of the inning.
The score remained 2-1 as the game progressed on, and, as the sixth inning ended, Garcia had retired 11 straight Marlins batters he had faced.
During the top of the seventh inning, the Cardinals added to their lead, and one player continued his hot streak at the plate. It started with Jhonny Peralta hitting a single to left field. Mark Reynolds then followed with a walk. Jason Heyward then hit a three run home run to right field to give the Cardinals a 5-1 lead.
It was Heyward’s ninth home run of the season, and his third home run in three straight games.
After Garcia threw yet another scoreless inning in the bottom of the seventh, the game headed to the eighth inning with St. Louis still maintaining a 5-1 lead.
Garcia led off the top of the eighth inning with a single, which was followed by another single by Wong. Matt Carpenter then drove in Garcia, making it 6-1 Cardinals, although Carpenter was tagged out at second.
Cardinal trainers checked on Garcia following him crossing home plate, for what at first seemed like an apparent leg issue, although once in the dugout, he seemed to be ok. Randy Choate, who was already warming up in the seventh inning, entered the game to pitch the start of the eighth inning.
The final line of the game for Garcia: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 Ks.
Choate gets Dee Gordon and Ichiro Suzuki to ground out and line out, respectively. Seth Maness then entered the game to get the final out, which he did, as the game headed to the ninth inning.
Vin Mazzaro threw for the Marlins in the ninth inning, and Yadier Molina led off with a single. But the Cardinals stranded him on base, as Maness headed out to pitch the bottom of the ninth as well, and got the final outs in the game as the Cardinals defeated the Marlins 6-1.
They improve to 47-24 with the win, as the Marlins fall to 30-43. Garcia improved to 3-3 and Latos dropped to 2-5.
Tomorrow in the series finale, Lance Lynn is expected to return and make the start.
(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
1 comment
Nice to see the Cardinals give Garcia some offensive support!
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