Poor fielding hurts Cardinals in 6-4 loss

For the first two games of the three game series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins, the Cardinals had both of their starters not only pitch quality starts, but pitch into the ninth inning. First, it was Jaime Garcia on Friday night. And on Saturday night, it was veteran John Lackey.

On Sunday afternoon, not only did the Cardinals’ bullpen enter as early as the sixth inning, but poor fielding mistakes prevented key offensive plays from making an impact, as the Cardinals lost 6-4.

The starters for the afternoon were Carlos Martinez (12-4, 2.62), and David Phelps (4-8, 4.35).

Miami was able to get on the board right away in the top of the first inning. All-Star second baseman Dee Gordon led off the inning with a single. Two outs later, Justin Bour hit a shallow single, that scored Gordon to make it 1-0 Marlins.

But just as Miami got on the board right away, so did the Cardinals, as, in the bottom of the first inning, Jason Heyward hit a solo home run, to tie the game up at 1-1. It was Heyward’s 10th home run of the season.

And Heyward wasn’t done there.

In the bottom of the third, Heyward hit his second home run of the game. This time, however, it was a two-run home run (as Matt Carpenter led off with a single). Just like that, it was 3-1 Cardinals.

Martinez, meanwhile, allowed only four hits through the first four innings of the game, although, issuing walks was still a major problem (he entered the game fifth in the National League in walks issued). But in the top of the fifth inning, the tides turned in the favor of the Marlins.

It began with a lead-off single by Adeiny Hechavarria. Jeff Mathis reached base next on an error by Kolten Wong, in what was a frustrating day for the second baseman. And the error proved to be costly. Pitcher Chris Naverson then hit into a fielder’s choice to score Hechavarria to make it 3-2 Cardinals. Dee Gordon came up next, and singled to load the bases. Two at-bats later, Derek Dietrich hit a bases clearing triple, which made it 5-3 Marlins.

Carlos Villnueva pitched in relief for Martinez to start the sixth inning. The final line for Martinez was: 5.0 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 5 Ks.

In the bottom of the inning, Cardinals’ rookie Stephen Piscotty cut the deficit to 5-4 when he hit his first career home run. However, it turned out to be the last run that the Cardinals would score for the afternoon. Miami picked up one more run in the top of the sixth inning, when Casey McGehee reached base safely on yet another Wong error, which allowed Hechavarria to score and make it 6-4.

And that turned out to be the final score, as the Cardinals drop to 75-42, and the Marlins improve to 47-70. Naverson won his first career game, while Martinez drops to 12-5 on the season. St. Louis enters the new week with a five game lead over the Pirates and a 7.5 game lead over the Cubs.

Tomorrow, they begin a series against the San Francisco Giants.

(AP Photo: Bill Boyce)