By MATT PIKE
The St. Louis Cardinals bounced back from a five game losing streak and won the series against the Miami Marlins, but dropped the series finale on Wednesday afternoon at Loan Depot Park 6-2, missing out on getting back to .500 and a series sweep.
The Marlins opened the scoring in the second inning with Heriberto Hernández scoring following his leadoff single as Javier Sanoja grounded into a double play. In the third inning Miami added two more runs, with two outs, on a two RBI single by Hernández driving in Jakob Marsee and Agustín Ramírez for a 3-0 lead at the end of three innings.
The Cardinals cut into the lead in the fifth inning, Lars Nootbaar’s ground rule double driving in Yohel Pozo, but in the bottom half of the inning the Marlins got the run back with an RBI single from Troy Johnston scoring Liam Hicks. St. Louis scored their final run in the sixth inning on a solo home run by Willson Contreras, but again in the bottom half Miami scored with a solo home run of their own, Maximo Acosta hitting his first major league home run.
The Marlins scored their final run of the game in the eighth inning on a bases loaded walk to Marsee, driving in Derek Hill.
Andre Pallante took the loss, falling to 6-11 on the season, pitching 5 1/3 innings and giving up five runs on eight hits with four strikeouts and three walks. At the plate, Nootbaar was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI. The Cardinals had just five hits in the game, all coming off Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara.
St. Louis now travels to Tampa continuing their road trip tomorrow. Sonny Gray (11-6, 4.30 ERA) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Joe Boyle (1-2, 4.68 ERA) for the Rays. First pitch is at 6:35 with coverage beginning around 6:25 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.
