Alec Burleson lined a go-ahead single in the seventh inning as the visiting St. Louis Cardinals defeated the mistake-prone Miami Marlins 8-3 on Monday night.
Burleson finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs, and reliever Matt Swanson (2-0) pitched two scoreless innings as the Cardinals snapped a five-game losing streak.
Nolan Gorman added a two-run homer to pad St. Louis’ lead in the ninth.
Miami, fresh off a 3-8 road trip, made two errors that led to three unearned runs. Two other plays could’ve been called errors on Miami — catcher Agustin Ramirez failed to catch a foul pop near the plate, and first baseman Eric Wagaman was unable to field a ball to his backhand.
In addition, Miami’s Eury Perez set a franchise single-game record with four wild pitches in just 4 1/3 innings. He also allowed two hits, four walks and three runs, one earned, escaping with a no-decision.
Counterpart Matthew Liberatore went five-plus innings with five strikeouts while allowing five hits, one walk and three runs.
Liberatore, who also escaped with a no-decision, got in trouble right away as Otto Lopez led off the bottom of the first with a double, advanced to third on Ramirez’s single and scored on Jakob Marsee’s sacrifice fly.
Miami stretched its lead to 2-0 in the fourth on Wagaman’s 409-foot homer to center.
St. Louis took a 3-2 lead in the fifth, knocking Perez out of the game. To set up the rally, Pedro Pages walked and Nathan Church reached on a fielding error by second baseman Maximo Acosta, who was making his major-league debut.
After a Perez wild pitch, Lars Nootbaar stroked an RBI single. Then, after another wild pitch and a walk, Burleson was credited with an RBI single on a grounder off the glove of first baseman Wagaman. St. Louis then made it 3-2 on Willson Contreras’ sacrifice fly.
Miami tied the score 3-3 in the sixth, proving that not all doubles are created equally. Ramirez led off the frame with a 109-mph double that one-hopped the wall down the left-field line. He then scored on Marsee’s bloop double, which had an exit velocity of just 63 mph.
St. Louis took a 4-3 lead in the seventh. With two outs and nobody on, Marlins right fielder Dane Myers — normally an outstanding fielder — dropped a routine fly ball. Ivan Herrera reached second and scored on Burleson’s single.
The Cardinals took a 5-3 lead in the eighth as Gorman walked, advanced on Thomas Saggese’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Pages’ RBI single.
St. Louis made it 8-3 in the ninth on a Ramirez passed ball and Gorman’s two-run shot.
–Field Level Media
