Not a team that is going to win games in blowout fashion very often, the Cardinals keep finding ways to win close games – even though manager Oliver Marmol would prefer the occasional breather.
Alec Burleson delivered two hits and two RBI, Nathan Church drilled a two-run homer and Dustin May delivered his third straight strong start as the Cardinals beat the Marlins 5-3 in Miami.
Nathan Church no-doubter! 😤 pic.twitter.com/qKp63bBDkt
With the victory, the Cardinals improved to 11-1 on the season in games decided by two runs or less. The score tightened up in the eighth inning when veteran reliever Ryne Stanek walked three batters and surrendered two earned runs, but George Soriano got the Cards out of a jam and Riley O’Brien pitched a scoreless ninth for his seventh save.
“Oli said it to us earlier that when he looks up at the out-of-town scores and teams will be winning 12-1 and 13-1 and he was giving us crap about why we couldn’t do that,” joked Burleson, who singled in a run in the first inning and added a fifth-inning double. “But we have a resilient group, and we know that we're never out of it at any point in the game. We've got the right guys to be able to do what we're doing."
May, who signed a one-year, $12 million free agent contract with the Cardinals in December, got off to about as bad of a start as possible. After yielding 10 hits and six earned runs to the Rays and seven hits and seven earned runs to the Tigers, May’s ERA sat at an obscene 15.95.
May had several skull sessions with pitching coach Dusty Blake and multiple video sessions and seems to have found something. After allowing just three earned runs over his next two starts – both victories – he scattered six hits and allowed just one earned run to the Marlins on Tuesday night.
He did all of that despite surrendering a laser beam of a solo homer to Jakob Marsee to open the bottom of the first inning.
The second-longest hitting streak of Walker’s three-plus-year MLB career came to an end at 15 games on Tuesday. Walker went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts to drop his batting average (.292) below .300 and his OPS (.964) below 1.000 for the first time in three weeks.
Walker still contributed to the victory with a strong throw from right field and a diving stop on a single in the eighth after Stanek had loaded the bases.
“He’s done a nice job out there,” Marmol said of Walker’s defense. “We’ve all talked about his offense and how impressive it’s been. But when you think about two years ago and last year defensively, there are some huge strides there. It’s to the credit of him and the work he’s putting in with (assistant coach Jon) Jay. He’s playing with some confidence and freedom and it’s been good.”
It's a shame that the MLB assist of the year won't even count. #STLCardspic.twitter.com/jVlQ4JaMpc
Wetherholt’s odd streak of being hit by a pitch in five straight games mercifully came to an end on Tuesday. Had he been hit on Tuesday, the rookie second baseman would have tied an MLB record with a hit by pitch in six straight games.
Still, Wetherholt opened the game with a double and later walked and came around to score another run. Though he’s hitting just .229, he’s boosted his OPS to .738 by continuing to find ways on base.
The biggest out of the game came in the eighth inning after Stanek struggled to find the plate and gave up the two-run single that made it a 5-3 game.
Soriano, who spent three seasons with the Marlins before being released late last season, relieved Stanek and came into a game with runners on base (first and third) for the first time this season. All Soriano did was snap off a hard-biting slider to get Connor Norby looking – a call that was confirmed by an ABS review.
“(Soriano) coming in there and getting that out was huge,” said Marmol, whose squad improved to 4-1 on the two-city road trip and is in position to win their sixth series in eight tries on Wednesday. “If we’re going to do what we need to do, Stanek has to be able to get through that inning. We gave him a chance at it and he’s competing. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to walk off on his own, but (Soriano) picked him up tonight.”
Remember to join our CARDINALS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other CARDINALS fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!