Wednesday’s Game Report: Marlins 2, Cardinals 0
By Rob Rains
Miles Mikolas only made one mistake on Wednesday night, but that was one too many for the Cardinals.
Jesus Sanchez launched a two-run homer in the third inning off Mikolas and that produced all of the runs in the Marlins win at Busch Stadium.
There only were a combined 11 hits in the game, six by the Marlins and five by the Cardinals, who were shut out for the second consecutive game.
It’s only the fifth time in the 20-year history of Busch Stadium 3 that the Cardinals have been shut out in consecutive games at home, the second time it has happened this season. They were shut out in consecutive games by the Cubs on June 25-26.
The only other time the Marlins shut out the Cardinals in consecutive games was in 1995, in a series in Miami.
The loss dropped the Cardinals back to the .500 mark at 55-55, the first time they have failed to be above .500 since they were 19-19 after the game on May 7. They were a season-best nine games over .500 on June 29.
Here is how Wednesday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: All five of the Cardinals’ hits were singles and they had only one runner reach third base … In the fifth, they loaded the bases with one out on a single and stolen base by Jordan Walker and walks to Thomas Saggese and Victor Scott II. Cal Quantrill was able to get out of the inning by striking out Brendan Donovan on a called third strike and retiring Ivan Herrera on a ground out … Two more walks in the eighth brought the go-ahead run to the plate with one out but Willson Contreras and Nolan Arenado both struck out to end the inning … Donovan did snap his 0-of-19 streak with an infield single in the third.
On the mound: Mikolas gave up five hits over five innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out five but took the loss … The Cardinals only allowed two hits after the Sanchez home run, a leadoff single in the fourth off Mikolas and a two-out infield single in the ninth off JoJo Romero.
Key stat: The Cardinals were shut out six times in their 24 games in July and finished the month with an 8-16 record. Dating back to June 25, the Cardinals have been shut out nine tines in their last 30 games.
Worth noting: The Cardinals scored a total of 80 runs in their 24 games in July, an average of 3.3 runs per game … Before the game John King was placed on the injured list after pulling his oblique on Tuesday night. Gordon Graceffo was recalled from Memphis … Nolan Gorman and Lars Nootbaar were both in the lineup at Springfield on Wednesday night. Gorman hit a two-run homer and doubled in four at-bats while Nootbaar had a single in his four at-bats.
Up next: The Cardinals will spend their off-day Thursday in San Diego, waiting for the end of the trading deadline at 5 p.m. St. Louis time. They will open a three-game series on Friday night against the Padres, with Mathew Liberatore the scheduled starter.
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