Tuesday’s Game Report: Cardinals 5, Marlins 3
By Rob Rains
It was a good night to be a lefthanded hitter for the Cardinals.
Their lefthanded batters combined for six of the team’s 10 hits and drove in all five of their runs in a win over the Marlins on Tuesday night in Miami.
The big hit was a two-run homer by Nathan Church in the fourth inning that turned a 2-1 lead into a 4-1 advantage.
Alec Burleson had two hits and also drove in two runs while Nolan Gorman drove in the other run in support of starter Dustin May, who allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings.
Here is how Tuesday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: JJ Wetherholt led off the first with a double and scored on a single by Burleson. Wetherholt also scored in the third when he reached on a walk and scored on a fielder’s choice grounder from Burleson … Church’s homer followed a single by Masyn Winn, his first of two hits … Gorman’s single in the fifth drove in Burleson, who had his second single of the night with one out … The lefthanders were a combined 6-of-19 … Jordan Walker was hitless in four at-bats, snapping his 15-game streak … The Cardinals won despite getting only two hits in 11 at-bats with a runner in scoring position.
On the mound: The only run May allowed came on a leadoff homer in the first inning. He gave up six hits, walked one and struck out five in winning his third game of the year … Ryne Stanek walked the bases loaded and gave up a two-run single in the eighth before George Soriano got the third out of the inning … Riley O’Brien earned his seventh save, allowing one hit with one strikeout in the ninth.
Key stat: The only lefthanded hitter in the lineup who did not get a hit was Victor Scott II. He was 0-of-3, but did reach on a walk. Scott has two hits in his last 22 at-bats over his past 10 games.
Worth noting: The Cardinals said during the spring that switch-pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje was only going to pitch righthanded in games, but he has been mixing in some lefthanded appearances. On Tuesday night in Springfield, he threw lefthanded to three consecutive lefthanded batters, hitting the first and then getting two groundouts. The team is trying to identify spots in Cijntje’s starts where he can work from the left side … Quinn Mathews started for Memphis on Tuesday night and allowed two earned runs over 4 1/3 innings but walked six batters. Jimmy Crooks hit his seventh home run of the season and Joshua Baez homered for the fourth time.
Up next: Kyle Leahy will get the start on Wednesday in the final game of the series and the road trip.
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