Ivan Herrera drove in three runs to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 7-4 win over the host Miami Marlins on Tuesday night.
The Cardinals, who go for the three-game sweep on Wednesday, amassed 22 hits and 15 runs in the first two games of the series.
Michael McGreevy (5-2) earned Tuesday’s win, allowing six hits and four runs (three earned) with five strikeouts in six innings.
Riley O’Brien earned his second save by pitching a scoreless ninth. After missing with his first eight pitches to bring the tying run to the plate, he struck out the next two and got a groundout to end the game.
Edward Cabrera (6-7) took the loss, lasting just 4 1/3 innings while allowing season-highs in hits (11) and runs (six). He fanned six and walked one.
Cabrera got in trouble on the game’s fourth pitch as Lars Nootbaar singled, then advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Herrera’s broken-bat bloop single. Herrera got behind 0-2 in the at-bat, but he fouled off three pitches and worked a full count before delivering.
Herrera came through again in the second against a 98-mph fastball — lining a two-run, opposite-field single to right for a 3-0 lead.
The Cardinals made it 4-0 in the third on Pedro Pages’ RBI single. That was St. Louis’ eighth single in the first three innings.
Miami got on the board in the fourth as Xavier Edwards singled and rookie Jakob Marsee smacked an opposite-field triple to left. The next batter, Agustin Ramirez, hit a comebacker to McGreevy, who threw to third in an attempt to get Marsee. But the throw was wild, allowing Marsee to score.
The Cardinals got those two runs back in their next chance. Two more singles started the rally, and Masyn Winn scored on Ramirez’s league-leading 12th passed ball. Nathan Church’s sacrifice bunt made it 6-2, which represented the first RBI for Church in just his third MLB game.
Miami closed the deficit to 6-4 in the sixth as Edwards singled, Ramirez doubled and Otto Lopez stroked a two-run single past diving second baseman Thomas Saggese.
The Cardinals made it 7-4 in the seventh as Winn was hit by a pitch, stole second, advanced on Ramirez’s throwing error and scored on Saggese’s sacrifice fly.
–Field Level Media
