Sandy Alcantara boosted his trade stock by pitching five strong innings as the visiting Miami Marlins blanked the St. Louis Cardinals 5-0 on Tuesday.

With speculation swirling around the right-hander ahead of the Thursday trade deadline, Alcantara (6-9) held the Cardinals to three hits. He walked three, hit two batters, threw a wild pitch and struck out four.

Calvin Faucher and Ronny Henriquez threw a scoreless inning each, and Valente Bellozo finished off the last two innings of the shutout.

Graham Pauley hit a two-run homer for the Marlins, who won for the fifth time in the past seven games.

Cardinals starter Sonny Gray (10-5) allowed three runs on eight hits in five innings. He struck out five and walked one.

St. Louis reliever Steven Matz allowed two runs on three hits before abruptly leaving the game after one inning. Reliever John King exited the game in the ninth inning after sustaining an apparent injury to his left side.

Gray needed 23 pitches to escape first-inning trouble. With two outs, Agustin Ramirez hit a double and stole third base. Kyle Stowers walked, but Gray got Otto Lopez to fly out.

Miami took a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Troy Johnston hit a single in his first big league at-bat, and Pauley followed two batters later with his two-run homer.

The Marlins made it 3-0 in the fifth inning. Kyle Stowers doubled and scored on Lopez’s single.

With one out in the bottom of the fifth, Pedro Pages hit a single and Victor Scott II walked. Pages took third as Masyn Winn struck out on a wild pitch. After Scott stole second base, Alcantara hit Ivan Herrera with a pitch before striking out Alec Burleson to leave the bases loaded.

Miami increased its lead to 5-0 in the sixth inning. Dane Myers hit a one-out single, and with two outs, Eric Wagaman delivered an RBI double. Xavier Edwards would follow with a run-scoring triple.

–Field Level Media