By MATT PIKE
Agustín Ramírez homered and Max Meyer pitched effectively into the sixth inning, both helping to lead the Miami Marlins to a 5-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at LoanDepot Park, snapping the Cardinals' five-game winning streak.
Meyer, who has battled injuries since being selected third overall in 2020 left after 5 1/3 innings giving up just two runs on three hits while walking two and striking out eight. All that after Meyer hit JJ Wetherholt and Iván Herrera with pitches to begin the game but then retired 10 batters in a row before Jordan Walker got the games first hit in the fourth, extending his hit streak to 15 games. Wetherholt has been hit by a pitch in a Cardinals-record five straight games.
Walker scored the opening run of the game on Masyn Winn's sacrifice fly to put the Cardinals up 1-0. In the bottom half of the fourth though, Miami got their first baserunner on a Kyle Stowers walk with one out. Stowers later scored on Xavier Edwards' ground-rule double to tie the game at the end of the fourth inning.
The game would not be tied long. After St. Louis couldn't score in the top half of the fifth inning, Ramírez hit his second home run of the season leading off the inning for a 2-1 lead. The Cardinals did tie it back up in the sixth, as Walker walked to lead off the inning and scored after Calvin Faucher entered with one out. Winn singled and Walker scored on a wild pitch after moving to third on the single, to tie the game at two all going into the bottom half of the inning.
In the bottom half, the Marlins took the lead back for good in the game. Stowers singled before scoring the go-ahead run from first on a double by Otto Lopez. Later in the inning, Edwards walked but was thrown out at home on a Liam Hicks' single that drove in Lopez to make it 4-2 at the end of six innings.
Miami extended it's lead in the eighth inning when Lopez, who has a hit in nine straight games, drew a walk from Ryan Fernandez and came home to score with one out on Hicks' single for a 5-2 advantage. In the ninth, Marlins closer Pete Fairbanks gave up a leadoff triple to Winn and a sacrifice fly to Ramón Urías before finishing for his fourth save in five opportunities.
McGreevy fell to 1-2 on the season taking the loss, giving up four runs on five hits with two walks in 5.2 innings, striking out three. At the plate, the Cardinals had just five hits, the leading hitter being Winn going 2-for-3 with a triple and an RBI. Walker was 1-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored.
St. Louis looks to get another win streak started, continuing its series with Miami tomorrow. Dustin May (2-2, 6.98 ERA, 15K's) starts for the Cardinals opposite Chris Paddack (0-3, 5.59 ERA, 18K's) for the Marlins. First pitch is at 5:40pm, pregame will begin near the start at 5:30 on KY 102 (102.5FM).
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