St. Louis Cardinals rally, fall short in 6-5 loss to Miami Marlins

The St. Louis Cardinals rallied late in the game but ultimately fell short in a 6-5 loss to the Miami Marlins on Monday night.

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The Cardinals scored three runs in the fourth inning and two more in the ninth inning. Giancarlo Stanton provided half of the runs for the Marlins offense with two home runs on the night.

Matt Holliday had a perfect night at the plate with four hits in all four at bats. Holliday hasn’t really touched his usual .300 average this season and just got over .270 for the first time in a while. The Cardinals outfielder will need several multi-hit games to reach .300 by the end of the season.

Holliday led off with a double in the fourth inning. Two strikeouts followed before A.J. Pierzynski singled to left and drove him in. Jon Jay hit his third home run of the season to drive in two runs.

In the ninth inning, the Cardinals could have tied it up but Matt Carpenter grounded into a force out with Peter Bourjos being called out at second. What quickly followed was a triple off the bat of Kolten Wong, scoring Carpenter. Holliday’s fourth and final hit of the night scored Wong.

Shelby Miller moved to 8-9 with a 4.17 ERA following the loss. Miller allowed five runs on eight hits. He walked two and struck out five batters.

“I made some pitches at times, but when it came down to their best hitter on their team I throw two of the worst pitches I’ve probably thrown all night, and you can’t do that,” Miller said according to MLB.com. “That’s a guy who sees mistakes and does a good job of hitting those kind of pitches. He’s leading the league in home runs, and there’s the reason why. He’s got a lot of power, he’s a great hitter and I didn’t help myself at all throwing those pitches right down the middle.”

Sam Freeman pitched two innings of relief. The Cardinals reliever allowed one run on two hits. He struck out four batters.

Nick Greenwood pitched the eighth inning. He allowed one hit and struck out a batter.

The Cardinals pitching is going to need to hold Stanton to as little damage as possible for the rest of the series.