Cardinals recap: St. Louis tops Marlins

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33. Final. 1. 82. 3

Cardinals win Marlins opener behind Garcia’s strong outing

There was no letdown for the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night.

One night after the Cardinals had one of the worst outings of the season against the Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis recovered and downed the Miami Marlins, 3-1, in the opener of a three-game series.

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The game was noteworthy for the strong performance of Jaime Garcia, who struck out six in 8 1/3 innings of work and improved to 5-4 overall. Trevor Rosenthal picked up his 36th save when he got the final two outs.

Both teams were scoreless until the fifth inning, when Matt Carpenter‘s RBI single scored Mark Reynolds and put St. Louis up 1-0. The Cards made it 2-0 in the seventh on a Reynolds RBI single, and Carpenter later clubbed his 18th home run to close out the St. Louis scoring.

The Cardinals improved to 74-41 overall and stayed six games ahead of the Pirates and 7 1/2 games in front of the Chicago Cubs.

Carpenter finished 2-for-4 and improved his average to .271. His status as a leadoff man has definitely been cemented.

What’s next?

The middle of the three-game series takes place Saturday at 7:15 p.m. John Lackey (9-7, 2.91) goes for his 12th straight season of 10 wins or more as he goes up against Marlins starter Brad Hand (2-2, 4.29)