Cardinals 7 – Marlins 5

Complete Recap

The Cardinals jump out to an early lead and once again get involved in a close matchup they finally win in the end. The first inning saw the Cards jump out to an early lead on the strength of a two run home run off the bat of Matt Holliday to bring end the inning 2-0 Redbirds. The second inning was more fuel to the fire as they are able to load the bases before the Marlins walk Allen Craig to score Daniel Descalso 3-0.

Kyle McClellan’s good streak ended up turning around in the top of the 3rd. He walks the first two batters and the pitcher hits into a fielders choice to bring the runners to second and third. Chris Coghlan is the next batter and hits into a force out at second base, but this allows John Buck to score, 3-1 Cardinals. The next batter is Omar Infante and he sees a wild pitch that allows Emilio Bonafacio to score, before he grounds out to Ryan Theriot. Inning ends 3-2 Cardinals.

The top of the 4th is no different as it sees the Cardinals struggle to get out alive. The Marlins hit two more RBIs on the strength of singles by Gregg Dobbs and John Buck, the inning ends 4-3 as the Marlins take their first lead.

Luckily the bottom of the 5th the Cards begin to battle back as Matt Holliday singles to lead things off, Berkman walks, and then Colby comes in to single and score Holliday for an RBI, who for Colby has seemed a bit of a rarity as of late to tie the game at 4. The bottom of the 5th is also where both teams sub out their pitchers, the Cardinals subbing Jon Jay in his batters slot and Edward Mujica takes the mound.

Fernando Salas took over and played the next two innings well but allows the go ahead run in the top of the 7th to bring the score to 5-4 Marlins.

The bottom half of the inning provided not only the firepower, but that game winner as well. Lance walks, Colby singles and the Marlins soon turn to pitcher Clay Hensley to replace Ryan Webb…bad idea. Little did they know little Daniel Descalso would step up in such a big way as the first batter he faced and hit his first HR of the season to score all three runs to get the Cardinals the 7-5 lead.

This would prove to be all that was needed and the Cardinals pull out a big victory!

Winning Pitcher: Fernando Salas (1-0 : 1.46 ERA)

Losing Pitcher: Ryan Webb (0-3 : 3.60 ERA)

Save: Eduardo Sanchez (2 SV : 1.64 ERA)