Nolan Gorman drove in four runs to help power the St. Louis Cardinals past the visiting Miami Marlins 6-4 on Wednesday and complete a three-game sweep.
Gorman hit a three-run homer and an RBI single as the Cardinals extended their winning streak to five games.
Cardinals starter Dakota Hudson allowed two runs on five hits in three innings. Zack Thompson (2-2) pitched two scoreless innings to earn the victory and Chris Stratton earned his first save.
Marlins starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara (3-9) allowed four runs on eight hits and two walks in six innings.
Jesus Sanchez drove in two runs for the Marlins, who have lost their first six games coming out of the All-Star break. Bryan De La Cruz hit a solo homer for Miami and Luis Arraez went 2-for-5 with an RBI to keep his batting average at .376.
The Cardinals jumped on Alcantara to take a 4-0 first-inning lead.
Paul Goldschmidt singled with one out, Lars Nootbaar walked and Nolan Arenado hit an RBI single to start the outburst. Gorman followed with his three-run homer. Alcantara walked Ivan Herrera and allowed Alec Burleson’s single before finally escaping with Paul DeJong’s double-play grounder.
The Marlins cut their deficit to 4-2 in the third inning. Jacob Stallings and Jorge Soler singled, advanced on a two-out wild pitch and scored on Sanchez’s single.
Stallings and Arraez singled opening the fifth inning off Thompson, but Soler grounded into a forceout and De La Cruz hit into a double play.
With one out in the sixth inning, Herrera singled and went to third on Burleson’s hit. But Alcantara got two outs to strand them.
The Cardinals increased their lead to 6-2 in the seventh inning.
Brendan Donovan doubled and scored when Nootbaar’s infield single resulted in a throwing error. Gorman followed with a two-out RBI single.
De La Cruz cut the lead to 6-3 with his eighth-inning homer and Arraez cut it to 6-4 with his RBI double in the ninth.
–Field Level Media
