Central STL News

Nine singles and a late home run helped the St. Louis Cardinals break a five-game losing streak on Monday night in Miami. Alec Burleson led the team with three hits and two RBIs, while Lars Nootbaar contributed two singles and an RBI. Nolan Gorman hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning, his 12th of the season, providing crucial insurance runs as the Cardinals defeated the Marlins 8-3 in the first game of their three-game series.

Gorman’s home run was St. Louis’ only extra-base hit of the night. “Just taking good quality at-bats and moving the line. That’s all we can do,” Gorman said. “Good things happen when we do that.”

Willson Contreras returned to action after missing four games due to a right foot contusion, adding two singles and an RBI to support the offense.

The turning point came in the seventh inning with the score tied at 3-3. Iván Herrera reached second base on a fielding error by Marlins right fielder Dane Myers, then scored on Burleson’s single to center field. “The odds were in my favor after the error, just because that’s the way baseball works,” Burleson said. “So I just wanted to put a barrel on the ball and drive him in.

“It changes the game completely. One second, they’re off the field, and in the next second, they’re behind a run. It changes the momentum of the game completely, and it allowed us to add on.”

Pedro Pagés walked twice and extended St. Louis’ lead with an RBI single in the eighth inning.

St. Louis capitalized on Miami's mistakes throughout; Marlins starter Eury Pérez threw four wild pitches, while catcher Agustín Ramírez’s passed ball let Garrett Hampson score from third base late in the game.

“We took advantage of their mistakes, which is huge,” Gorman said. “When we got runners on, we were able to get them in. As an offense, we’ve done a pretty good job of that as of late.”

Earlier in play, Nootbaar and Burleson delivered run-scoring singles along with Contreras’ sacrifice fly during a fifth-inning rally that erased Miami's early lead.

Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore pitched into six innings for his longest outing since July 5 before being relieved by Matt Svanson (2-0), who provided two scoreless frames out of relief.

“Pretty happy overall, obviously, we got the win today, and that’s the most important thing,” Liberatore said following his start where he struck out five batters over 75 pitches while walking one hitter.

Manager Oliver Marmol noted improvement from Liberatore: “Seeing Libby go out there and do what he did today with the velo, he looked like himself,” Marmol said. “The fastball was good, his spin was where we needed it to be. He just looked like himself. There were no red flags the entire outing.”

Nootbaar also made a key defensive play from right field in sixth inning when he held Jakob Marsee at third base after fielding Myers' single cleanly; Contreras then ended Miami's threat by catching Liam Hicks' line drive before tagging Myers off first base.

Monday's offensive output came hours after infielder Brendan Donovan was placed on St. Louis' injured list with a left groin strain.

“It’s important that others pick up and do the job like we did today,” Pagés said.