Pablo Lopez, Jesus Sanchez lead Miami Marlins to win over Cardinals to avoid sweep

The strong start to the season continues for Pablo Lopez and Jesus Sanchez.

The duo’s performance on Thursday — seven shutout innings for Lopez, a solo home run and three runs scored for Sanchez — were enough to lift the Miami Marlins to a 5-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday to avoid a series sweep.

Miami (5-7) closed its homestand on a high note after dropping the first two games of its series against the Cardinals 5-1 on Tuesday and 2-0 on Wednesday. The Marlins took three of four against the Philadelphia Phillies to open their first slate of games at loanDepot park, giving them a 4-3 record at home as they head out for their next road trip to face the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals.

“To get this win is big because you don’t know where a streak starts,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “You don’t know where you get on that roll where you’re able to win eight out of 10 or 10 out of 15, whatever it is. That has to start somewhere. To be able to stop what was going on the last couple of night, we feel good about ourselves.”

Jazz Chisholm Jr., batting in the leadoff spot for the first time this season, added a two-run home run of his own in the seventh to pad Miami’s lead.

But the game was essentially decided by that point thanks to Lopez and Sanchez.

Lopez tied a career high with nine strikeouts and dropped his season ERA to an MLB-leading 0.52 through three starts. That’s the third-best mark in franchise history through a pitcher’s first three starts of a season, behind only Dontrelle Willis in 2004 (0.00 ERA) and Josh Beckett in 2005 (0.45 ERA).

“That sounds good,” Lopez said, “but it’s one of those things I try to take pitch by pitch. When I’m on the mound, my focus is on the next pitch. ... If I’m able to have 100 percent of my focus on every pitch and if I’m able to do that through 100 pitches, it’s going to be a good night.

The Cardinals (7-4) had just three hits against Lopez — all singles — and did not get a runner in scoring position against the 26-year-old righty.

His changeup was once again dominant, with five of his nine strikeouts coming on the pitch.

On the season, he has given up just three hits on the changeup and opposing batters have a 50 percent swing and miss rate against the pitch (25 whiffs on 50 swings).

Tanner Scott and Anthony Bass followed Lopez with a pair of scoreless innings to seal Miami’s first shutout win of the season.

Sanchez, meanwhile, gave the Marlins more than enough run support by reaching base and scoring on each of his first three plate appearances.

The center fielder opened scoring when he led off the second inning with a walk against Cardinals starter Jordan Hicks, moved to second on a Jesus Aguilar single, got to third on a Joey Wendle infield single and scored on a Brian Anderson fielder’s choice that second baseman Tommy Edman misplayed.

Sanchez then gave Miami an insurance run in the fourth when he singled off reliever Drew VerHagen, advanced to second on an Aguilar base hit, third on an Avisail Garcia deep fly out and scored on a Yadier Molina passed ball.

And then he capped off his day with a solo home run to right-center field in the sixth against Aaron Brooks, sending a middle-middle changeup a projected 428 feet for his third home run of the season.

Sanchez leads Marlins regulars in hits (16), batting average (.356), on-base percentage (.396) and runs scored (nine). He is tied with Chisholm in home runs (three) and triples (two) and only trails Chisholm in RBI (nine for Sanchez, 12 for Chisholm), slugging (.667 for Sanchez, .774 for Chisholm) and OPS (1.063 for Sanchez, 1.107 for Chisholm).

“Me and Jesus have been talking since last year when he first got called up,” Chisholm said. “I told him to be himself, keep on doing his wiggle, whatever he needs to do to get out there and ball. It’s time [for him] to take over, and I’m really proud of him and I’m really happy with what he’s done so far.”

Wendle avoids arbitration

The Marlins and Wendle agreed to a one-year, $4.55 million contract to avoid arbitration for the 2022 season. The deal also includes a mutual option for the 2023 season, Wendle’s final year under team control before becoming eligible for free agency.

“Really glad we were able to find common ground,” Wendle said pregame Thursday. “I wasn’t looking forward to the [arbitration] hearing. I don’t think anybody particularly does, but really glad to have that behind me and now just focus on getting back on the right track and winning some games.”

The Marlins acquired Wendle this offseason in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays for outfielder prospect Kameron Misner. The versatile infielder has started nine of the Marlins’ first 12 games, seven at third base and two at shortstop. He is hitting .314 so far this season.

“Joey’s a baseball player; he’s an adult baseball player,” Mattingly said. “He knows where to be. He knows how to play. He’s ready for every situation. It, to me, ends up being a great move for us because it gives us versatility. It gets us the guy that plays with some toughness, attitude and been on teams that have won. Yeah, it’s it’s good to have Joey over here.”

The Marlins now have just two players whose salaries for 2022 remain undetermined: Lopez and catcher Jacob Stallings.

This story was originally published April 21, 2022 at 9:23 PM.

Jordan McPherson

Miami Herald

305-376-2129

Jordan McPherson covers the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and covered the Gators athletic program for five years before joining the Herald staff in December 2017.