Cardinals walk-off Marlins on Arenado home run. Takeaways from Miami’s fifth straight loss
Nolan Arenado hit a walk-off, three-run home run against A.J. Puk to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-2 win over the Miami Marlins on Tuesday at Busch Stadium.
The Marlins (53-44) have now lost five consecutive games, tying their season-long losing streak previously done May 2-6 (three games against the Atlanta Braves, two against the Chicago Cubs). They are also now sitting on the outside of the playoff picture, one-half game behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the National League’s third wild card spot. The San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks hold the top two spots. It’s the first time Miami has not been in a playoff spot since May 26.
With two outs, Arenado sent a 95.7 mph middle-up four-seam fastball from Puk a projected 389 feet to left field for the game-winner.
“It could have been a little more in,” Puk said. “But he was able to get on top of it and did some damage with it.”
It was another game of missed opportunities.
Miami had 11 hits but went 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base. Over the course of the past five games, the Marlins are hitting .196 (10 for 51) with runners in scoring position and have left 41 runners on base.
“Situational hitting hasn’t been great since the All-Star Break,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said.
And in the 10th inning, one at-bat prior to the Arenado walk-off home run, Lars Nootbaar hit a ground ball with runners on first and second and one out that could have been an inning-ending double play, but shortstop Jon Berti hesitated on getting over to cover second base and the play instead was just a fielder’s choice.
“That was my fault,” Berti said. “I had coverage there at second. The runner screened me for a second and I hesitated. I didn’t have time to recover. ... Ideally I make a better read and make a break for second and get a chance to maybe turn a double play and get out of that inning.”
Instead, it set up the final dagger, with the Cardinals rallying back from a deficit for a third and final time after they erased Marlins leads of 1-0 and 2-1 earlier in the game.
“A tough day,” Schumaker said. “There’s no sugarcoating that.”
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Berti Ball leads the offense
While his miscue on defense set up the game-winner for the Cardinals, Berti was one of the few contributors to produce on offense. He scored both of the Marlins’ runs on Tuesday, using his blend of speed and baserunning savvy to help Miami manufacture its runs.
He opened the fifth inning with a triple to right-center field — his second triple of the season — and scored the first run of the game on a Luis Arraez sacrifice fly.
And in the seventh, Berti led off the inning with a single before stealing second (his 10th stolen base of the season), moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Jorge Soler two-out single to shallow center.
Berti started the potential rally in the ninth. He led off that inning with a single before moving to third on a single from pinch-hitter Joey Wendle to put runners on the corners and no outs and flip the lineup. But Arraez struck out, Berti was tagged out at home on a Soler grounder and Garrett Cooper struck out to strand two runners.
Edward Cabrera impresses in return
Schumaker said he hoped he would be able to get five innings out of Edward Cabrera on Tuesday. The right-handed pitcher was making his first start since going on the injured list for a right shoulder impingement on June 14. Cabrera was going to be capped at 85 pitches in his first outing back, understandable considering he only threw 62 pitches over five innings during a back-field game in Jupiter on Thursday — his last bit of rehab work before returning to the big leagues.
Schumaker got what he wanted and then some, even if the outing ended on a sour note. Cabrera threw five shutout innings, allowing just one hit, before giving up a game-tying home run to Brendan Donovan in the lone at-bat he pitched in the sixth inning. Cabrera struck out six and walked three while throwing 74 pitches (44 strikes).
“A healthy Cabrera is really what we need,” Schumaker said.
How did Cabrera evaluate the outing?
“A good one,” Cabrera said. “I’m just very happy to to be back here and being able to help the team in any way I can.”
Can Sandy Alcantara help the Marlins salvage a win?
The Marlins wrap up this road trip to forget on Wednesday, with first pitch scheduled for 2:15 p.m.
Right-handed pitcher Sandy Alcantara will be on the mound for the Marlins opposite Dakota Hudson for the Cardinals.
The last time Alcantara pitched at Busch Stadium, he tossed one of his MLB-leading six complete games en route to winning National League Cy Young Award last season. His season hasn’t been anywhere near that caliber this season, but Alcantara has made strides as of late. Alcantara has pitched to a 2.92 ERA over his past four starts, allowing eight earned runs over 24 2/3 innings.
This story was originally published July 18, 2023 at 11:37 PM.
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