Marlins pull Janson Junk early but still beat Cardinals to win series
Janson Junk cruised through five innings in the Miami Marlins’ series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday afternoon. The back-end starter in Miami’s rotation needed just 56 pitches to get those 15 outs, giving up just one hit and one walk in the process as he kept the Cardinals’ lineup at bay.
Despite his effectiveness, that’s where Junk’s story ended Wednesday.
The Marlins went on to win 4-1 at loanDepot park to take the series against the Cardinals and split their six-game homestand, but Miami’s early move to the bullpen was a curious one with the way Junk was performing.
Marlins manager Clayton McCullough postgame said he made the decision because of the amount of high-leverage relievers he had available in the bullpen and that the team had “a chance to be aggressive and were in good spots” to have those relief pitchers match up well against the Cardinals.
“As good as Janson was pitching,” McCullough said, “our best path today to nail down a win was to go that route.”
The 56 pitches were the fewest Junk had thorwn in a start over his Marlins tenure, which started last season. He had thrown at least 79 pitches in each of his first four starts this season prior to Wednesday, including 99 and 93 pitches in each of his previous two outings. He went a career-long 7 1/3 innings in his second start of the season.
Through five starts, Junk has a 3.67 ERA, allowing 11 earned runs over 27 innings.
Junk, for his part, was diplomatic in how he approached being taken out of the game early when he was pitching so effectively.
“I just want to compete,” Junk said, “and I felt like I was in a good spot. At the end of the day, I’m just happy we got the win. In the moment, yeah, I want to go out there. And I felt like I was on pace to go, seven or whatever. But, you know, I did what I had to do. And that was my job today.”
All that said, the move didn’t cost the Marlins (12-13).
Andrew Nardi, Anthony Bender, Michael Petersen and Lake Bachar and Pete Fairbanks combined to throw the final four innings. They kept the shutout intact until the ninth before St. Louis’ Ivan Herrera hit a solo home run off Bachar, who only logged one out. Fairbanks finished the game for his fifth save of the season.
Miami’s offense, meanwhile, was a consistent threat all day against the Cardinals (14-10).
The Marlins logged 12 hits, their seventh time with double-digit hits through 25 games this season. Javier Sanoja had three hits, while Agustin Ramirez and Heriberto Hernandez each had two.
Miami scored twice in the second on three hits, a hit by pitch and a walk, with Owen Caissie’s groundball single through the left side plating Ramirez and a Jakob Marsee bases-loaded walk pushing the Marlins’ lead to 2-0.
Marsee then hit an RBI single in the fourth to plate Leo Jimenez, who was hit by a pitch in the second and walked in the fourth before being replaced by pinch-hitter Graham Pauley in the sixth.
Ramirez’s RBI single in the fifth scored Otto Lopez, who led off the frame with a single, to give Miami the 4-0 advantage.
Racking up wins at home
With the win on Wednesday, the Marlins are now 10-6 at home and are 3-1-1 in their first five series at loanDepot park — winning sets against the Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox and Cardinals, dropping a series with the Milwaukee Brewers and splitting a four-game set with the Cincinnati Reds.
Conversely, Miami is just 2-7 so far on the road, losing all three series played away from South Florida thus far against the New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers and Atlanta Braves.
Up next
The Marlins are off Thursday before starting a six-game road trip. The trip starts in San Francisco from Friday through Sunday before wrapping up against the two-time-defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers Monday through Wednesday.
This story was originally published April 22, 2026 at 2:37 PM.
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