Sunday’s game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Miami Marlins on the hottest day of the year so far was as much about survival as it was winning the game as Kyle Leahy and Bryan Torres helped the Cardinals beat the Marlins and the Heat Sunday if only barely.
The official game temperature was 92 degrees at the start of Sunday’s game in St. Louis, but the heat index said 106. The Cardinals scored first in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Masyn Winn led off with a single. He didn’t have to wait long to return to the dugout as Bryan Torres turned on a 95 mph sinker and sent it screaming over the right field wall giving St. Louis a quick 2-0 lead.
All things considered, Kyle Leahy gave the St. Louis Cardinals one of his best starts of the season as he endured 5 full innings striking out 5 and walking 3. He held the Marlins scoreless until the top of the 5th inning when Owen Caissie doubled to lead off the inning and he scored 2 pitches later when Graham Pauley hit a ground rule double cutting the Cardinals lead in half at 2-1.
The Cardinals bullpen did its job with JoJo Romero tossing 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Ryne Stanek closed out the top of the 7th inning as he was able to get a ground ball from Mack that Masyn Winn turned into an easy double play. George Soriano entered the game in the top of the 8th inning to try and help the Cardinals hang on to their narrow 2-1 lead. He was successful as his stuff was nasty in the best possible way as the Marlins never even got close to anything he was throwing.
One of the best performances Sunday was Marlins pitcher Tyler Phillips who pitched into the 8th inning amidst the soaring heat index. He would be taken out when the Cardinals strung together one-out hits from Nathan Church and Pedro Pagés bringing up JJ Wetherholt with runners on first and third. In a pivotal rally-killing play, Nathan Church was picked off by Marlins catcher Mack. That sound you heard was the deflation of a great Cardinals scoring opportunity. JJ ended up striking out to end the inning, but he did have 2 hits on the day to begin to break out of his most recent 0-15 slump.
Riley O’Brien was brought in to close out this way-too-close Sunday battle with the Marlins. He was fortunately up to the task as he coaxed a fly ball out of Edwards and struck out Hernandez and got Sanoja to ground out to Alec Burleson. Game over, man.
The St. Louis Cardinals have Monday off as a travel day, but will then begin a difficult road trip as they’ll visit the NL East division-leading Atlanta Braves starting Tuesday night. Matthew Liberatore will try again as he is the scheduled starter for the Cardinals. The Atlanta Braves starter is unannounced as of now. First pitch is scheduled for 6:15pm central time at Truist Park in Atlanta. Game TV broadcast available on Cardinals.tv.
