Tyler O'Neill Hits Tiebreaking Double, Cards Top Marlins 4-2
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Tyler O'Neill doubled home the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning and the slumping St. Louis Cardinals beat the Miami Marlins 4-2 on Monday night to halt a three-game slide.
Adam Wainwright tossed six effective innings and Paul Goldschmidt had two hits and an RBI as the Cardinals won for only the third time in 14 games.
Dylan Floro (2-4), the fifth Miami pitcher, began the eighth with a walk to Dylan Carlson before Goldschmidt singled. With one out, O'Neill hit his second double of the game to score Carlson, who had two singles.
"I've had a couple of chances like that this year and came up a little short," said O'Neill, who hiked his batting average to .291. "I really wanted to put the ball in play there somewhere hard and give Dylan a good chance to score. That was a good one to get. We've been scuffling a little bit and no one hates losing more than we do. We've got to keep scrapping out there."
Paul DeJong drove in Goldschmidt with a groundout to make it 4-2.
Giovanny Gallegos (4-1) pitched a hitless inning and Alex Reyes retired the side in the ninth for his 17th save.
Miami had won four of five.
The Cardinals tied it 2-all on an RBI single by Goldschmidt in the fifth when St. Louis knocked out 23-year-old rookie starter Braxton Garrett, who went 4 1/3 innings.
"I felt like I had a great start," Garrett said. "I'd like to have kept going. I'm sure that will come with experience. I'd like to go deeper. I'd like to get to seven. I need to be more efficient and get quicker outs."
Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled with two outs in the third, scoring Jon Berti and Starling Marte, to give Miami a 2-1 lead. Wainwright loaded the bases on a single and two walks after retiring the first two batters.
Chisholm has reached base in 20 of the 22 games he's played since returning from the injured list on May 16.
"We had a few innings after that to try and build on the score and we didn't," Miami manager Don Mattingly said.
St. Louis scored its first run in the second on a single by Edmundo Sosa.
"I'm happy to contribute in any way to the team," Sosa said through a translator.
The 39-year-old Wainwright faced an opposing pitcher with fewer than 10 career appearances for the fourth straight start. He allowed two runs and four hits with six strikeouts, fanning Jorge Alfaro in the fourth for his 1,900th career punchout.
"We have not been playing great ball but I've got a sneaky suspicion that things are going to turn around for us," Wainwright said. "What we just went through I think will help us in the long run. We'll see what we're made of. I know the guys in the clubhouse aren't folding up. I like our chances to come back strong."
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