Junk's stellar pitching and timely hitting propel Marlins to series victory over the Cardinals, showcasing home-field dominance and extended on-base streaks.
MIAMI — Janson Junk turned in one of his efficient performances of the season to give the Miami Marlins a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday.
The Marlins (12-13) clinched the series and salvaged the homestand by winning three of their last four games after losing seven of eight prior to Sunday.
The Marlins are now the first team in the big leagues to win 10 games at home this season.
Junk went five scoreless innings, allowing only one hit with one walk and two strikeouts on 56 pitches to earn his first win of the season. The right-hander also lowered his ERA to 3.67 on the season.
“Jason was great,” McCullough said during his postgame press conference. “Our pitching staff as a whole is very good. So I had a chance to be, I felt, very aggressive with this one with the number of available relievers that we had.”
The Cardinals (14-10) lose the series after coming in riding a five-game winning streak. St. Louis right-handed pitcher Kyle Leahy took the loss after giving up four runs on eight hits with three walks and two strikeouts in five innings.
Javier Sanoja went 3-for-4 to lead the Marlins at the plate.
The Marlins took a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Back-to-back singles to lead off the rally set up an RBI single by Owen Caissie. The Marlins got their second run on Marsee walking with the bases loaded, which started with an 0-2 count.
“That was a high-quality plate appearance to hang in there and lay off a really tough 3-2 pitch for a walk,” McCullough said. “
Leo Jimenez drew a walk and scored on a single by Jakob Marsee to add to the Marlins' lead in the fourth inning.
Otto Lopez led off the fifth with a single and scored on an RBI base hit by Agustin Ramirez to put Miami up 4-0. Ramirez and Heriberto Hernandez each collected two hits for the Marlins.
Andrew Nardi, Anthony Bender and Michael Peterson each turned in a scoreless inning to keep the Cardinals scoreless leading up to the ninth inning. Peterson struck out the side in the eighth inning for the first time this season.
The Cardinals finally got on the board with a solo home run by Ivan Herrera off Lake Bacher in the ninth inning.
Pete Fairbanks came in to retire the final two batters by fly out and strikeout to earn his fifth save of the season for the Marlins. The closer has given up only one run and two hits in 6.2 innings over seven home appearances.
Marsee extended his on-base streak to a career-high 11 games after getting a hit and walk. He also stole his ninth base of the season, which is the third most in the National League.
Xavier Edwards was given a break from the infield and slotted into the lineup as a designated hitter. He uncharacteristically went 0-for-5 after entering the game tied for the most hits in the major leagues (31).
The Marlins will travel to San Francisco and Los Angeles to finish April. They will start ace Sandy Alcantara (2-2, 3.06) on Friday against the Giants.
“There’s a lot of really good things that we’re doing and there are certainly some things that have come up that in order for us to go on a really good run and stack some series wins together, we just have to tighten up a little bit,” McCullough said.
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