MIAMI (AP) — Jaime Garcia made a mistake against Giancarlo Stanton, and later took a misstep on his way to scoring.
Otherwise, he and the St. Louis Cardinals rolled again.
Jason Heyward homered for the third consecutive game, Kolten Wong added a two-run shot and the Cardinals topped the Miami Marlins 6-1 on Wednesday night — improving baseball’s best record to 47-24.
“Jaime’s been pitching his butt off for us,” Wong said. “It’s good to repay him.”
Heyward hit a three-run homer, his ninth of the season, in the seventh to blow the game open.
The Cardinals had just one hit in the first six innings against Miami starter Mat Latos (2-5), that hit being Wong’s ninth home run in the third.
Garcia (3-3) allowed one run — the Stanton homer, his ML-leading 27th — in seven innings for the Cardinals, lowering his ERA to 1.69.
Garcia singled and eventually scored in the eighth, but grimaced and began to limp shortly before crossing the plate.
He came out of the game, but afterward Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said it was merely because of a cramp and didn’t believe there was reason for concern.
“He was terrific,” Matheny said. “Gave up a couple hard-hit balls, one to Stanton, but he really limited the damage.”
Stanton had three hits in four at-bats — all leading off innings, something the Marlins absolutely don’t want.
Latos threw seven innings, giving up three hits and two walks — with all five of those runners scoring, and all earned.