MIAMI - Jeremy Hermida homered while leading off in the ninth inning, lifting the Florida Marlins to a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals last night.
Hermida hit a 1-1 pitch from reliever Jason Motte (2-2) into the right-field seats for his first career game-winning homer.
It came after Matt Lindstrom (2-1) pitched a scoreless ninth for the Marlins, who rallied from an early three-run hole.
Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter allowed three runs in six innings after having given up three runs in his first six starts combined. His ERA rose from 0.79 to 1.29.
Marlins ace Josh Johnson ran into trouble in the third when Brendan Ryan and Skip Schumaker led off with singles and Ryan raced to third as leftfielder Chris Coghlan misplayed Schumaker's hit.
Chris Duncan followed with an RBI single. The Cardinals added two runs in the inning when Rick Ankiel doubled off the wall in right, but the outfielder was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple.
Florida third baseman Emilio Bonifacio cut the lead to 3-2 with his two-run double in the third, and drove in his career-high third run of the game on a single that tied the game in the fifth.
Cody Ross led off the fifth with a line single to left. He moved to second on Johnson's sacrifice and took third on Coghlan's groundout. Bonifacio then hit a sharp, high bouncer to the box that Carpenter got his glove on but could not field.
St. Louis 003 000 000 – 3 9 0
Florida 002 010 001 – 4 7 1
St. Louis AB R H BI Avg. Florida AB R H BI Avg.
Schumaker 2b 4 1 1 0 .289 Coghlan lf 4 1 1 0 .226
Duncan lf 4 1 1 1 .249 Bonifacio 3b 3 0 2 3 .247
Pujols 1b 4 0 0 0 .320 Ha.Ramirez ss 3 0 0 0 .326
Rasmus cf 4 0 2 0 .265 Cantu 1b 4 0 0 0 .274
Ankiel rf 3 0 2 2 .231 Hermida rf 4 1 2 1 .261
Y.Molina c 4 0 0 0 .258 Uggla 2b 3 0 0 0 .221
T.Greene 3b 4 0 1 0 .260 Jo.Baker c 2 0 0 0 .257
C.Carpenter p 2 0 0 0 .071 R.Paulino c 1 0 0 0 .250
