MIAMI – Marlins right-hander Janson Junk tossed five scoreless innings in Wednesday afternoon’s 4-1 win over the Cardinals at loanDepot park.
With the victory, Miami captured the midweek set before heading out west to face the Giants and Dodgers.
In a surprising move, the Marlins pulled a cruising Junk after throwing just 56 pitches (38 strikes). He allowed only one hit – Pedro Pagés’ one-out bloop single in the second – and didn’t permit a baserunner in scoring position.
A strike-throwing Junk took advantage of an aggressive Cardinals lineup on a matinee getaway day, ending 11 of 17 plate appearances in three or fewer pitches.
While Junk’s pitch count remained in the lower 40s in the fifth, southpaw Andrew Nardi warmed up in the bullpen. Junk would issue his only free pass with one out, but he worked around it by retiring the next two batters to finish his start.
Miami jumped out to an early 2-0 lead against righty Kyle Leahy in the second inning while sending eight batters to the plate.
Liam Hicks and Agustín Ramírez opened with singles before Heriberto Hernández grounded into a forceout. Owen Caissie followed with an RBI single to left. After Leo Jiménez got hit on the left hand by a pitch to load the bases, Javier Sanoja popped out into foul territory. Jakob Marsee bailed him out by turning an 0-2 count into a run-scoring two-out walk.
The Marlins extended the lead on Marsee’s RBI single in the fourth and tacked on another run on Ramírez’s RBI single in the fifth.