Marlins unable to bail out Turner in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS -- Jacob Turner's homecoming was met with mixed reviews and a controversial botched bunt on Friday night.

At times, the St. Charles, Mo., native was effective. But he also had his struggles. Against a powerful team like the Cardinals, it's hard to overcome mistakes.

Matt Holliday belted two doubles, drove in a run and scored twice, while Allen Craig added two RBIs and a double, and the Cardinals defeated the Marlins, 4-1, at a sold-out Busch Stadium.

With a large number of family members and friends on hand, the 22-year-old Turner savored the moment. But he wished he had executed better on the mound and at the plate.

"It was fun, obviously. No matter what happened today, I was going to enjoy it," said Turner, who was charged with four runs on seven hits in six innings. "It was fun being that it's my hometown and everything. I wish I would have pitched a little better and pitched a little deeper into the game."

Turner wasn't at his sharpest, but he didn't get much offensive help.

Logan Morrison homered, but it was all Miami could manage off Jake Westbrook, who scattered three hits and one run over seven innings.

The Marlins were limited to just three hits total, and former Miami reliever Edward Mujica collected his 22nd save, tossing a perfect ninth.

After taking two of three at Atlanta, the Marlins are now 2-2 on their road trip.

Any hope of a comeback win for the third straight night was dashed after a controversial fifth inning.

A chopped sacrifice bunt attempt that turned into a disputed double play created a clumsy frame for the Marlins in what turned out being their last serious threat.

Adeiny Hechavarria reached on an infield single. The Marlins caught a break when Hechavarria was safe at second when Matt Carpenter dropped a flip from shortstop Daniel Descalso on a routine grounder by Jeff Mathis. So rather than a double play, the Marlins had two on and no outs.

Turner attempted to sacrifice bunt, and mass confusion followed. His bunt went right in front of the plate, and the Marlins thought it was foul. It was handled by catcher Yadier Molina, who immediately tagged Turner. Home-plate umpire Fieldin Culbreth quickly called Turner out, which removed the force plays. Molina threw to third, where David Freese was on the bag, received the ball and threw to first base, unaware Molina had tagged Turner.

"I thought in the heat of the moment it was foul," Turner said. "But I looked at the video, and it was really tough to tell. Yadi tagged me, so I assumed he saw that. Then, when I looked at the video, he called me out. I was just confused. I didn't hear him over the crowd or whatnot, so I just started running. It was a weird play. I've got to get the bunt down in that situation."

With the force removed, Freese needed to tag Hechavarria, but third-base umpire Brian O'Nora signaled out, even with the throw going across the diamond. First-base umpire Bill Welke also signaled Turner out again at first.

So Hechavarria trotted off the field, while Marlins manager Mike Redmond argued with Culbreth, as did third-base coach Joe Espada. It was ruled a double play.

"No. 1, we didn't get the bunt down, which was probably the biggest part of it," Redmond said. "I thought the ball was clearly foul. He called it fair. I think everybody on defense thought the ball was foul. After that, I don't really know what happened."

Basically, chaos followed.

"The best way to explain it was an unfortunate circumstance of three or four things taking place at once," Culbreth said. "I had the fair/foul [call] and the out [call] basically simultaneously. I was making a fair call and a foul call at the same time. As I was doing so, the third-base coach came down to yell at me. With everybody between me and the coach coming down, I lost sight of that."

So what happened with O'Nora's call at third?

"He was blocked by the play," Culbreth said of O'Nora. "We were in here talking about it. Because two things happened simultaneously, people have to watch their position and watch their plays, there's a chance in that situation, that runners, fielders and possibly umpires might not have a chance to see everything that went on."

Three different umpires gave out calls, prompting Redmond to quip about the whole situation.

"I thought it was a triple play," Redmond said half jokingly. "They were calling everybody out. So I don't know. It was definitely confusing. As soon as the ball was bunted, and he called it fair, I took off out there to argue. I didn't really look to see what else was going on around."

"We only had three hits. I'm sure that could have definitely helped us, but we didn't help ourselves out."

A pair of two-out doubles by Holliday and Craig in the first inning gave the Cardinals the early lead. The Marlins countered in the second, pulling even on Morrison's home run to center field. The blast, Morrison's second on the road trip, was estimated at 440 feet.

"It was at the knees, but it was at the middle of the plate," Westbrook said. "He's an aggressive hitter and he definitely hit it well."

Miami has homered in each of its four games on the trip, with Morrison starting the string on Tuesday in Atlanta. The Marlins have had a string of five straight games with a home run this season, from June 21-26.

St. Louis gained command with a three-run third inning, which was too much damage for Miami to overcome. The Cardinals strung together three straight hits to start the inning. Singles by Carpenter and Jon Jay put runners on the corners, and Holliday's second double of the game brought in a run. Craig lifted a sacrifice fly, and with two outs, Matt Adams' double made it a three-run lead.

The Marlins were hitless after the fifth inning.

"We only had three hits," Redmond said. "We've got to execute that bunt there. If we get that bunt down, we're not talking about that call."