Lance Berkman’s 8th inning homer helps St. Louis Cardinals rout Florida Marlins, 6-3: MLB Update
St. Louis Cardinals’ first baseman Lance Berkman had a notable day with the bat as he went 1-for-2 and struck a crucial home run in the Cardinals’ 6-3 victory over the Florida Marlins at the Busch Stadium in St. Louis on May 5.
The Marlins were outclassed in the first inning as they did not put any run on the score-board. While the Cardinals started the game like a winner and continued the same fashion throughout the game. Matt Holliday started the scoring account for the Cardinals
and took the lead 1-0 by hitting an RBI double and posted a run on the fly-ball of Albert Pujols towards the centre-field of the diamond.
The second, third and fourth inning remained score-less for both sides. The Marlins overcome the Cardinals by taking four back-to-back singles. Josh Johnson hit an RBI single to lead the Marlins by 2-1 in the fifth inning. Berkman drove a shot towards the
left field spot and scored on the sacrifice fly to tie the game at 2-2 in the sixth inning.
Berkman said of his game plan, “Nobody's perfect. He probably wasn't going to go the whole year without giving up a run. You just try to be aggressive and hopefully he makes a mistake in the strike zone. You're not to get him too many times.”
Omar Infante gave some momentum to his team by hitting an RBI single in his 2-for-3 and led off the Marlins by 3-2 in the seventh inning. The Cardinals were unable to score in the seventh but the eighth inning was full of score for them when Berkman hit
a solo homer to tie again with 3-3. Then Colby Rasmus batted superbly as he went 2-for-3 and scored a triple run to extend the lead 6-3 for the Cardinals.
The Cardinals were restricted to extend the lead further when Pujols was thrown out to centre field spot by Chris Coghlan. The Cardinals' starter, Jake Westbrook, was dominant with his pitching as he threw 6 1/2 innings and permitted three runs on seven
hits including three earned runs with eight strike-outs. He did not give any walk to the batters. Westbrook said, “It was frustrating to have that one inning after feeling so good.”
The Cardinals’ Manager Tony La Russa was much contended with the club’s performance. He said, “When you have depth like that, one of three guys can have a good day and you have enough offense to win. Nobody got deflated. I think they were just upset that
it had turned out that way.”
For the Marlins, Johnson was shaky with the ball as he gave away five runs on eight hits including five earned runs and struck out seven hitters in 7 1/2 inning pitches.
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