ST. LOUIS — Johan Oviedo still hasn’t won a major league start for the Cardinals although his seventh start this year and 12th overall had a strong scent of victory to it. The 23-year-old right-hander didn’t allow a run, or even a walk, in seven innings against the Miami Marlins Wednesday afternoon at Busch Stadium.
There was one glitch. Miami ace Sandy Alcantara, a former Cardinals hard-throwing prospect just like Oviedo, yielded nothing for eight innings.
But, for the third time in the series, the Cardinals broke a tie with the Marlins in their final at-bat when Yadier Molina singled past third to score Paul Goldschmidt with one out in the ninth for the only run as the Cardinals completed a series sweep with a 1-0 triumph and their second walk-off win within 18 hours.
It marked the first time the Cardinals had completed a series sweep of the Marlins in the teams’ histories. The Cardinals had two seasons, 2006 and 2015, when they won five of six from Miami.
Goldschmidt had reached base on an infield error by the Marlins, who committed three. With one out, Matt Carpenter had drawn the only walk given up by Alcantara before Molina drilled a 1-2 pitch for his eighth walk-off hit.
Along the way, the Cardinals lost second baseman Edmundo Sosa with a bruised right hand, the result of absorbing an Alcantara fastball.
The Cardinals had the first scoring chance in the second with two outs when Edmundo Sosa beat out a tapper down the third-base line, stole second and went to third on catcher Jorge Alfaro’s throwing error. But Paul DeJong struck out.
Oviedo sailed through the first three innings in perfect fashion, requiring just 30 pitches, 20 of them strikes.
Oviedo then got his second hit of the season, a single inside third base with one out in the third. He had ideas of trying for a double but skidded to a stop between first and second and retreated to first. There he remained as Alcantara struck out Dylan Carlson and retired Goldschmidt on a popup.
Jon Berti beat out a slow bounder to shortstop for the first Marlins’ hit—and base runner—with one out in the fourth. With Berti on the run, Jesus Sanchez singled to right as Berti continued on to third.
But Berti’s journey ended at home as first baseman Goldschmidt threw to catcher Molina, who tagged out Berti trying to score on Alfaro’s grounder. Oviedo then maintained the scoreless deadlock by striking out Lewin Diaz.
The Marlins experienced a fundamentals breakdown in the Cardinals’ fourth but Alcantara pitched his way around it.
Tyler O’Neill legged out an infield hit and went to second on a throwing error by Jazz Chisholm Jr. Carpenter moved O’Neill to third with a right-side groundout.
Alcantara speared Molina’s grounder up the middle and, instead of running at O’Neill, immediately fired home. O’Neill, running on contact, backpedaled at this point, with Alfaro in pursuit. Alfaro fired to third baseman Dewin Marrero, who had come down the line, instead of throwing to shortstop Chisholm Jr., who was covering third. By the time, Marrero got the ball, the speedy O’Neill already had zipped by Marrero and O’Neill got back to third safely.
The Cardinals now had runners at first and third but Alcantara induced Sosa to ground to a double play started by Chisholm Jr.
But the Marlins failed to execute again in the fifth after consecutive singles by Lewis Brinson and former Cardinal Magneuris Sierra. Marrero rolled into a double play and, after Alcantara was hit in the left arm by a pitch and Oviedo was visited by pitching coach Mike Maddux, Chisholm Jr., grounded out and the threat had been abated.
Berti and Alfaro were on base with singles in the sixth when Diaz lined to second baseman Sosa, who underhanded to shortstop DeJong for what was called a double play by second-base umpire Larry Vanover but the Marlins challenged and won. But Brinson then flied out on the next pitch.
Oviedo left empty-handed after seven scoreless innings in which he didn’t walk anybody and threw only 24 balls out of 87 pitches. Sosa left after the seventh, too, after being hit by the Alcantara pitch. In obvious pain, Sosa, who was a minor league teammate of Alcantara’s for a couple of years in the Cardinals’ system, managed to go to first base to run for himself but then came out of the game.
Earlier in that inning, center fielder Sierra had robbed
Carpenter of a sure double and possible triple with a diving catch in right center. In the eighth, second baseman Berti ranged well behind the bag, avoiding Chisholm Jr., in the process, to throw out Carlson.
