Miami defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-7 at Roger Dean Stadium in their first spring training action of 2017.
Miami starters J.T. Realmuto, Martin Prado, Christian Yelich, Justin Bour, and Adeiny Hechavarria each hit safely in the first few innings, but each player who started was lifted between the fourth and seventh inning to give some of the younger guys a chance. Brian Anderson hit a double, but committed an error at third base.
Edison Volquez, Tom Koehler, Dustin McGowan, Hunter Cervenka, Nick Wittgren, Scott Copeland (W, 1-0), Severino Gonzales, and Brandon Cunniff (S, 1) each pitched an inning for Miami, and Wittgren actually pitched two. Each of the eight allowed at least a baserunner, and Cunniff was the only Marlins’ pitcher to strike out two.
Offensively, Christian Yelich, Justin Bour, and Tyler Moore each went deep, hitting three of the five round-trippers in the game overall. Nine of the 17 half-innings featured at least one run in the back-and-forth affair. Moore’s homer, in the bottom of the seventh, was the game-winner for Miami, and set the final margin.
Tomorrow, these two will get back after it for another round of spring training fine-tuning, at 12:05PM in Roger Dean Stadium.