Hermida homers leading off ninth inning, sending Marlins to 4-3 win over Cardinals

Hermida homers in ninth to lift Marlins over Cards

MIAMI — Jeremy Hermida homered leading off the ninth inning, lifting the Florida Marlins to a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night.

Hermida hit a 1-1 pitch from reliever Jason Motte (2-2) into the right-field seats for his first career game-winner homer. It came after Matt Lindstrom (2-1) pitched a scoreless ninth for the Marlins, who rallied from an early three-run hole.

Cardinals start Chris Carpenter allowed three runs in six innings after having given up three runs in his first six starts combined. His ERA rose from 0.79 to 1.29.

Marlins ace Josh Johnson ran into trouble in the third when Brendan Ryan and Skip Schumaker led off with singles, and Ryan raced to third when left fielder Chris Coghlan misplayed Schumaker’s hit. Chris Duncan followed with an RBI single.

The Cardinals added two more runs when Rick Ankiel doubled off the wall in right, but he was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple.

Emilio Bonifacio cut the lead to 3-2 with his double in the third, and he drove in his career-high third run on a single in the fifth that tied the game.

Cody Ross led off with a lined single to left. He moved to second on Johnson’s sacrifice and took third on Coghlan’s groundout. Bonifacio then hit a sharp high bouncer to the box that Carpenter got his glove on but couldn’t field.

Marlins catcher John Baker left the game in the sixth with a laceration over his left eye after being hit in the head on a swing by leadoff hitter Albert Pujols. The Cardinals slugger fouled off a pitch but followed through and hit Baker with his bat.