Cardinals’ pitcher Jason Marquis ended a personal four-game skid on Thursday afternoon to lead his team over the Mets 6-3 at Busch Stadium. Marquis (5-4) lasted 7.2 innings and was charged with three runs off four hits and two strikeouts. He was spotted a 4-0 lead by the second inning with two runs in each of the first two frames.
In the first inning Scott Rolen singled to center field to drive in David Eckstein for the first run of the game. Scott Spiezio drove in the first of his two RBIs to knock in Rolen to give St. Louis a 2-0 lead.
Eckstein, who also drove in two runs, singled in Aaron Miles in the second inning to give the Cardinals a 3-0 advantage. Later in the inning, Eckstein scored again when Carlos Delgado committed a throwing error to first base on a John Rodriguez grounder. That made it 4-0.
Marquis steered clear of trouble until the fourth inning when former Royals’ outfielder Carlos Beltran hit a two run homer to cut the St. Louis lead in half. It was his tenth home run of the season.
Spiezio and Eckstein doubled in runs in the fifth and sixth innings to give the Cardinals their four-run lead back.
Jose Valentin’s two-out, solo home run in the eighth inning made it 6-3 and ended Marquis’ afternoon. Randy Flores entered and got Beltran to fly out to end the inning.
In the top of the ninth, Cardinals’ closer Jason Isringhausen allowed a walk to David Wright and a double to Cliff Floyd, with one out, to put runners at first and third. He struck out Ramon Castro and Endy Chavez grounded out to end the game. Isringhausen notched his 13th save of the year.
