The St. Louis Cardinals took advantage of home runs by Chris Duncan and Adam Kennedy to down the Florida Marlins 5-3 Monday night in the opening game of their three game series with the Marlins at Dolphin Stadium in Miami.
Duncan’s homer, his 18 th of the season, came in the 1 st inning with a runner on to give the Redbirds a 2-0 lead. Kennedy hit his roundtripper, his 2 nd of the year, in the 6 th to put the Cards up 4-2 at than point in the contest. St. Louis picked up another run before Miguel Cabrera smacked his 22 nd home run of the season in the 8 th to end the scoring.
Braden Looper (7-7) gave up 2 earned runs on 5 hits in 6 1/3 innings to earn the victory. Jason Isringhausen pitched a perfect inning to pick up his 18 th save. Byung-Hyun Kim (4-5) pitched 6 innings, giving up 5 earned runs on 8 hits to take the loss.
The Cardinals and Marlins play again Tuesday night in Miami. Brad Thompson (6-3) takes to the hill for the Cards against Florida’s Rick Vanden Hurk (2-2).
