Jaime Garcia improves to 3-3 (photo/MLB)
Jaime Garcia evened up his personal record to 3-3 after he allowed just one run, a home run to Giancarlo Stanton, his major league-leading 27th. Garcia went seven innings for the Cardinals, lowering his ERA to 1.69 and getting plenty of offensive support in a 6-1 win. The Cardinals improve on their major league leading best 47-24 record. The Pirates and Cubs both loss.
The Central division lead is now 7 on Pittsburgh and 7.5 on Chicago.
It looked like it was going to be another low-scoring night for the Cardinals, who had just one hit off Marlins starter Mat Latos through six innings. That hit though was a two-run shot from Kolten Wong.
“Jaime’s been pitching his butt off for us,” Wong said. “It’s good to repay him.”
Jason Heyward blew the game open when homered for the third consecutive game in the seventh. Heyward is hitting .348 with ten RBIs in the month of June and has hit safely in ten of his last eleven games, going 17 of 42 for .405 average in that span with seven extra base hits.
