The Miami Marlins ended their team-record nine-game losing streak starting the season when Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Nick Gordon hit three-run homers in a six-run first inning that lifted them over the St. Louis Cardinals 10-3 on Sunday.
“I’m just happy for the guys, they can actually smile and breathe a little bit,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “Celebrating in there after kind of a long week, long 10 days, two weeks whatever you want to call it. So it just feels really good to be able to smile in there.”
Schumaker would not comment on a report by USA Today that he and Miami had eliminated a 2025 team option from his contract during the offseason.
Miami had been the first team to start 0-9 since Atlanta and Minnesota in 2016. The Marlins avoided becoming the first team to lose its first 10 games since the 2002 Chicago White Sox began 0-11.
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Max Meyer (1-0), a 25-year-old right-hander, got his first major league win in his fourth start and appearance. Meyer allowed one run and three hits in six innings, striking out three and walking one.
“Max was really the story today,” Schumaker said. “It’s exactly what we needed. He’s easy to root for. He’s just different out there. He’s a special kid that has this ninth inning mentality every pitch, and he has a bright future here.”
Meyer had Tommy John surgery on Aug. 9, 2022, and returned to a major league mound this April 1, when he pitched five innings without a decision against the Los Angeles Angels.
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“It feels good." Meyer said. "Obviously, I want to go out there and pitch five, six, seven innings every time, and this is just kind of the base. Now, I feel like for me and for all the starters to just go out there and start winning some ballgames.”
Meyer retired his first 13 batters before Nolan Gorman homered on a drive that bounced off the glove of a leaping Chisholm at the center-field wall. Gorman hit his first two home runs this season, adding a two-run drive in the ninth off Matt Andriese for his seventh career multi-homer game.
“After his first at-bat, he sat next to me and he said, ‘Man, I’m feeling better and better every swing, I feel like I'm getting really close,''' Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. ”Then he hit his first homer and went back and hit his second one."
Kyle Gibson (1-1) allowed seven runs and seven hits over six innings in his home debut for St. Louis.
“I felt like I executed a lot of pitches late in the game,” Gibson said. “I’ve been told you obviously can’t win the game in the first but you can lose it in the first.”Unfortunately, I just didn’t give the team a chance to win."
TRAINER’S ROOM
Marlins: LHP Braxton Garrett (left shoulder impingement) allowed two runs and three hits while striking out five and throwing 66 pitches in 4 1/3 innings during a rehabilitation start with Triple-A Jacksonville.
Cardinals: RHP Sonny Gray (right hamstring strain) will start Tuesday against Philadelphia. Marmol says Gray will be limited to approximately 65 pitches.
UP NEXT
Marlins: LHP Jesús Luzardo (0-1, 4.35 ERA) matches up against Yankees LHP Nester Cortes (0-1, 6.30 ERA) to start a three-game series in New York on Monday night.
Cardinals: RHP Miles Mikolas (1-1, 6.10 ERA) will face Phillies RHP Spencer Turnbull (1-0, 0.00 ERA) Monday night to open a three-game series.
