MIAMI — The strong start to the season continues for Pablo Lopez and Jesus Sanchez.
The duo’s performance on Thursday — seven shutout innings for Lopez, a solo home run and three runs scored for Sanchez — were enough to lift the Miami Marlins to a 5-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday to avoid a series sweep.
Miami (5-7) closed its homestand on a high note after dropping the first two games of its series against the Cardinals, 5-1 on Tuesday and 2-0 on Wednesday. The Marlins took three of four against the Philadelphia Phillies to open their first slate of games at loanDepot park, giving them a 4-3 record at home as they head out for their next road trip to face the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals.
Jazz Chisholm Jr., batting in the leadoff spot for the first time this season, added a two-run home run in the seventh to pad Miami’s lead.
But the game was essentially decided by that point thanks to Lopez and Sanchez.
Lopez tied a career high with nine strikeouts and dropped his season ERA to 0.52 through three starts. That’s the third-best mark in franchise history through a pitcher’s first three starts of a season, behind only Dontrelle Willis in 2004 (0.00 ERA) and Josh Beckett in 2005 (0.45 ERA).
The Cardinals (7-4) had just three hits against Lopez — all singles — and did not get a runner in scoring position against the 26-year-old righty. His change-up was once again dominant, with five of his nine strikeouts coming on the pitch.
On the season, he has given up just three hits on the change-up and opposing batters have a 50% swing and miss rate against the pitch (25 whiffs on 50 swings).
Tanner Scott and Anthony Bass followed Lopez with a pair of scoreless innings to seal Miami’s first shutout win of the season.
Sanchez, meanwhile, gave him more than enough run support by reaching base and scoring on each of his first three plate appearances.
The center fielder opened scoring when he led off the second inning with a walk against Cardinals starter Jordan Hicks, moved to second on a Jesus Aguilar single, got to third on a Joey Wendle infield single and scored on a Brian Anderson fielder’s choice that second baseman Tommy Edman misplayed.
Sanchez then gave Miami an insurance run in the fourth when he singled off reliever Drew VerHagen, advanced to second on an Aguilar base hit, third on an Avisail Garcia deep fly out and scored on a Yadier Molina passed ball.
And then he capped off his day with a solo home run to right-center field in the sixth against Aaron Brooks, sending a middle-middle change-up a projected 428 feet for his third home run of the season.
Sanchez leads Marlins regulars in hits (16), batting average (.356), on-base percentage (.396) and runs scored (nine). He is tied with Chisholm in home runs (three) and triples (two) and only trails Chisholm in RBIs (nine for Sanchez, 12 for Chisholm), slugging (.667 for Sanchez, .774 for Chisholm) and OPS (1.063 for Sanchez, 1.107 for Chisholm).
