ST. LOUIS _ Among the many competitions the Miami Marlins have going, alongside the ones on the field against other teams every night and at the card table against each other every afternoon, is a friendly race among their sluggers: Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna and Justin Bour.
When one of them goes deep _ a nearly nightly occurrence _ they return to the dugout to high-fives and slaps on the butt with a bit of trash talk: How many you got?
After the Marlins' 9-6 win over the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday, the answers are 23 homers for Stanton, 23 for Ozuna and 19 for Bour, who after more than two weeks of going homerless hit a dinger in the ninth. It was the first time this season they all hit home runs in the same game.
Stanton and Ozuna jockeyed for position in the Marlins' miniature Home Run Derby with a combined three Wednesday. Their yo-yoing atop the club leaderboard doubled as the bulk of the offense in a second win in a row over St. Louis.
Stanton went first, an opening-inning frozen rope into the Miami bullpen in left field for an early lead and his 22nd long ball of the year, at the time tying Ozuna. Stanton went for seconds, too, homering for the second time in as many innings to double the Marlins' three-run cushion and temporarily take over the team lead.
The next inning, on the first pitch of the frame from Cardinals righty Mike Leake, Ozuna got a hold of a knuckle-curve low in the zone and planted it in the Marlins bullpen. His 23rd re-tied him with Stanton.
Bour added his 19th of the year as an insurance run in the ninth.
Stanton and Ozuna led the assault on Leake, who allowed a season-high eight runs (three earned) in a season-low 32/3 innings. Edinson Volquez's sacrifice fly in the second and Ozuna's RBI double in the fourth highlighted Miami's other scoring.
Volquez didn't pitch well, though he cruised through the first two innings by retiring all six batters on 17 pitches. Once the Cardinals started to hit him hard, scoring three in the third and one in the fourth, manager Don Mattingly lifted Volquez after four inning and 65 pitches.
Volquez allowed six hits and two walks, extending his streak of consecutive starts with multiple free passes to 15.
The Marlins bullpen covered the final five innings, giving up two runs.
