ST. LOUIS _ First baseman Luke Voit hit a solo homer into Big Mac Land in the second and drove in two more with an opposite-field double off the wall in right in the third, leading the Cardinals to a 4-3 win over the Miami Marlins before a Thursday afternoon crowd of 37,780 at Busch Stadium.
The win gave the Cardinals a split in the four-game set with Miami. In their final three games before the All-Star break, the Caridnals will host the New York Mets.
"Just a normal swing," Voit said of his solo blast. "I eally stayed back ... curve balls go farther because they have that natural backspin. My approach was to right there on his fastball and if it's off-speed, just let it eat. I got lucky he hung one _ it felt good."
Voit is hitting .333 with two homers and seven RBIs over his first 11 games in the major leagues.
"It feels great, being able to contribute and help the ballclub," said Voit, a 22nd-round draft pick in 2013.
"Luke's been swinging the bat well, having some great at-bats and he came up with a couple of big hits today," third baseman Jedd Gyorko said. "We faced some tough situations there late in the game and the bullpen stepped up and did a great job for us.
"Just a good overall win."
The Marlins, who bounced back from a 14-6 Monday loss to beat the Cardinals 5-2 Tuesday and 9-6 Wednesday, jumped on top Thursday when Dee Gordon started the game with a single, swiped his 30th base and took third after fooling right fielder Jose Martinez into thinking he was not running. Marcell Ozuna followed with a run-scoring hit over second baseman Matt Carpenter.
Voit's 446-foot blast with one out in the second tied it at 1.
In the Miami third, Gordon was hit by pitch to start the inning. With one out, Christian Yelich singled and Ozuna followed with another run-scoring hit to right for a 2-1 Marlin lead.
In the bottom of the inning, the Cardinals loaded the bases on a Carpenter walk and one-out singles from Martinez and Gyorko. After Yadier Molina lined out sharply to third. Voit lined the ball over the head of right fielder Ichiro Suzuki as Carpenter and Martinez came around to score and put the Cardinals on top 3-2.
After reliever Matt Bowman came on for starter Michael Wacha to retire pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton to end a two-on, two-out jam in the top of the sixth with a grounder to third, Randal Grichuk homered into the Miami bullpen to stretch the lead to 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth.
The Marlins got a run back in the seventh. Gordon singled and picked up steal No. 31 in front of an infield hit by J.T. Realmuto. An out later, Ozuna greeted reliever Brett Cecil with a single up the middle for his third RBI hit of the day. But Cecil retired Justin Bour and Martin Prado to end the inning.
The Marlins threatened again in the eighth as Suzuki led off with a single and J.T. Riddle followed with a well-placed bunt single. The inning stalled, however, when a bunt by pinch-hitter A.J. Ellis was turned into a double play as third baseman Gyorko threw to shortstop Alex Mejia at third and he fired across the diamond to second baseman Greg Garcia covering first. Cecil then got Gordon on a comebacker to end the inning.
Wacha (6-3) turned in his third consecutive solid start, allowing six hits and two runs over 5 2/3 innings. He struck out nine and walked a pair. Seung Hwan Oh, who followed Bowman, Tyler Lyons and Cecil in relief, worked the ninth for his 17th save.
The Cardinals, who were outhit 12-8, received two hits, including the homer, and three RBIs from Voit, two hits from Gyorko and a homer from Grichuk.
Ozuna had three hits and drove in all three runs for the Marlins, who received two-hit games from Gordon, Realmuto, Yelich and Suzuki. Tom Koehler (1-4) started and took the loss.
