The St. Louis Cardinals left Arizona feeling a little bit better about themselves [url=http://www.lionscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-dwayne-washington-jersey]Dwayne Washington Jersey[/url] , thanks to a late-inning surge by the offense and another strong outing from Miles Mikolas.
The Cardinals scored seven times in the seventh and eighth innings to beat Arizona 8-4 on Wednesday night. After coming to town on a four-game losing streak and off a three-game sweep at the hands of Atlanta, St. Louis took two of three from the first-place Diamondbacks.

Yadier Molina’s three-run homer on the first pitch from reliever Fernando Salas highlighted a five-run Cardinals seventh inning after Arizona had nursed a 2-1 lead through six in front of a sellout crowd of 44,072.

”Had some big hits today,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. ”It allows those big five-run innings to happen. Wear the pitcher down, wear the defense down. Then you have Yadi come in and do something special on the back end.”

Tommy Pham drove in three Cardinals runs with a double and two singles. Matt Carpenter doubled twice and singled with one RBI.

”Carp kind of set the tone. He got on base a lot,” Pham said. ”I think we had good at-bats. Even when the results weren’t there, we made guys throw pitches. That’s key. If a guy is taking four or five plus pitches to get outs, that means you are grinding as a hitter. When you put that together as a team, it wears out pitching staffs.”

The Diamondbacks dropped to 1-5 on their homestand and lead the surging Los Angeles Dodgers by just a half-game in the NL West.

Mikolas (9-3) gave up two runs and seven hits, walked four and struck out three.

Arizona reliever Yoshihisa Hirano (2-1) had his franchise-record streak of 26 games without allowing a run end when Yairo Munoz homered to lead off the seventh. Hirano gave up four runs, one earned, on three hits in two-thirds of an inning for his first loss since coming to the major leagues from Japan this season.

”Yoshi’s human,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. ”That’s what it means, right? And he’s absolutely spoiled us. He’s been a slam-dunk reliever and he made a really tough game look easy for a long time.”

After Munoz’s homer [url=http://www.billscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-eddie-yarbrough-jersey]Eddie Yarbrough Jersey[/url] , shortstop Ketel Marte booted pinch-hitter Tyler O’Neill’s grounder for an error. With one out and O’Neill on second, Pham singled to center to put the Cardinals up 3-2. Center fielder Jarrod Dyson left the game with discomfort in his right groin area, Lovullo said.

Salas relieved Hirano and gave up the big hit to Molina, who homered twice in the series.

”It was like two totally different games,” Lovullo said. ”The first six innings were exactly the way you’d like to see guys go out and execute and do their job, and then the final three innings unfortunately we couldn’t execute in a lot of key areas.”

HARD-LUCK LEFTY

Arizona starter Patrick Corbin allowed one run and six hits in six innings, his third straight strong outing without a decision. He’s given up two runs in 19 innings during those three starts.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: Paul DeJong (broken left hand) homered and doubled and played shortstop all nine innings Tuesday night in his fourth rehab game for Triple-A Memphis. Matheny said DeJong would not be activated Thursday in San Francisco but could be at some time during the four-game series.

Diamondbacks: Right-handed reliever Randall Delgado (left oblique strain) was scheduled to make another rehab appearance for Triple-A Reno and is expected to be activated Thursday, the end of his rehab assignment. … OF Steven Souza Jr. (strained right pectoral) had Wednesday off in his rehab assignment with Reno after homering twice for the Aces on Tuesday night. Souza has three homers in his last two rehab games.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: Head to San Francisco for four games against the Giants. RHP Luke Weaver (4-7, 5.16 ERA) starts for St. Louis in Thursday night’s opener. Johnny Cueto (3-0, 0.84) comes off the disabled list to pitch for the Giants.

Diamondbacks: RHP Shelby Miller (0-2, 11.42), following two rough starts in his return from Tommy John surgery, takes the mound Thursday night in the opener of a four-game home series against San Diego. LHP Eric Lauer (3-5, 5.08) goes for the Padres.

—

MIAMI — San Francisco Giants rookie Dereck Rodriguez is thrilled to be in the major leagues while Miami Marlins veteran Dan Straily is just relieved he’s not on the disabled list.

Rodriguez and Straily will go at each other in Thursday’s finale to this four-game series. The Marlins (26-42) have won the first three games against the Giants (33-35) including Wednesday’s 5-4 victory [url=http://www.bearscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-jordan-howard-jersey]Jordan Howard Jersey[/url] , which ended with Brian Anderson’s walk-off sacrifice fly in the ninth inning.

As for Rodriguez (1-1, 5.25 ERA in three starts), he is the son of Hall of Fame catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez.

Meanwhile, Straily (2-2, 4.08 ERA) survived last week when he got hit by a 110-mph line drive off the bat of San Diego Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer. It was a terrifying play, but Straily escaped with bruised ribs and did not miss a start.

“It definitely took the wind out of me,” Straily said of the Hosmer line drive. “I felt myself kind of spinning around.

“When you get hit, you don’t really remember it — you kind of have a momentary blackout. Your body takes over, whether it’s adrenaline or whatever the actual reaction is … You don’t feel anything for a few minutes.”

Straily said it wasn’t until he left the game after 3 2/3 innings that he felt “a little bit of soreness” while back in the locker room.

“It’s never anything you want to deal with, but you keep going forward,” he said. “We all know that we (pitchers) stand the closest to home plate, but you can’t let that stuff bother you or you won’t be able to pitch. You can’t let that be a fear.”

Straily said x-rays were negative — no broken bones.

“If there were any doubt that I’m not 100 percent, I wouldn’t be on the mound,” Straily said. “It’s not about trying to be a tough guy or having a lot of pride.”

The Marlins are 5-3 when Straily starts [url=http://www.brownscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-howard-wilson-jersey]Howard Wilson Jersey[/url] , but he has allowed 10 runs (nine earned) in his past 13 2/3 innings. He has just two quality starts this season — both on the road — May 18 and 23.

In fact, Straily has been better on the road (1-2, 2.67 ERA in five starts) as opposed to his home numbers (1-0, 7.11 ERA, three starts).

A promising note for Straily is the fact that he is 4-0 with a 2.43 ERA in five career starts against San Francisco.

His counterpart Thursday, whose full name is Ivan Dereck Rodriguez, is 26 years old and has endured a long journey to get to the majors.

Rodriguez was an outfielder at two South Florida high schools, Hollywood Chaminade and Monsignor Pace. He was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the sixth round in 2011 and switched positions to pitcher late in the 2013 season.

It wasn’t until last year that he finally got to Double A, going 5-4 with a 3.94 ERA in 15 appearances (13 starts).

This year, he went 4-1 with a 3.40 ERA in nine starts at Triple-A Sacramento, earning his promotion to the majors May 29.

Rodriguez lasted only 3 1/3 innings in his debut, allowing five hits, one walk and four runs (one earned) at the Colorado Rockies.

His next start, at home against the Philadelphia Phillies [url=http://www.broncoscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-dennis-smith-jersey]Dennis Smith Jersey[/url] , marked his only major league win as Rodriguez picked up a quality start, allowing one run, five hits and two walks in six innings.

However, Rodriguez allowed five runs in 2 2/3 innings last week against the Washington Nationals, and that has produced an early trend in which he is 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA in two road starts.

He clearly has a long way to match the exploits of his father, who was a 14-time All-Star and a 13-time Gold Glove winner. Pudge also won a World Series championship in 2003, his only year with the Marlins.

“I was there almost every game,” Dereck Rodriguez told the Sun-Sentinel when asked about that 2003 season. “I remember everything. It was a year to remember, honestly. I spent a lot of time on the field with the guys. It was a lot of fun.”

Rodriguez can jack up his fastball to 95 mph, which is not surprising given what a strong arm was possessed by Pudge.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy praised Dereck Rodriguez for having good command of four pitches.

“Being a converted (pitcher), it’s impressive how fast he has come on,” Bochy said. “He earned the promotion with the way he was throwing in Sacramento.”

[url=http://www.basketballofficialauthentic.com/nba-jerseys/houston-rockets/vincent-edwards-jersey]Vincent Edwards Jersey[/url] ,