Cardinals end five-game losing streak with win vs. Marlins

MIAMI -- The St. Louis Cardinals broke out of their scoring drought in a big way.

Rick Ankiel finished a single shy of the cycle and Colby Rasmus also homered as the Cardinals snapped a five-game losing streak with a 13-4 victory over the Florida Marlins on Wednesday night.

The Cardinals scored their season high in runs on 18 hits. It was the most runs scored by St. Louis since Aug. 18, 2008, at Atlanta in an 18-3 win. The Cardinals totaled only 12 runs during their losing skid.

"A lot of good swings," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "We had some two-strike base hits. This is stuff the guys have been working hard on and hopefully we can build on."

Brendan Ryan went a career-best 4-for-4, all singles, scored twice and drove in a run, while Tyler Greene had a career-high three hits.

"It was big for our offense, we've been struggling," Ankiel said. "To come out there and keep it going the whole game. It wasn't just one inning. Every inning we came out there and pounded it out, a knock here and there, and scored a bunch of runs."

Adam Wainwright (6-4) allowed four runs and four hits over seven innings to break a personal two-game losing streak.

"It was a big win that we needed today," Wainwright said. "I kept us in it. It wasn't my sharpest day but seven innings kept the bullpen out of it. My team gave me a lead and the main focus for me was holding that lead."

Chris Volstad (4-6) allowed six runs and 10 hits over 5 2/3 innings in losing his third consecutive start.

"It just wasn't a good night for me. I was getting ahead of guys and couldn't finish them off," Volstad said. "Balls were up in the zone and not really moving a whole lot. Just one of those nights. Inconsistency."

The Cardinals took a 3-0 lead in the first when Chris Duncan doubled with one out, Albert Pujols walked and Rasmus hit the first pitch from Volstad over the wall in right field. Rasmus, a 22-year-old rookie, was batting clean up for the second straight game. Fifteen of Rasmus's last 18 hits have been for extra bases.

The Marlins got one run back in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by Hanley Ramirez.

St. Louis made it 4-1 in the second on Skip Schumaker's RBI double, a run Florida got back in the third on Jorge Cantu's run-scoring single.

Greene drove in a run in the fourth with a single. Jeremy Hermida drove in his first run for the Marlins in the fifth with a single.

Ankiel led off the sixth with a triple and Yadier Molina followed with a single to make it 6-3.

Trailing 6-3, the Marlins loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth but Wainwright struck out Ramirez looking.

"That was a huge punchout," La Russa said. "The game could have changed dramatically if Ramirez gets a hit there. He [Wainwright] really rose to the occasion."

Hermida, who hit a walkoff homer in the ninth for the Marlins on Tuesday, made it 6-4 in the seventh with a solo homer off Wainwright.

St. Louis broke it open with four runs in the eighth off reliever Cristhian Martinez and Ankiel hit a two-run homer off reliever Burke Badenhop in the ninth.

"We banged with them for six, seven innings and then the last two innings they just got ahead of us," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "It's a good club over there."

Pujols, mired in an 0-for-15 slump and hitless in his last four games, singled in the third and finished 1-for-4.

Game notes
Cantu left the game in the top of the seventh because of dizziness. ... The gash above Marlins catcher John Baker's left eye when he was struck by Pujols' backswing on Tuesday took six stitches to close. He is day-to-day and available only in an emergency. ... Cardinals utility player Joe Thurston is with his wife, Raquel, in California for the birth of their daughter. He was expected to be back Thursday.