ST. LOUIS — Max Meyer continued making his case for his first All-Star choice Friday night time, tossing seven scoreless innings to stay unbeaten and tie a franchise report because the Marlins defeated the Cardinals, 4-0, at Busch Stadium.
Meyer earned his ninth consecutive profitable choice, matching Liván Hernández (1997) and Pat Rapp (1995) for the longest such streak in a single season in franchise historical past. Among the many 129 Main League pitchers with a minimum of 10 begins this season, Meyer stays the one one with out a loss.
“It is all the time good to get every part going, get the heater over, touchdown my offspeed,” Meyer mentioned. “The protection [also] helped me out all day.”
The fitting-hander has been one of many Nationwide League’s most constant starters this season. His 2.60 ERA ranks sixth within the league by means of 17 begins.
“He is gotten higher in all aspects of pitching,” supervisor Clayton McCullough mentioned. “What him and Sandy have been capable of do main our rotation this whole half – we lean on them lots – and Max has definitely answered the bell every trip.”
Meyer cruised by means of six innings, throwing simply 66 pitches whereas placing out 5. 4 of his strikeouts got here on his sweeper and one on his slider, and he did not enable a runner to succeed in second base till the seventh inning.
“Max was phenomenal,” McCullough mentioned. “He was forward of lots of people. They had been very aggressive going at him early within the rely with how a lot miss and punch he can get, nevertheless it’s a group over there that does not strike out an entire lot.”
The sweeper has change into Meyer’s go-to pitch after being his least-used providing in 2025. Coming into Friday, he had practically tripled its utilization from 11.5 p.c to 29 p.c, whereas opponents’ batting common towards the pitch had dropped from .368 to .222.
“It has been a great pitch to have,” Meyer mentioned. “I depend on it, clearly lots, and I am glad that it has been constant all through the entire season.”
McCullough believes it has made an enormous distinction.
“He is throwing breaking balls at 90 miles an hour,” McCullough mentioned. “He is acquired a number of ones which have completely different shapes. It is powerful for the hitter to know which one may need a bit bit extra width to it, others go straight down. He is added a two-seam fastball, so now he can assault extra quadrants of the strike zone. Definitely the sweeper has been a extremely large pitch for him.”
The Cardinals mounted their greatest risk within the seventh after Meyer hit Iván Herrera and walked Alec Burleson earlier than Lars Nootbaar loaded the bases. Meyer escaped the one-out jam by getting Masyn Winn to floor out and Nathan Church to line out to left.
“I imply, acquired to throw up one other zero for the group,” Meyer mentioned. “It’s a shutdown inning [and] it was a tricky one. Moss got here out, gave me a bit breather there, let me settle in [before] making some large pitches… General, it is an amazing win. Clearly, relievers got here in, shut the door once more, too.”
Locked in a scoreless pitchers’ duel into the eighth, lately recalled Graham Pauley delivered the breakthrough with a go-ahead RBI double down the right-field line, scoring Esteury Ruiz after he singled and stole second.
“He is electrical,” Pauley mentioned. “We watched all of it yr. He is one among, if not the very best pitcher within the sport proper now. It is actually, actually cool to see how he carries himself daily and simply goes about his enterprise.”
Following a 27-minute rain delay within the eighth inning, the Marlins added to their lead when Xavier Edwards drew a stroll to load the bases. Kyle Stowers hit a floor ball to first, and Pauley was initially dominated out on the plate earlier than replay overturned the decision. Jakob Marsee capped the scoring with a two-out, two-run single within the ninth
The victory moved Miami to 4 video games above .500, matching its season excessive and marking the membership’s finest report this late in a season because the finish of 2023. The Marlins have additionally received seven of their final eight video games.
