ARCHIVE April 21, 2026
April 21, 2026 · NL East

St. Louis Cardinals vs Miami Marlins

April 21, 2026loanDepot parkRoof Closed 72°F · 0 mph, None
AWAY
St. Louis Cardinals
14-9
5
vs
HOME
Miami Marlins
11-13
3

Starting pitchers

AWAY · STL
Dustin May
Dustin May
IP 5.1
HOME · MIA
Chris Paddack
Chris Paddack
IP 4.2

Lineups

AWAY · STL
  1. 1 JJ Wetherholt 2B
  2. 2 Iván Herrera DH
  3. 3 Alec Burleson 1B
  4. 4 Jordan Walker RF
  5. 5 Nolan Gorman 3B
  6. 6 Masyn Winn SS
  7. 7 Nathan Church LF
  8. 8 Pedro Pagés C
  9. 9 Victor Scott II CF
HOME · MIA
  1. 1 Jakob Marsee CF
  2. 2 Kyle Stowers LF
  3. 3 Otto Lopez SS
  4. 4 Xavier Edwards 2B
  5. 5 Liam Hicks C
  6. 6 Agustín Ramírez DH
  7. 7 Owen Caissie RF
  8. 8 Graham Pauley 3B
  9. 9 Connor Norby 1B

Box score

  123456789 R
STL 101210000 5
MIA 100000020 3

Manager comparison

Both managers grade B- / C+ entering this matchup.

AWAY · STL
Oliver Marmol
B- Lineup 1.2 R Bunts 0.7 R IBBs 0.3 R
HOME · MIA
Clayton McCullough
C+ Lineup 1.4 R Bunts 0.4 R IBBs 0.6 R

Recent form

AWAY · STL
7-2 W1 +13 run diff
WL?WLWWWWW
HOME · MIA
4-6 L1 -6 run diff
LWLLLLWLWW

Season series: 1-2 with STL listed first across 3 prior meetings.

Tactical analysis

RunsLeft separates manager decisions from player execution from game variance. Each card below is the same three-number framework that drives the share cards on the SPA replay page.

AWAY · St. Louis Cardinals
  • Manager lineup cost +0.01 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 4.87 vs actual lineup 4.86
  • Player execution +0.14 R/G Players exceeded the lineup's 4.86 projection by 0.14 (scored 5)
  • Game variance +0.13 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Church HR from the 7-hole

HOME · Miami Marlins
  • Manager lineup cost +0.05 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 4.88 vs actual lineup 4.83
  • Player execution −1.83 R/G Players fell 1.83 short of the lineup's 4.83 projection (scored 3)
  • Game variance −1.88 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Stowers 0-for-4 batting 2nd

COUNTERFACTUAL

Optimal lineups projected 4.9 – 4.9 — actual was 5 – 3.

Keep reading

How RunsLeft analyzes games

Standard content on this page comes from the MLB Stats API. Tactical analysis comes from a per-game Monte Carlo: 10,000 simulated games against the opposing starter's ERA, both for the actual lineup the manager wrote and for the optimal arrangement of those nine players. The three numbers — manager cost, player execution, game variance — separate which part of the result was the lineup, the players, or the dice.

Read the full methodology.