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Cards, Marlins open set in Florida

Aug 4, 2011 - 2:54 PM (Sports Network) - The Cardinals had hoped to make up some ground in the National League Central race to begin this week, but they found themselves outgunned at the plate on Wednesday.

St. Louis will try to rebound tonight when it visits the Florida Marlins, who begin a 10-game homestand with the first of four straight versus the Cards at Sun Life Stadium.

The Cardinals entered their three-game set with the first-place Brewers trailing the club by 2 1/2 games for the top spot. However, they lost two of three in the series to fall another game off the pace and did not put forth an encouraging effort in yesterday's finale.

Though trade deadline pickup Rafael Furcal hit a three-run homer, another new face in Edwin Jackson struggled over a seven-inning outing, giving up 10 runs -- eight earned -- on 14 hits in a 10-5 setback. St. Louis could not keep Milwaukee's Casey McGehee in the park, with the slugger belting three homers on the day.

"It was (a long day for Edwin). He made some mistakes that they hit," said St. Louis manager Tony La Russa of Jackson, who was making his second start since being acquired from the Blue Jays.

One game after being ejected in the 10th inning following a heated argument with the home plate umpire, catcher Yadier Molina went 1-for-3 to run his hitting streak to 12 straight games.

The Cardinals turn to Kyle Lohse in this opener after the right-hander battled back to win for the first time in five starts last time out.

Facing the Cubs on Saturday, Lohse was charged with five unearned runs in the first inning after giving up each run with two outs following an error to open the frame. However, he didn't allow another run the rest of the way over his five-inning start to improve to 9-7 with a 3.33 earned run average this season.

"You can't give Kyle enough credit," said La Russa. "A real rough start and then all of a sudden he shuts them down. That's baseball."

Lohse, who has claimed six of his wins on the road this season, had no one to blame but himself the last time he faced the Marlins. He got a no-decision in a May 2 meeting after yielding five runs over six innings. All the damage came in the form of the long ball, with the 32-year-old yielding a grand slam to Gaby Sanchez in the third inning and a solo homer to Mike Stanton in the fifth.

Lohse is 2-2 lifetime versus Florida with a 5.52 ERA in five starts.

The Marlins got a jump start on their return home Wednesday after their finale with the New York Mets was postponed due to rain. Florida was going for a three-game sweep and have won eight of their last 10 games.

The Fish will meet up with shortstop Hanley Ramirez, who left New York to have an MRI yesterday after injuring his left shoulder on a diving catch attempt in Tuesday's win. The MRI was described as precautionary and Ramirez is listed as day-to-day. He had surgery on the same shoulder following the 2007 season.

Clay Hensley was set to start yesterday's game, but will go instead tonight. It will be his 24th appearance of the season and fourth start.

Hensley has split two decisions since joining the rotation on July 18, winning on that day but taking a loss in Atlanta on Friday. The right-hander allowed three runs on five hits over seven innings, striking out three without a walk in a 5-0 decision.

"One of the goals going into the start was to limit the walks and not have many, just concentrate on throwing strikes," said Hensley. "That would give me a chance to go deeper in games cause that killed me in my last start. So I was happy about that, but not happy with the loss."

The 31-year-old is 1-3 with a 3.09 ERA this season and 2-0 with a 2.65 ERA in seven career appearances versus the Cardinals, including one start. He has faced them twice in relief and his three-run homer allowed to Daniel Descalso in the seventh inning on May 3 resulted in him getting charged with a blown save.

The Marlins and Cardinals split a four-game series in St. Louis in early May.