Rafael Furcal warmed up for his National League All-Star Game start by triggering a home plate celebration. Heath Bell heads into the All-Star break with his job in jeopardy.

Furcal capped a three-run ninth-inning rally with a two-run, bases-loaded single off the vulnerable Miami closer that gave the St. Louis Cardinals a 5-4 victory over the Marlins on Sunday and a feeling of exhilaration in the clubhouse.

”That’s pretty good, especially when it’s 4-2 in the ninth inning and against one of the best closers in the game,” Furcal said. ”It’s very special to do that, and now we’re ready to go for the second half.”

Pinch hitter Austin Kearns put the Marlins up 4-2 with a three-run home run in the seventh.

The blown save was the sixth in 25 chances for Bell (2-5), saddled with a 6.75 ERA. The right-hander gave up a run while earning his 19th save in the series opener Friday and Ryan Webb was warming up when the game ended.

”I feel like I’ve let the whole organization down,” Bell said. ”I’m the reason that we’re 10 games back, plain and simple.

”If I’ve been doing my job we’d be right in the hunt.”

Manager Ozzie Guillen put Bell on notice, but said he’d wait until after the break before deciding anything. The right-hander is in the first year of a three-year, $27 million free agent deal after three straight 40-plus save season with the Padres, going 15-9 with 132 saves in 146 chances and a 2.23 ERA from 2009-2011.

The Marlins are actually nine games out in the NL East.

”I’ve stood behind him but he’s got to be better than that,” Guillen said. ”He is better than that. If he’s not better, I’ll find a solution.

”I have to make a decision and it will be drastic.”

Guillen wasn’t happy with Hanley Ramirez, either. Ramirez left the game with a lacerated right finger that needed stitches from punching a cooling fan in the dugout after grounding out in the sixth.

”A very stupid injury,” Guillen said. ”Very immature, very immature. You hurt yourself because you can’t hit? Good hitters don’t do that.”

General manager Mike Hill thought Ramirez would be ready on Friday when they begin a four-game series at home against the Nationals. Ramirez, batting .248 with 12 homers and 44 RBIs, was embarrassed.

”I got mad. I know I’ve been playing hard but at the same time I’ve got to produce more. I’ll be there Friday, I think definitely. I’m going to die on the field.”

Mitchell Boggs (2-1) struck out Donovan Solano with the bases loaded to end the ninth after Marc Rzepczynski left with heat-related woes in a game that began with the temperature at 94 degrees. Rzepczynski said he was having trouble focusing on the catcher’s glove.

”Not overheated, but getting very close to it,” Rzepczynski said.

Furcal also had an RBI single in the fifth and has 36 RBIs overall, most among National League leadoff men. He singled to left on a 1-2 pitch and David Freese barely beat catcher John Buck’s tag for the winning run.

”Great way to end the first half,” Freese said. ”We worked some good ABs off Bell and got it done.”

Buck had the ball ahead of the slide and the Marlins briefly argued the call. After watching a replay, Buck said home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi had gotten it right.

”I came in here and checked it, and I think he got it,” Buck said.

The Cardinals took two of three from Miami and headed into the All-Star break on a 6-2 streak after taking two of three from Miami.

The Marlins were minus another star most of the series. Giancarlo Stanton, the team’s lone All-Star, underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Sunday after playing just two innings a day earlier.

Hill said the surgery was a success and that the team was hopeful Stanton would be back in four to six weeks.

Omar Infante added three hits and Logan Morrison and Greg Dobbs extended their hitting streaks to 11 games for Miami, which despite the loss has won seven of 11.

Tony Cruz cut the deficit to a run with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly with one out in the ninth and Daniel Descalso coaxed an 11-pitch walk to load the bases again ahead of Furcal’s winning hit. Furcal, who had been 0 for 4 with the bases loaded and 0 for 10 the last two seasons, is 5 for 14 against Bell with four RBIs and four walks.

The top three in the Marlins’ order, Jose Reyes, Ramirez and Carlos Lee, were a collective 1 for 31 with five walks, an RBI and two runs. Florida pitchers held Cardinals All-Star Carlos Beltran to a single in 13 at-bats.

Rookie Joe Kelly allowed an unearned run in six innings for the Cardinals. But manager Mike Matheny’s attempt to finesse the seventh with three relievers flopped when Mikael Cleto gave up a double and a walk with one out to the only batters he faced and Kearns greeted Victor Marte with his third career pinch homer on a 2-0 fastball that landed an estimated 409 feet in the visitor’s bullpen in left-center.

Furcal’s RBI single in the fifth had put the Cardinals ahead 2-1. Skip Schumaker had an RBI single in the second and Matt Holliday extended his hitting streak to 11 games.

Florida starter Anibal Sanchez gave up two runs in six innings and walked none for just the second time this season. He entered Sunday’s start 2-6 with a 5.64 ERA over 10 starts, but also was stingy against the Cardinals on June 27 at home when he allowed three runs in seven innings and got the win in a 5-3 victory.

Mike Dunn didn’t allow a hit in 1 2-3 innings and Steve Cishek struck out Holliday with a man on third to end the eighth. St. Louis hitters are 1 for 19 against Cishek, who worked 1 2-3 hitless innings on Friday in a 3-2 victory.

The Marlins took the lead without a hit in the first, fueled by one-out walks to Ramirez and Carlos Lee. Ramirez stole second on the first pitch to Lee, the pair pulled off a double steal as Logan Morrison struck out on a full count and Ramirez scored without a play after catcher Tony Cruz threw wildly into left field.

Kelly struck out five and walked five, but kept his pitch count manageable by allowing just two hits and getting two double plays – one that he started himself after snaring a liner by John Buck in the second. Pitching coach Derek Lilliquist visited after 10 of Kelly’s first 18 pitches were balls.

— Associated Press —

The Miami Marlins have to be happy they’ve seen the last of Kyle Lohse.

The right-hander isn’t the hardest thrower in the St. Louis Cardinals’ rotation, getting the job done by staying ahead of the hitters and keeping the ball down with good movement.

He’s had the Marlins’ number this season.

Lohse worked seven innings of three-hit ball in a 3-2 victory on Saturday, beating Miami for the third time this season.

”As far as a pitch-maker goes, I think he’s as good as anybody right now,” manager Mike Matheny said. ”It’s just not trying to overwhelm people with stuff as much as making pitches.

”It looked like he was commanding the ball well enough to get them to do what he wanted them to do.”

Tony Cruz hit a go-ahead two-run triple in the fourth for the Cardinals, who have won five of seven and snapped the Marlins’ three-game winning streak. Allen Craig had three hits and Skip Schumaker added an RBI single in the fourth for the Cardinals.

The 106-degree heat didn’t seem to bother Lohse.

”I just tried to do my best to block it out,” Lohse said. ”The only thing you can do is keep the team off the field by throwing strikes, getting ahead of guys and trying to limit the damage.”

Marlins starter Carlos Zambrano didn’t mind it, either.

”Yeah, it was hot,” Zambrano said. ”I come from Venezuela, so it doesn’t bother me.”

David Freese was hit by a pitch twice, walked and singled to reach base safely in all four trips.

Justin Ruggiano hit a two-run home run for the Marlins, who missed a chance to climb back to .500. Zambrano (4-7) needed 102 pitches to get through five innings and Giancarlo Stanton lasted just two before leaving with right knee soreness, the injury that had kept him out four straight starts.

Stanton, the Marlins’ lone representative in the All-Star game, will undergo arthroscopic surgery Sunday in Miami that manager Ozzie Guillen said could sideline him a month.

”He’s a big bat,” Guillen said. ”This is our power hitter, the RBI guy. I think everybody out there has got to step it up a notch and try to cover the space.

”We feel bad for the kid, but we can’t feel sorry for ourselves.”

Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez and Carlos Lee, the top three in the Miami lineup, were a combined 0 for 11 with a walk and are 1 for 22 with two walks the first two games of a three-game set heading into the All-Star break.

Lohse (9-2) is 3-0 with a 2.08 ERA in three starts against Miami, allowing nine hits in 21 2-3 innings, and found his stride after Ruggiano’s homer with one out in the third. The Marlins had two base runners the last five innings on a walk and a fielding error by Craig at first that was wiped clean when Reyes was caught flat-footed, getting picked off to end the fifth.

Lohse has won his past three starts overall and has worked seven or more innings six straight times. He threw first-pitch strikes to 19 of 26 hitters.

”I think I’ve really figured out what it takes to be successful and that’s going out and locating, not trying to overpower anybody, using my defense,” Lohse said. ”You look at how I’m getting ahead of guys and then pitching off that, that’s kind of been the key to my first half.”

Jason Motte allowed a pair of two-out singles in the ninth before getting Donovan Solano to foul out to end it for his 20th save.

Stanton singled to start the second and with one out Ruggiano hit his sixth homer, a drive to left-center to put the Marlins ahead. Ruggiano has 18 hits during a 10-game hitting streak.

The Cardinals stranded four runners the first three innings before getting to Zambrano in the fourth with the first four batters reaching safely. Schumaker hit an RBI single and scored when Cruz followed with an opposite-field drive into the right field corner that scooted past Ruggiano’s attempt to cut off the ball.

Cruz has started the past two games in place of All-Star Yadier Molina, who returned to Puerto Rico on bereavement leave following the death of his wife’s grandfather.

Zambrano lost for the first time at seven-year-old Busch Stadium after entering 6-0 in seven starts with a 1.73 ERA, the lowest among active pitchers at the ballpark. He lost for the second time in nine career decisions overall in St. Louis.

”I know I’ve pitched good, I didn’t know it was the first loss,” Zambrano said. ”There’s always a first time and unfortunately it was today.”

Marlins reliever Wade LeBlanc struck out the Cardinals’ 3-4-5 hitters in the seventh and allowed one hit in three scoreless innings.

— Associated Press —

It seemed like Ricky Nolasco was always in trouble. But in a game that began in 103-degree heat, it was the St. Louis Cardinals who were sweating.

Nolasco allowed an unearned run in six innings while scattering nine hits and a walk and Jose Reyes got the go-ahead RBI with an infield hit in the seventh, leading the Miami Marlins to a 3-2 victory on Friday.

”Obviously, I had a lot of baserunners,” Nolasco said. ”Very tough lineup. They made me battle, made me keep fighting. Just enough to get these guys.”

Logan Morrison added his second home run in three games in the eighth for the Marlins, who won their third in a row and beat the Cardinals for just the second time in the last 10 meetings. St. Louis was 2 for 16 with runners in scoring position, stranding five at third base to frustrate a sellout crowd that waited patiently for a rally that never materialized.

”We had a lot of opportunities out there with runners on base,” Allen Craig said after going 1 for 4 with an infield hit. ”We got a lot of hits, we just didn’t drive them in.”

Fans had to settle for a great view of the Fair St. Louis fireworks display on the Mississippi River waterfront – easily visible over the scoreboard in right-center – that began right before Reyes beat out a slow roller down the third-base line to break a 1-all tie.

David Freese had three hits and an RBI for the Cardinals, production that was offset when he committed two errors and nearly had a third in a sloppy sixth that allowed the Marlins to tie it. Freese, picked to his first All-Star Game on Thursday, entered with five errors in 76 games.

Freese left Busch Stadium without talking to reporters.

Heath Bell allowed pinch-hitter Skip Schumaker’s leadoff double and a one-out, run-scoring infield hit by Rafael Furcal in the ninth before finishing for his 19th save in 24 chances. He entered 0-3 with an 8.83 career ERA against St. Louis, and 0-3 with a 6.23 ERA on the road this season with four blown saves in 11 opportunities.

Bell was pitching for the fourth straight day, and manager Ozzie Guillen had been concerned. But noted the Cardinals hit only one ball hard.

”I personally thought I was fine,” Bell said. ”I’m definitely not going to be 100 percent, but I felt like I was 97 percent. I could hit my spots, and throw pitches.”

Jake Westbrook (7-7) allowed two runs, one earned, in 6 2-3 innings. He had the Cardinals’ third error with a wild throw on Reyes’ soft tapper not far from the plate.

”If it was another runner I’d have a little more time,” Westbrook said. ”I felt like I had to rush it a little bit just because of who it was and I just didn’t make a good throw on it.”

Nolasco (8-6) gave up nine hits but got the big outs when it counted against the Cardinals, holding them to 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position. The right-hander beat the Cardinals for the first time in five career decisions, two starts after allowing an unearned run in 6 2-3 innings but got no decision in an 8-7 loss to St. Louis in Miami.

Freese made a nice stop on Reyes’ smash to start the inning, righted himself and then pulled Craig off the first base bag with a high throw. The Cardinals settled for a forceout the next at-bat when Freese fielded a grounder by Hanley Ramirez and pulled second baseman Daniel Descalso so far off the bag he had to make a diving stab with his glove.

Carlos Lee’s grounder went right between Freese’s legs for a two-base error as Ramirez scored from first. Freese’s throw on Justin Ruggiano’s double-play ball was also high, but Craig landed his foot in time.

Craig reached on an infield hit and took second on Reyes’ wild throw from shortstop, then scored on Freese’s double that bounded high off the third-base bag.

Morrison hit his 11th homer off Maikel Cleto in the eighth to make it 3-1 and also was hit twice by Westbrook, doubling his season total. He has four homers and 11 RBIs during a nine-game hitting streak, plus has homered in his last two games against St. Louis with a pinch hit drive June 27 in Miami.

— Associated Press —