ST. LOUIS (AP) — Rookie Luke Voit’s first career homer brought back good memories in St. Louis.

Voit ripped a two-run shot into the batter’s eye in center field on Monday to help the Cardinals to a 14-6 victory over Miami.

The 429-foot blast landed in almost the same spot as the home run hit by Cardinals infielder David Freese in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series.

Voit and Freese both attended Lafayette High in suburban St. Louis.

“I remember watching that,” Voit said. “It’s kind of cool that I did the same thing. Lafayette boys doing it.”

Voit had two hits and drove in four runs in his third start.

St. Louis scored four times in the first inning and seven in the third on the way to an 11-0 lead. Voit homered in the eighth as the Cardinals won for the fifth time in six games.

Tommy Pham reached base five times and drove in a pair of runs.

Adam Wainwright (9-5) added a two-run double and picked up his second successive win.

The Marlins have lost five of six.

Miami starter Jeff Locke (0-5) gave up 11 hits and 11 earned runs in 2 2/3 innings.

Pham had three hits and two walks. But the night belonged to Voit, a local standout who was forced into a curtain call by the roaring crowd after the home run.

“When it left the bat, I knew I got it,” Voit said. “I kind of put my head down and just started smiling.”

Wainwright was glad Voit’s first came at home.

“He did a little Sammy Sosa when he hit that ball,” Wainwright said of Voit’s Sosa-style hop.

Stadium ushers retrieved the ball, which was present to Voit after the game.

“Something I’ve dreamed of doing my whole life,” Voit said. “It was awesome. Running around the bases felt like 10 minutes. I’ll never forget this.”

Wainwright sailed through the first four innings but gave up six runs in the fifth. He struck out Giancarlo Stanton three times. Stanton is 0 for 12 lifetime against Wainwright, who has six hits in 13 at-bats with seven RBI against Locke.

“I think I just take good at-bats against him,” Wainwright said. “It’s just one of the guys you see the ball well against.”

St. Louis jumped on Locke early with four successive hits. Yadier Molina, who went 3 for 3, highlighted the seven-run third with a bases-clearing double that came within a few feet of leaving the park.

Marcell Ozuna keyed the Miami comeback with a three-run double.

J.T. Realmuto had three hits for the Marlins.

Locke struggled from the outset and never got into any rhythm.

“It’s frustrating,” Locke said. “They did all the damage they needed to do in the first inning. It got out of hand real fast.”

Miami manager Don Mattingly felt it was just “one of those nights” for his left-hander.

“Absolutely, nothing went his way,” Mattingly said. “He got hit around from the beginning. It’s hard to say much positive about that outing.”

St. Louis third baseman Jedd Gyorko left the game in the fifth inning with cramps in his left leg and is considered day-to-day.

OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION

The Cardinals’ four runs in the first inning were a season high for the opening frame. The seven runs in the third inning tied a season high. St. Louis scored seven times in the 11th inning of an 8-1 win over Philadelphia on June 20.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Marlins: Recalled RHP Tom Koehler from Triple-A New Orleans. Optioned LHP Justin Nicolino to New Orleans to make room for Koehler on the roster. Koehler (1-3, 7.43) will start in the series finale on Thursday in St. Louis.

Cardinals: Called up RHP Luke Weaver from Triple-A Memphis. Sent RHP Mike Mayers to Memphis. Weaver, the Cardinals’ top draft pick in 2014, was 7-1 with a 1.93 ERA in 11 starts in Memphis. He pitched a scoreless inning on Monday.

UP NEXT

RHP Lance Lynn (6-5, 3.90 ERA) will start against Miami RHP Jose Urena (6-3, 3.42) in the second game of a four-game series on Tuesday afternoon. St. Louis has won all seven games in which Lynn has appeared against the Marlins. Urena has given up 11 earned runs in two starts against the Cardinals, covering nine innings.

— Associated Press —

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Bryce Harper homered twice against Carlos Martinez, Max Scherzer struck out 12 over seven scoreless innings and the Washington Nationals beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-2 on Sunday night.

Harper also doubled and had four RBI to pace Washington, which snapped a three-game skid and had lost five of seven.

The Cardinals had won four straight and six of seven overall, including series victories over the Arizona Diamondbacks and Nationals.

Scherzer (10-5) allowed two hits and two walks while lowering his major league-leading ERA to 1.94. Scherzer’s double-digit strikeout performance was his 10th this season and 59th of his career.

Martinez (6-7) entered the game ranked fourth in the NL in ERA but allowed five runs in five innings. The right-hander had allowed five earned runs over his previous four starts combined.

The Nationals, who scored two runs over the first two games of the series, scored twice in the first inning, with Brian Goodwin leading off with a ground-rule double and scoring on Harper’s 19th home run of the season.

Harper made it 4-0 in the third, driving an 0-2 changeup below the strike zone into the Cardinals’ bullpen. Daniel Murphy followed with a walk, and Anthony Rendon smacked an RBI double to the left-center wall to make it 5-0.

Wilmer Difo and Goodwin added sacrifice flies in the eighth to push Washington’s lead to 7-0.

Tommy Pham’s two-run homer in the eighth, his 10th of the season, off reliever Enny Romero got the Cardinals on the scoreboard.

STREAK OVER

Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina’s 16-game hit streak, which tied his career long, came to an end with an 0-for-4 performance.

TRANSACTIONS

The Cardinals announced two trades Sunday, sending international cap space to the Red Sox for minor league infielders Stanley Espinal and Imeldo Diaz and to the Blue Jays for minor league outfielder Lane Thomas.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: LHP Kevin Siegrist (cervical spine sprain) threw off flat ground on Saturday.

UP NEXT

Nationals: RHP Stephen Strasburg (9-2, 3.51 ERA) opens a three-game home series against the Mets on Monday night. He is 8-4 with a 2.69 ERA in 14 career starts against the Mets.

Cardinals: RHP Adam Wainwright (8-5, 5.17 ERA) opens a four-game series against the visiting Marlins on Monday night. He is 5-1 with a 2.64 ERA in eight home starts this season.

— Associated Press —

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Saturday night was one of firsts for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Rookie second baseman Alex Mejia’s first two major league hits — including an eighth-inning home run — and Matt Bowman’s first career save were the difference as the Cardinals defeated the Washington Nationals 2-1.

“He’s a stud,” Cardinals right-hander Michael Wacha said of Mejia. “He made great plays on defense and then drove in our two RBI. For a rookie that’s pretty amazing stuff.”

The Cardinals have won four straight, taking series victories against the Arizona Diamondbacks and Nationals, and six of their last seven.

Washington, which is the only team in the National League yet to be shut out this season, has lost three straight and five of their last seven.

“Wacha was good and he was very good,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. “It was a well-pitched ballgame. … They kept us in the ballpark the last couple days which is hard to do and we’re due to erupt before we leave from here.”

Wacha (5-3), celebrating his 26th birthday, was coming off his best start in more than a month and was even better against Washington with six scoreless innings. He surrendered four hits, struck out a season-high nine and walked one.

“I felt like I was able to command the baseball the way I wanted to tonight,” Wacha said.

Washington left-hander Gio Gonzalez (7-3) was nearly as good against an all right-handed hitting Cardinals lineup that included four rookies. He allowed one run and two hits over seven innings, striking out nine and walking two.

Mejia, appearing in his third game since being called up, provided the offense.

His first hit, an RBI single to center, gave the Cardinals a 1-0 lead in the second inning. In the eighth, he deposited the first pitch from reliever Sammy Solis into the left field seats for his first home run and a 2-0 lead.

Mejia then received his first curtain call from the announced crowd of 43,614.

“That was pretty cool,” he said. “That was a really neat feeling, actually, having that many fans support you. It’s just an awesome feeling.”

The Nationals rallied in the ninth, getting an RBI single from Stephen Drew and loading the bases with two outs against Trevor Rosenthal. But then Matheny turned to Bowman and he was able to strike out pinch-hitter Adrian Sanchez looking on the ninth pitch of the at-bat for his first career save.

The final strike was a questionable call that went the Cardinals’ way.

“I saw it a little outside but that’s the way I saw it and I thought I had walked but he called it a strike,” Sanchez said.

500 WINS

Matheny earned win No. 500 on Saturday, becoming the second-fastest Cardinals manager to reach that number behind Billy Southworth. Matheny is also the second-fastest active manager to reach that mark behind Joe Girardi of the New York Yankees.

“The odds of me being around long enough to win 500 were probably pretty low when we started this gig,” Matheny said. “So humbled and grateful and been blessed with some amazing talent in the clubhouse, both on the field and with the staff and the support.”

STREAKING

Yadier Molina’s fourth-inning single extended his hitting streak to 16 games, which tied his career-long. He also had a 16-game hit streak earlier this season.

500 K

Wacha’s fourth-inning strikeout of Ryan Zimmerman was the 500th of his career and came in his 106th game, making him the second-fastest St. Louis Cardinal (after Steve Carlton) to reach that milestone.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Nationals: Solis (left elbow inflammation) was activated from the DL. … RHP Jacob Turner was designated for assignment.

Cardinals: LHP Zach Duke (left elbow surgery) appeared in his second consecutive game for Single-A Gulf Coast on Saturday, striking out two in a scoreless inning.

UP NEXT

Nationals: RHP Max Scherzer (9-5, 2.06 ERA), a St. Louis area native, is 1-4 with a 3.14 ERA in seven career starts against the Cardinals. He is 1-1 with a 2.00 ERA in three starts at Busch Stadium.

Cardinals: RHP Carlos Martinez (6-6, 2.88 ERA) is 0-1 with a 6.10 ERA in five career appearances, including one start, against Washington.

— Associated Press —

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Mike Leake pitched eight strong innings and Yadier Molina drove in four runs to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Washington Nationals 8-1 on Friday night.

The Cardinals have won five of their past six, while the Nationals have dropped four of six.

Leake (6-6) got his first win since he last went eight innings in a victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 24. He was 0-4 with two no-decisions before picking up the victory Friday. He pitched eight innings, giving up one run on five hits, striking out four and walking three.

A wild Tanner Roark (6-6) took the loss, lasting just three innings. He gave up four hits but walked a season-high five, the final two of which resulted in the Cardinals’ first two runs. Of his 85 pitches in the game, only 46 were strikes.

Molina extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a two-run single in the third and added another two-run hit as the Cardinals scored five times in the fourth off reliever Jacob Turner. Molina scored on Paul DeJong’s sixth homer of the season.

During his streak, Molina is hitting .328 with three home runs and 13 RBI.

SCARY MOMENT

For a few moments in the first inning, it looked as if the Nationals might have sustained another blow due to an injury. OF Bryce Harper was running out a ground ball and, after crossing first and taking two more steps, fell to the ground. Washington manager Dusty Baker and the Nationals’ trainer came out to check on Harper who stayed on the ground for about three minutes before taking his place on first. He stayed in the game and had two walks and was hitless in two at-bats.

DEBUT

Freshly called up INF Adrian Sanchez made his Major League debut as a pinch runner in the eighth inning. He was erased on an inning-ending double play.

A NEW-OLD LOOK

Cardinals 1B Matt Carpenter took grounders at second base prior to the start of the game. He played 38 games at the position last year and was the regular starter in 2013. Matheny said he wanted to get him work at second to provide more flexibility on the roster, including possibly playing Luke Voit and Jose Martinez at first.

TRAINING ROOM

Cardinals: 2B Kolten Wong was targeted to return to the team this weekend but will remain on the disabled list through next week’s All-Star Break. Wong was put on the 10-day list June 15 with a tricep injury.

Washington: The Nationals officially placed shortstop Trea Turner on the 10-day disabled list with a non-displaced fracture of his right wrist. Turner was hit by a pitch Thursday against the Cubs. The Nationals selected the contract of Sanchez from Triple-A Syracuse on Friday to take Turner’s spot on the roster.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: RHP Michael Wacha (4-3, 4.50) gets the start on his 26th birthday and is coming off his second consecutive winning decision. He needs six strikeouts for 500 in his career and to tie Hall of Famer Steve Carlton as the second fastest (106 games) to that mark in team history. Current starter Lance Lynn (101 games) holds the record.

Nationals: LHP (7-2, 2.87) looks to bounce back from a loss in his last outing, his first loss since early May.

— Associated Press —