MIAMI – Chris Duncan and Adam Kennedy homered and Braden Looper won for the first time in seven starts as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Florida Marlins 5-3 on Monday night.

Looper (7-7) pitched 6 1-3 innings, scattering five hits and allowing two runs. His last win came on May 24 against Pittsburgh.

Byung-Hyun Kim (4-5) pitched six-plus innings for Florida, giving up five runs and eight hits. He walked seven and struck out four.

Kennedy’s solo home run in the sixth, his second of the year, stretched the Cardinals’ lead to 4-2. Kennedy, who hit his first homer of the season Sunday night against Philadelphia, also had a single and double in four at-bats Monday.

St. Louis added a run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Duncan to make it 5-2.

Miguel Cabrera led off the eighth with his 22nd home run, a shot to right field off Ryan Franklin that made it 5-3. It was Cabrera’s fourth home run in three games.

Jason Isringhausen worked a perfect ninth for his 18th save.

St. Louis went ahead 2-0 in the first is took a 3-2 lead in the fourth when Juan Encarnacion walked, stole his first base of the season and scored on Gary Bennett’s single to left.

The Marlins tied it at 2 in the second. Mike Jacobs led off with a double and Josh Willingham was hit by a pitch. Jeremy Hermida then drove in Jacobs with a single that also sent Willingham to third. Willingham scored on a sacrifice fly by Matt Treanor.

Notes: Cabrera has homered the last three times he has led off an inning. … Cardinals 2B David Eckstein struck out on a pbh that 3/4#0t6 47:249: 47•4•3•729 9 0

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4•93•6 03294•g traded to them by the Cardinals. He was a member of Florida’s 2003 World Series championship team.AP-ES-07-16-07 2210EDT


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