Swing of the road - Floyd completes Marlins' rally

ST. LOUIS -- Eight of Cliff Floyd's 11 home runs have come on the road, and it's no accident.

Floyd, who connected for the third time in three days in the Florida Marlins' 9-6 come-from-behind victory over the St. Louis Cardinals, loathes hitting in Miami. He's batting .372 with 15 RBIs on the road and .286 with nine RBIs at home.

"I hate hitting at home. It's just not a park that's comfortable to hit in for myself," Floyd said. "Just the park itself. It's huge and you feel like everything you hit you've got to crush, and when you go on the road and come to parks you know are hitterish you tend to take advantage of it. You try to, anyway."

Floyd, whose two-run drive in the fifth tied Houston's Lance Berkman for the major league lead, also leads the majors in road homers. He's 11-for-22 in his last five games overall with four homers and 10 RBIs, including a run-scoring single in the eighth.

Ramon Castro also homered for the Marlins, and his two-run shot capped a comeback from a six-run deficit.

"That's the best at-bat of the season by our team," Floyd said.

Florida right-hander Brad Penny left after two innings because of elbow soreness but five relievers held off the Cardinals, and the Marlins won two of three in the series.

"We just kept chipping away," said Preston Wilson, who had three hits and an RBI. "After we were down 6-0, they didn't give up anything else."

Michael Tejera (1-0) pitched a scoreless sixth, and Vladimir Nunez overcame two hits in the ninth to get his fourth save in five chances.

Castro replaced catcher Charles Johnson, who fouled a ball off his left foot in the fourth inning. With St. Louis ahead 6-4 with two outs in the seventh, Eric Owens doubled in a run, and Castro hit a two-out, go-ahead homer on a 3-2 fastball from Dave Veres (2-3), the fifth of seven St. Louis pitchers.

"I was looking for that pitch," Castro said. "I hit it good."

Veres shook off a signal for the split finger fastball on a 3-2 fastball Castro lined over the left-field wall.

"It was supposed to be away," Veres said. "It's just bad location. Nine times out of 10, that's what it is."

Florida added to its lead in the eighth on Floyd's single off Jose Rodriguez and Mike Lowell's sacrifice fly off Luther Hackman.

Cardinals rookie Josh Pearce squandered a 6-0, third-inning lead. He left after Floyd's homer in the fifth cut the gap to 6-4, allowing four runs and eight hits in 4 1-3 innings.

Pearce, who has failed to make it out of the fifth in any of his three career starts, likely won't get another chance right away because Bud Smith is due to come off the disabled list May 7.

"It's my job to give us a better opportunity," Pearce said. "I need to pitch deeper into the game."

St. Louis scored five runs in the first, with a two-out dropped popup by second baseman Luis Castillo leading to four unearned runs. J.D. Drew, Edgar Renteria and Tino Martinez had RBI doubles, and Pearce got his first career hit and first RBI as the Cardinals batted around.

The Cardinals made it 6-0 on Mike Matheny's RBI single in the third, their last hit until the ninth.

The Marlins' comeback began with an RBI double by Eric Owens in the fourth. Wilson added an RBI double in the three-run fifth to cut the gap to 6-4.

Noteworthy

Penny, who had won his previous two starts, exited after throwing only 38 pitches. Manager Jeff Torborg said at this point the injury is not believed to be serious, and the worst that could happen is he'd miss a start. ... Johnson is likely to play today.

Veres lasted only one-third of inning in the seventh and his ERA leaped from 1.96 to 3.37.

The Cardinals were outscored 27-8 in the first inning before Thursday.

Cardinals CF Jim Edmonds left due to tightness in his right groin after playing the field in the fifth.