MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (Interstat) — Nathan Church hit a two-run homer and Alec Burleson drove in two runs to back a strong start by Dustin May, and the St. Louis Cardinals held off a late rally to beat the Miami Marlins 5-3 on Tuesday night at loanDepot Park.

The Cardinals, rebounding from a loss in the series opener Monday, improved to 14-9. The Marlins fell to 11-13.

May (3-2) set the tone for St. Louis, shaking off a leadoff home run by Miami’s Jakob Marsee in the first inning to deliver 5 1/3 solid innings. He allowed one run on six hits, walked one and struck out five. Over his last three starts, May has a 1.50 ERA, allowing just three earned runs over 18 innings.

The early exchange of runs set a back-and-forth pace that quickly swung in St. Louis’ favor. The Cardinals answered Marsee’s homer immediately in the top of the first. JJ Wetherholt led off with a double and scored on Burleson’s one-out single to center.

St. Louis extended its lead to 2-1 in the third. Wetherholt walked, advanced to third on a single by Iván Herrera and scored when Burleson reached on a fielder’s choice.

The Cardinals broke the game open in the fourth against Marlins starter Chris Paddack. Masyn Winn led off with a single, and Church followed by driving a 1-1 pitch over the right-field wall for his second home run of the season, making it 4-1.

St. Louis added another run in the fifth. Burleson doubled with one out and scored on Nolan Gorman’s two-out single to left, chasing Paddack from the game.

Paddack (0-4) took the loss, surrendering five runs on eight hits over 4 2/3 innings. He struck out seven but was hurt by the long ball and timely hitting.

The most critical juncture of the game came in the bottom of the eighth inning. Protecting a 5-1 lead, Cardinals reliever Ryne Stanek lost his command, walking three batters to load the bases with two outs. Heriberto Hernández then sliced a two-run single to right field, scoring Xavier Edwards and Liam Hicks and cutting the deficit to 5-3.

With the tying run on base, Cardinals manager called upon George Soriano, who struck out Connor Norby on a checked-swing appeal to end the threat and preserve the two-run lead.

Miami threatened again in the ninth against Cardinals closer Riley O’Brien. Marsee led off with his third hit of the night, a single, but O’Brien struck out Kyle Stowers and got Otto Lopez to ground into a fielder’s choice. He then sealed his seventh save of the season by getting Edwards to line out sharply to Church in left field.

The Cardinals’ bullpen, aside from Stanek’s control issues, was effective. Justin Bruihl provided 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief after May departed, and Soriano’s key strikeout in the eighth was pivotal.

Offensively, Church and Burleson led the 10-hit attack for St. Louis. Church went 2 for 4 with the homer and two RBIs, while Burleson also had two hits and two RBIs. Marsee was the standout for Miami, going 3 for 4 with the early home run.

The announced attendance was 8,412, and the game took 3 hours, 9 minutes to complete.

The victory defied some pregame projections. While St. Louis was a 1.5-run favorite, Interstat’s ELO system gave Miami a 52.7% probability to win. The total of eight runs combined went under the over/under line of 8.5.

The two teams conclude their three-game series Wednesday afternoon. The Cardinals will then return home to open a series against the Seattle Mariners on Friday, while the Marlins embark on a West Coast road trip starting Friday in San Francisco.