ST. LOUIS (Interstat) — John King pitched six-plus effective innings and the Miami Marlins parlayed a 13-hit attack into a 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday at Busch Stadium III, extending their winning streak to four games.

King, who improved to 6-1, allowed one run on seven hits while striking out four and walking three. The left-hander retired 11 of the first 13 batters he faced and worked out of a jam in the third inning when the Cardinals loaded the bases with one out. King struck out Jordan Walker to end that threat.

The Marlins took the lead in the first inning. Otto Lopez led off with a triple to right field and scored on Kyle Stowers’ single. Miami added a run in the third when Joe Mack singled, moved to third on a bunt single by Xavier Edwards and scored on Stowers’ single through the middle, deflected by shortstop Masyn Winn.

Miami broke the game open with two runs in the fourth. Jakob Marsee led off with a double, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on Javier Sanoja’s single to right. After Joe Mack flied out, Xavier Edwards singled to left, driving in Sanoja. Edwards was thrown out trying to advance to second on the throw home.

St. Louis got on the board in the sixth. With one out, Jordan Walker walked and Lars Nootbaar singled. Masyn Winn followed with a single to right that scored Walker. But the Cardinals’ rally ended when Jose Fermin grounded into a double play, third baseman Javier Sanoja to first baseman Kyle Stowers, erasing Nootbaar at third.

Miami answered in the seventh. Xavier Edwards doubled to left with one out and scored on Otto Lopez’s single to right. Lopez advanced to second on the throw and Kyle Stowers walked, but the Marlins could not add more. St. Louis did not mount another serious threat, going down in order in the eighth and ninth.

Andre Pallante (9-5) took the loss, allowing five runs on 11 hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out four and walked one. The Marlins collected multiple hits from Xavier Edwards (3 for 5 with a double and two RBIs), Otto Lopez (2 for 5 with a triple and a run), Kyle Stowers (2 for 4 with two RBIs), Javier Sanoja (2 for 4 with a run and an RBI) and Griffin Conine (2 for 4). For St. Louis, Lars Nootbaar went 2 for 3 with a walk, JJ Wetherholt went 2 for 4, and Masyn Winn drove in the lone run with a 1-for-4 performance. Jordan Walker went 1 for 3 with a walk.

The Marlins improved to 44-39, while the Cardinals fell to 42-38. Miami took the first two games of this three-game series, having blanked St. Louis 4-0 on Friday. The teams concluded their season series Saturday; the Marlins lead 3-1 after winning three of four meetings. Miami next travels to Colorado for a four-game set beginning Monday, while St. Louis heads to Atlanta for three games starting Tuesday.

The game lasted 2 hours, 40 minutes in front of 25,876 fans. The Marlins’ victory came despite a pregame forecast by Interstat’s game simulator that projected a 6-4 Miami win. Interstat’s ELO system had given St. Louis a 52.9 percent probability to win, and the Cardinals were installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of minus-1.5 runs. The total of six runs went over the over-under line of 8.5.