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NLDS Game 2 — October 9, 1938
Miami Marlins 14, St. Louis Cardinals 11
Busch Stadium

On an October afternoon that felt more like a prizefight than a ballgame, the Miami Marlins once again outlasted the St. Louis Cardinals, 14–11, seizing a commanding two-games-to-none lead in this Division Series.
If Game 1 suggested volatility, Game 2 confirmed it. This was not merely a contest of runs scored, but of resolve tested and retested.
For five innings, Miami dictated the tone. They built a 5–0 advantage with sharp, relentless offense — Jesus Davila’s two-run homer in the fifth stretching the lead, Manny Sigaran doubling twice, and Tyler Adams quietly assembling what would become a historic afternoon.
Then came the sixth.
Seven runs. Six hits. Two home runs. A triple. Another triple. The Marlins transformed a competitive game into what appeared to be a rout, surging ahead 12–0 and silencing a crowd of 48,712. Sigaran homered. Floyd Holte followed suit. Tomoo Kawazu tripled. John Evans tripled. It was a cascade of extra-base hits — not frantic, but methodical. Each swing seemed to deepen the Cardinals’ predicament.
And yet, October seldom allows for tidy narratives.
St. Louis answered with stubborn pride. Two runs in the sixth. Five more in the seventh. Four in the eighth. At one point, what had been a twelve-run margin shrank to just two. Busch Stadium stirred again, as though history might bend back toward the defending National League champions.
Alex Cruz doubled twice and scored three times. Jose Dominguez and Casey Holton delivered key two-out hits. Felix Ochoa’s eighth-inning home run reignited belief. The Cardinals did not fold; they pressed.
But Miami, to its credit, never panicked.
A run in the eighth. Another in the ninth. Small cushions, perhaps, but meaningful ones. When John Hodge secured the final outs in the ninth, it concluded three hours and thirty-six minutes of unrelenting offense — 25 combined runs, 36 hits, and scarcely a quiet moment.
The defining performance belonged to Tyler Adams.
Five hits in six at-bats — all singles — two runs scored, three driven in. It was not the sort of display that dominates highlight reels, but it was emblematic of Miami’s approach: persistent, disciplined, opportunistic. In the process, Adams set a Marlins postseason record for hits in a game.
Manager Jeremy Gangler Jr. was careful afterward. “Things broke our way today,” he said. “But we aren’t done yet.”
He is correct, of course.
The series now shifts to Miami for Game 3 at LoanDepot Park. History suggests that a 2–0 advantage in a best-of-five is formidable. But if these first two games have taught us anything, it is that conventional rhythms have given way to something far less predictable.
The Marlins are not simply winning.
They are surviving chaos — and thriving within it.