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The St. Louis Cardinals, who have won six of their past seven games, may be off to a surprising start to some, but not to manager Oliver Marmol. “It’s exactly what I would’ve anticipated this group to do,” Marmol said on Tuesday prior to a 5-3 Cardinals’ win over the host Miami Marlins. On Wednesday afternoon, both teams will try to take the three-game series. St. Louis has won back-to-back series while Miami hasn’t taken a series since winning two of three against the Chicago White Sox from March 30-April 1. The pitching matchup features a pair of right-handers, Miami’s Janson Junk (0-2, 4.50 ERA) against St. Louis’ Kyle Leahy (2-2, 5.21). Junk has never faced the Cardinals, and the

The San Jose Earthquakes are enjoying the best eight-match start in franchise history and coach Bruce Arena doesn’t want to hear any chatter about a letdown. The destructive Earthquakes (7-1-0, 21 points) have outscored opponents 17-3 and look to inflict more damage when they host Austin FC on Wednesday night. Austin FC (1-3-4, 7 points) is winless in their past six MLS matches (0-3-3). “There are no trap games in this league,” Arena told reporters. “Any team can beat you on a given day in this league. We understand that. It’s going to be a difficult game on Wednesday. We played Austin last year and I think we split with them. … It’s going to be a difficult game.” The

Inter Miami passed their first test since the surprise departure of coach Javier Mascherano. As interim coach Guillermo Hoyos would attest, having Lionel Messi at his peak helps. The Herons complete a two-game trip through the Rocky Mountains when they play Real Salt Lake on Wednesday in Sandy, Utah. Messi scored on a penalty kick in the 18th minute and set up his own game-winner with a nifty run in the 79th minute of Miami’s 3-2 win over the Colorado Rapids Saturday. The match was played at the Denver Broncos’ stadium before an audience of 75,824 fans. That was the first outing for Miami (4-1-3, 15 points) since Mascherano announced his resignation, citing “personal reasons,” mere months after he guided

After feeling like they let a win slip from their grasp in the series opener, the Anaheim Ducks will try to regroup for Game 2 of their Western Conference first-round matchup against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night. The Oilers took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series on Monday when they scored twice in the final nine minutes to rally back for a 4-3 win in Edmonton. Edmonton had blown a 2-0 lead when it surrendered three goals in the second period. “It’s unfortunate the result of that game, and it’s going to be tough to swallow, but we’ve got to put it behind us,” Ducks forward Troy Terry said. “We kind of got our feet under us, and