Jenkins, Tuivailala overpower Marauders

Jupiter, FL - Tyrell Jenkins turned in another dominant pitching effort and Sam Tuivailala closed the game in convincing fashion to help the Palm Beach Cardinals come away with a 4-1 victory over the Bradenton Marauders on Saturday night at Roger Dean Stadium.

In his fourth start this season after coming off the disabled list, Jenkins was on point from start to finish on Saturday night. He scattered five hits over seven innings, was charged with one unearned run and walked two on the night.

The Marauders (9-7, 44-41) only got one runner to third base against Jenkins in the game - the result of an error, a balk and a passed ball - and scored their lone run on a Jordan Steranka sacrifice fly in the fourth.

Jenkins allowed only one more Marauder to get into scoring position in the game. He induced two double play balls, nine groundouts and eight flyouts before handing the ball to Tuivailala for the eighth inning.

Jenkins (3-1) has surrendered zero earned runs and pitched at least six innings in three of his four starts this year - all winning decisions.

Tuivailala picked up right where Jenkins left off, tossing two scoreless innings to end the game. The Florida State League's best strikeout pitcher in 2014 struck out three en route to his third save of the year.

Tuivailala's fastball, which has been baffling opposing batters all season long, was clocked at 100 mph multiple times on the Roger Dean Stadium gun.

For a league-leading 53rd time this season, the Cardinals (12-5, 48-38) scored the first run of the game, tallying three runs in the second inning.

Nick Martini and Anthony Garcia singled and Mason Katz walked to load the bases against Bradenton starter Tyler Glasnow with one out. Cesar Valera drove in Martini on a sacrifice fly to right and Gerwuins Velazco sent two more to the plate on a double down the left field line to give the Birds the 3-0 lead.

After Bradenton got on the board with a run in the fourth, Palm Beach regained the three-run advantage with a run in the sixth inning.

Bruce Caldwell and Luke Voit both singled up the middle to start the inning and Garcia grounded into a force out to reach first and send Caldwell to third. With Katz batting, poor baserunning by Garcia and heads up baserunning by Caldwell led to a run. Seeing that Garcia got caught between first and second during the at-bat, Caldwell made a dash for the plate, forcing an errant throw from Bradenton first baseman Jose Osuna. Caldwell slid into home to make it a 4-1 ballgame.

And with the pitching of Jenkins and Tuivailala, it proved to be more than enough for the Cardinals.

Glasnow (4-4), who owned the third-best ERA in the league (1.70) since his first start with Bradenton on April 25, allowed four runs - three earned - on seven hits over 6.2 innings and took the loss for the Marauders. He walked one and punched out six on the evening.

The Cardinals and Marauders will wrap up the three-game set on Sunday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. RH Joe Cuda (5-6, 6.06) will start for Palm Beach against LH Orlando Castro (6-4, 3.24) for Bradenton. The broadcast of the game will be available on PalmBeachCardinals.com.