Jack Flaherty pitched shutout ball for his second straight start to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Miami Marlins 3-0 to avoid a series sweep.

St. Louis dropped the first three games of the series. Two were one-run defeats, including a 10-9 walk-off loss Wednesday night.

Flaherty (6-5) struck out five, walked two and allowed nine hits. He also threw six scoreless innings against the New York Yankees on July 1 and has lowered his ERA from 4.95 to 4.27 in the two starts.

Chris Stratton replaced Flaherty in the seventh after Miami loaded the bases on a pair of two-out singles and a walk. Stratton got Jesús Sánchez to hit into an inning-ending forceout.

Despite Flaherty giving up the two singles to Luis Arraez and one to Jorge Soler, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol decided to keep Flaherty in the game for one more hitter before he walked Bryan De La Cruz on his season-high 111th pitch.

Giovanny Gallegos pitched a 1-2-3 eighth. One night after his throwing error allowed a Marlins win, Jordan Hicks got three outs for his sixth save.

Nolan Arenado’s two-out solo homer off Marlins rookie Eury Pérez in the sixth went 405 feet to right-center and put St. Louis ahead 1-0. It was Arenado’s 17th home run of the season and tied him with Nolan Gorman for the team lead.

Alec Burleson singled on a ground ball to right in the seventh, which scored Gorman and made it 2-0.

Gorman had a leadoff double in the seventh and drove in Lars Nootbaar in the eighth with a double.

St. Louis will play a three-game series at the Chicago White Sox before the All-Star break. LHP Jordan Montgomery (6-7, 3.28) will start Game 1.