Cardinals edge Marlins, 4-3.

ST. LOUIS — The Miami Marlins’ last best chance Thursday in a 4-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals came in the eighth inning, when they put their first two batters on and manager Don Mattingly sent backup catcher A.J. Ellis to the plate to pinchhit.

Down by one with six outs left, Ellis bunted, harder than he would have liked, and it turned into a double play. Four outs left. The Marlins didn’t get another runner past second base. They stranded men there in the last two innings, JT Riddle in the eighth and J.T. Realmuto in the ninth.

“I didn’t get the job done. Got to get the guy over right there,” Ellis said. “I feel bad I didn’t come up for my team right there and get the job done.”

Mattingly said his only regret was making the strategy too obvious. The Cardinals saw it coming, allowing their corner infielders to pinch in, which helped them turn two.

“The biggest thing is being predictable right there,” Mattingly said.

Mattingly chose to bunt with Ellis, who had pinchhit once previously this season, instead of letting bench options Tyler Moore or Derek Dietrich swing away because he was “just trying to get two guys in scoring position.”

“A base hit puts us ahead. Or a sac fly ties the game,” Mattingly said. “At that point, trying to get two guys in scoring position. … It didn’t work.”

At a time when the Marlins preach about having to win every series, they split this four-gamer with St. Louis, taking the middle two but missing out on the majority by dropping the finale in their penultimate series of the first half.

Right-hander Tom Koehler allowed three runs in five innings, a step forward after his disaster of a return to the major leagues over the weekend in Milwaukee (1 innings, seven runs).

Koehler said he feels closer to where he wants to be, but “it was hard to get worse” and expects better from himself.

“I’m not going to change my standards just because things haven’t been going great,” Koehler said. “However, there were some positives to come out of this game. I’m feeling closer and closer to pitching like the [way] I’m capable of.”

Luke Voit, the Cardinals’ rookie first baseman called up to the majors for the first time late last month, made the best attempt at ruining Koehler’s day.

In the third, Voit homered — an estimated 446 feet to the second deck in left — on an 0-2 breaking ball. An inning later, Voit’s two-out, two-run double off the right-field wall put the Cardinals ahead for the first time since midway through Tuesday’s game.

“With the exception of maybe one or two mistakes, to the same guy, I feel like I threw the ball really well, with conviction,” Koehler said. “Hopefully it’ll snowball into a positive.”

Marcell Ozuna singled to drive in Dee Gordon in the first, third and seventh innings to account for all of Miami’s runs. He finished the game with a major league-best 67 RBI.