Mar. 22—WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Edmundo Sosa, who Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol hopes will compete strongly for the shortstop job he took over at the end of last season when he replaced Paul DeJong, threw his hat into the ring Monday night.

Hitting with two out and the bases loaded and the Cardinals trailing Washington 2-0 in the fifth inning, Sosa unloaded those bases with a double into the leftfield corner to put the Cardinals ahead en route to a 7-3 victory, their third spring training win in succession.

Marmol said that he’s seen good things from both but also said, tellingly, “Coming into this thing, the way we’re thinking about it is that it’s DeJong’s job to lose. But it is a competition, for sure. Both of them have shown what exactly what we wanted to see.”

DeJong had a single in his first game and just missed an extra-base hit on Sunday when his drive to the opposite field (right) was blown foul by the wind in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Marmol has wanted DeJong to use the whole field.

“He worked on it and he’s applying it,” Marmol said. “And Sosa’s being Sosa.”

Sosa, who spent all of last season with the Cardinals as a rookie, was the most experienced player in the prospect-laden lineup Monday other than new free agents Steven Matz, the starting pitcher, and Corey Dickerson, who made successful Cardinals debuts.

Dickerson walked and beat out an infield hit in three plate appearances. Dickerson served as the designated hitter.

The Cardinals snapped a 3-3 tie in the seventh when Nolan Gorman singled for the second time — one of them was against the shift — moved up on two wild pitches and scored on a sacrifice fly by Sosa’s replacement at shortstop, Anderson Tejeda.

Center fielder Scott Hurst ran down two long fly balls at the wall and then made a sprawling catch of a blooper later on to help his pitchers.

Backup catcher Julio Rodriguez helped them even more, doubling in two runs in a three-run ninth after Nationals pitchers had issued their eighth and ninth walks of the night. Reserve outfielder Justin Toerner scored the third run of the inning, with a headfirst slide into the plate on Alec Burleson’s grounder to second after the Cardinals had worked on such situations earlier in the day.

Marmol was pleased with Gorman’s aggression on the bases, as well as Toerner in the ninth.

“It’s fun to see these guys carrying it into games,” Marmol said. “We’re going to be very aggressive with that in camp. Push the limits. And, if we make aggressive mistakes over the next two weeks, I’m OK with that.”

Top prospect Jordan Walker, who delivered a key single on Sunday, fanned three times in three at-bats after coming into the game about halfway through.

Cards claim lefthanderThe Cardinals have claimed off waivers lefthander Patrick “Packy” Naughton, 25, from the Los Angeles Angels. Naughton’s addition puts the Cardinals at 40 men on their 40-man roster.

Naughton, who was drafted in the ninth round by Cincinnati in 2017 out of Virginia Tech, made his major-league debut with the Angels last season, starting five times in seven appearances. He was 0-4 with a 6.35 earned-run average.

He fanned 55 hitters and walked only 14 at Class AA and AAA last season but walked 14 and struck out 12 as an Angel.

Pitching plansRighthander Dakota Hudson, who missed nearly all of last season with the Cardinals after having had Tommy John elbow surgery, will make his first spring start since 2020 when he faces Miami on Tuesday in Jupiter.

Adam Wainwright will oppose Houston’s Justin Verlander for the second time in five days on Wednesday here.

Jake Woodford, the presumptive favorite as the No. 5 starter, will follow Hudson on Tuesday.

Lefthanded leaningsMarmol employed five lefthanded pitchers, Monday, also using Genesis Cabrera, T.J. McFarland, non-roster veteran Ken Ryan and rookie Connor Thomas, the final four of whom all pitched scoreless innings. Thomas had two strikeouts in the eighth.

“I enjoyed watching it. That was quick,” said Marmol of Thomas. “The pace of it was great.

“I’d love to continuing seeing what he’s capable of doing. I’d like to see him not do well, actually, and see how he responds to that as well. But, yeah, we’ll get some more looks at him.”