ATLANTA _ With right-hander Mike Leake adding to one of the best beginnings by any starter in the majors, the Cardinals continued to stir offensively and nourish a thinned lineup against the Atlanta Braves.
That did come at a cost.
For the third time in as many games, the Cardinals are faced with an injury that could further erode their outfield depth and force them to make an immediate roster move for help. In the first inning of Saturday's 5-3 victory against Atlanta at SunTrust Park, Jose Martinez attempted to outrun a groundball but arrived at first base in clear agony. Martinez sustained a groin injury that forced him from the game. The Cardinals placed Stephen Piscotty (hamstring) on the disabled list Friday, had reason to avoid using Dexter Fowler (shoulder), and then had to quickly adjust for the sudden departure of the starting right fielder.
Matt Adams entered, playing left field and shifting Randal Grichuk to right, and promptly delivered two hits that combined with Matt Carpenter's sixth homer of the season to help the Cardinals push ahead for a 5-0 lead.
Martinez sustained a left groin injury, though the severity of the injury was not immediately disclosed by the Cardinals. Martinez reached for the injured area as he attempted to run to first, and there was little time wasted ushering him from the field. It's likely the right fielder will go on the 10-day disabled list as early as Sunday, and that immediately left the Cardinals with only one outfielder remaining on the 40-man roster who was not in the majors. He was in High-A. Magneuris Sierra, who starred defensively during spring training, was removed from Palm Beach's game in the ninth inning Saturday night, though it was not immediately clear if that move was related to the injury in the majors.
The Cardinals also have Jhonny Peralta on a rehab assignment at High-A, and Fowler told the team Saturday that he was "available" if needed. Manager Mike Matheny had previously said it was possible Fowler could return to the lineup Sunday.
With injury-related machinations as the backdrop, the Cardinals followed Leake through the first six innings of Saturday's game _ before he leaned on them for a cushion.
Leake (4-1) entered the game with an NL-best 1.35 ERA and an active streak without allowing a home run of 55 innings. Both took a dent in the seventh inning. Adonis Garcia, the older brother of Cardinals' prospect Adolis, launched a three-run homer that momentarily tightened the game, 5-3, and eased Leake out of the start.
It was the third hit he allowed.
To that point in the game, Leake was both ruthless and efficient. It took him 40 pitches to complete four innings, and as he entered the seventh inning he had allowed only one hit. At one point he faced 12 consecutive Braves without allowing a ball out of the infield. Leake only struck out two in the game, but he kept the Braves off base by keeping his infielders busy. On his way to his sixth consecutive quality start of the season, Leake got 10 groundouts. He allowed more runs on one swing from Garcia than he had in any of his previous starts this season.
It didn't usurp his win because of the offense the Cardinals have found at the Braves' brand-new suburban ballpark in an area of town named The Battery.
The Cardinals staked Leake to a 1-0 lead in the first inning with familiar contributors. Kolten Wong, promoted to leadoff with Fowler on the mend, had an infield single to open the game and extend his hitting streak to 11 games, a career-best. Martinez's grounder got Wong to second base, and then up came Aledmys Diaz. With Jedd Gyorko a late scratch Saturday because of a bruised hand, Diaz moved up from sixth to No. 5, and with Eric Fryer behind the plate Diaz did not follow Yadier Molina to the plate. Those were the major differences Saturday from his back-to-back three-hit nights in the previous two games.
The production remained the same.
Diaz laced a single off Braves starter Julio Teheran (2-3) to score Wong. The Cardinals shortstop would follow with two more singles in his next two at-bats. He reached base safely in his first eight plate appearances of the series against Atlanta. The ninth _ well, that was a sacrifice fly for the 5-0 lead.
In between Diaz's two RBIs, the Cardinals got a show of force from the reworked and reworked again top of the lineup. On Friday, the unavailability of Fowler and Piscotty forced Matheny to put Wong at leadoff and Martinez up to No. 2. That duo combined to score three runs and reach base four times in the Cardinals' 10-0 rout Friday night. So Matheny went back to the same group Saturday � and then scrambled when Martinez had to leave. Adams made it work with a single right before Carpenter's homer and then a home run of his own in the fourth inning.
By the time Saturday's game ended, the Cardinals had used two infielders to play left field. Adams was there first just a week or so after the recurring attempt to play in him left was nixed by the Cardinals, and Diaz finished the game in left.
That's where he was in the eighth inning as the Braves threatened to build on Garcia's homer and capsize the Cardinals' lead. First baseman Freddie Freeman represented the tying run at the plate with two outs in the eighth inning. Freeman worked Cardinals reliever Trevor Rosenthal to a full count in a six-pitch at-bat. Rosenthal got a swinging strike with a 100-mph fastball for the second strike. The next pitch, a 99-mph fastball, Freeman skied to deep left field. Diaz tracked it down to end the inning.
Seung Hwan Oh pitched a scoreless ninth for his seventh save.
