HOUSTON _ In what may be one of their most complete games of the season, the St. Louis Cardinals briefly flirted with a no-hitter and had to settle with just another show of force.
More homers drove the Cardinals to an 8-2 victory Wednesday afternoon at Minute Maid Park. The Cardinals completed a micro-series sweep of the Houston Astros and raised their winning streak to four games.
They have hit nine home runs in those four games.
Brandon Moss and Jeremy Hazelbaker did the yardwork Wednesday. Moss sent a pitch hurtling into the right-field seats for his 22nd homer of the season. Hazelbaker hit his ninth home run of the season earlier in the game. He became the 10th Cardinal this summer to have hit at least nine homers, and he and Tommy Pham are both on pace to be the ninth and 10th Cardinals with double-digit homers. Moss continues to lead the team, homering every 12.73 at-bats.
Carlos Martinez whizzed through the Houston Astros for seven stellar innings that included seven strikeouts and only three hits. He held the Astros without a hit through five innings, and only two of the balls put in play at that point were far enough to be out of the reach of an infield.
Sam Tuivailala, fresh from the minors to take Seth Maness' spot in the bullpen, encountered turbulence in the ninth inning. He did not retire a batter as all three he faced reached_and in three different ways. An error put the leadoff hitter on and a single put the next batter on. Tuivailala walked Jason Castro to load the bases, and so that brought in the Cardinals' escape artist.
For the second time on this road trip, Matt Bowman worked out of a bases-loaded no-out jam, and this time it ended the game.
