ST. LOUIS _ One night after a late-inning loss, the Cardinals are back at .500.
Carlos Martinez twirled 71/3 brilliant innings and Kolten Wong had the timely hit as the Cardinals defeated the Brewers 2-1 in the second game of their four-game set. Brett Cecil and Trevor Rosenthal combined to pitch 12/3 innings of scoreless relief, with Rosenthal earning his third save of the year.
Both teams started off slowly on offense, with Martinez retiring the first 12 batters he faced and Brewers starter Wily Peralta allowing three hits through five. But the Cardinals scratched two runs across in the sixth, knocking Peralta out.
In that inning, first baseman Matt Carpenter led off with a single, followed by a Stephen Piscotty double to batters later. Then, catcher Yadier Molina came to the plate with the runners on second and third, and hit a sacrifice fly to the warning track, allowing Carpenter to score the Cardinals' first run.
Wong ended up having the decisive run, however, one night after his 10th-inning error seemed to send the game out of control. With Piscotty on third, Wong knocked an RBI single on a ground ball just past a diving Jonathan Villar.
Martinez kept on rolling, allowing just one hit and one walk through six frames. In the seventh, Martinez gave up an unearned run after Carpenter dropped a ground ball and couldn't recover, letting catcher Jett Bandy single home a run in the next at-bat.
The Cardinals nearly got an insurance run in the eighth, as Yadier Molina reached third after a walk and wild pitch where he took two bases, but left fielder Randal Grichuk struck out.
That insurance run wouldn't end up mattering though as Rosenthal worked through the ninth without any trouble for the save.
The Brewers and Cardinals will begin their third game of this series Wednesday night at 7:15 p.m.
