MILWAUKEE _ When Cardinals ace Carlos Martinez has gone awry, it most often has been traced to his inability to survive the early innings or to make a mundane fielding play. Martinez was able to accomplish both on Wednesday night, pitching around four Milwaukee baserunners in the first two innings but erasing one of them by starting a double play himself in the first.
Once Martinez navigated the second, it was all downhill as the Brewers simply were overmatched. Crafting one of his career gems, Martinez held the Brewers to four hits over 81/3 innings in a 6-0 win, striking out 10, for his first victory of the season.
He would have had the complete-game shutout but third baseman Yairo Munoz booted a double-play grounder in the ninth. Sam Tuivailala allowed a single to load the bases and then Bud Norris finished up by starting a mound-to-home-to-first double play.
Martinez retired 16 men in a row from the second into the seventh, striking out eight of them. And he even got his first hit of the year, a ninth-inning single.
The Cardinals, who return to Busch Stadium Thursday night, scored four of their six runs without a hit driving them in, thanks to opportunistic and smart baserunning and spotty Milwaukee defense as the Brewers committed three error. Yadier Molina, cracking his third of the season, homered for one of the other two runs.
