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Martinez masterful as Cards crush Astros
- Updated: August 17, 2016
HOUSTON — Behind a dominant outing on the mound from Carlos Martinez and an offensive onslaught featuring 12 hits and home runs from Jeremy Hazelbaker and Brandon Moss, the Cardinals won their fourth in a row, beating the Astros, 8-2, at Minute Maid Park on Wednesday afternoon.
With the victory, the Cardinals maintained their narrow lead over the Pirates and Marlins for the second National League Wild Card berth. They entered the day one game ahead of both clubs and three games behind the Giants for the top NL Wild Card spot.
Martinez held the Astros’ inconsistent offense down long enough for St. Louis to storm out to a 4-0 lead after three. The 24-year-old right-hander went seven innings, surrendering only one run while keeping Houston hitless until the sixth. It was the third time in the past four games that the Astros scored only two runs, and it was a rebound performance for Martinez following the unraveling he endured near the end of his last start in Chicago.
“It’s fun to watch how he takes some hard lessons like maybe he got in Chicago and how focused he stayed all the way through this game,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “He wants to be great. And he has every tool necessary to be great. We just want to help him get out of his own way sometimes.”
Trailing, 8-2, in the bottom of the ninth, the Astros loaded the bases with no outs, but Matt Bowman came on and struck out Teoscar Hernandez and Evan Gattis and induced George Springer to ground out and strand all three runners.
The Astros are riding their first four-game losing streak since bottoming out at 17-28 on May 22.
“The rollercoaster ride that we’ve been on is no fun when we’re in this portion of it,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “This game will test your character. It will test your resolve. It will test your ability to come back from adversity, and this is yet another test for us.”
MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDMasterful Martinez: Martinez delivered his strongest performance since the All-Star break to snap a personal three-start winless streak. His efficiency was sensational, as Martinez breezed through five hitless innings on 52 pitches and threw 79 over seven innings. The right-hander struck out seven and induced a slew of weak ground-ball outs while featuring his sinker and …
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