ST. LOUIS — Carlos Martinez, in effect, was pitching for his starting job for the Cardinals on Tuesday night when he carried a losing streak of five games into his outing at Busch Stadium. In four of those games, Martinez (3-9) had pitched a total of 12 2/3 innings and given up a whopping 28 runs while walking 17.
“He’s got to be able to do it consistently tonight, or we’ll see what happens,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt had said before the game.
Ah, but in late April and May the mercurial right-hander had four starts in which he allowed two runs or fewer. Plus he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against Arizona, his opponent Tuesday.
Probably as many in the crowd expected the worst as opposed to the best. So, which would it be? It was All-Star Carlos of 2015-17 vintage when he won 42 games as a starter.
Walking only two after passing seven in his previous outing, Martinez held Arizona to four hits and one run over six tidy innings. Nolan Arenado’s two-run homer in the fifth provided the difference in a 3-2 triumph, marking the first time in nearly two weeks that the Cardinals had won two games in succession.
As they hit the halfway point of the 162-game season on Wednesday afternoon, the Cardinals are 39-41 after the first two-inning save of the season — by Alex Reyes, who is 19 for 19.
This may have been Reyes' best one. After an error by second baseman Edmundo Sosa and Reyes' balk put speedy Arizona pinch-runner Tim Locastro at second with nobody out in the eighth, Josh VanMeter poked a single through an unoccupied shortstop position.
Locastro, not reading the ball well, broke back to second and then continued to third where he was stopped. He well could have scored but the Diamondbacks still had runners at first and third and nobody out.
But Reyes fanned Christian Walker on a 97-mph fastball and got Stephen Vogt to tap to the mound. Reyes had two options — try to head off Locastro between third and home or try for a double play on slow-running catcher Vogt. He chose Plan B and made a perfect throw to shortstop Paul DeJong, who easily caught Vogt at first.
Reyes steamed through the ninth in order, striking out two.
Martinez did walk the first batter he faced, not unusually, but escaped trouble in the first on a line-drive double play started by Sosa.
In the second, Martinez allowed a one-out double to VanMeter but rallied to induce two infield outs.
Arizona left-hander Caleb Smith walked two Cardinals in the first and another in the second but no damage was done. Tyler O’Neill popped up with two men on in the first and Martinez struck out to end the second after a two-out walk to Sosa.
O’Neill got a second chance with two out in the third after Dylan Carlson and Arenado had singled. But he was called out on strikes.
Martinez, who threw six no-hit innings at Arizona a month ago, breezed through the Diamondbacks in the third and fourth, striking out the side in the third.
Arizona put two runners on for the first time in the fifth when Josh Reddick singled to left with one out and Vogt drew Martinez’s first walk. But Nick Ahmed flied to center and Smith tapped to Arenado at third. Martinez was at 70 pitches.
In the home fifth, the Cardinals finally gave Martinez something with which to work.
Tommy Edman beat out an infield hit when shortstop Ahmed made a diving stop to his left. Carlson and Paul Goldschmidt struck out before Smith threw wild to first as Edman took off for second.
Edman continued to third on the stolen base/error and Arenado, after fouling a ball hard to left, bent a 2-2 fastball just fair over the left-field wall for his 16th homer and a 2-0 Cardinals lead.
Arenado then took over on the other side of the ball in the sixth, charging in to make a brilliant play on Pavin Smith’s tapper, bare-handing it and, as he drifted well into foul territory, firing strongly across his body to first to nip Smith.
But Josh Rojas, on with a leadoff infield single, went to second on the play and scored on Eduardo Escobar’s single to right.
Martinez, however, quelled the threat, getting David Peralta on a drive to center and Reddick on a dribbler to first.
Sosa, who has been on base four times in the past two games, legged out an infield hit with two outs in the Cardinals’ sixth and then reliever Matt Peacock hit pinch-hitter Matt Carpenter with a pitch. The runners took off on the first pitch to Edman, now hitting on his weaker left side, but Edman singled to right, scoring Sosa easily, and sending Carpenter to third.
The Cardinals, who are walking noticeably more in the past week, filled the bases on a pass to Carlson. But Goldschmidt popped up.
Pinch-hitter Walker, facing left-hander Genesis Cabrera, doubled out of the reach of right fielder Edman to open the Arizona seventh. Though the D-backs were two runs down, Vogt sacrificed the runner to third.
But Cabrera struck out Ahmed on a 3-2 pitch. Cabrera walked pinch-hitter Asdrubal Cabrera to extend the inning and, after he walked Rojas on four pitches, Shildt went to veteran Andrew Miller with the bases loaded.
Miller walked Pavin Smith to force in a run, marking the 19th time the Cardinals had walked in a run this season. But he kept the score at 3-2 when Escobar flied to left, stranding three.
