The Sports Xchange
Jun 13, 2017
ST. LOUIS -- Jose Martinez homered twice and drove in three runs Tuesday as the St. Louis Cardinals blanked the Milwaukee Brewers 6-0 in the first game of a day-night doubleheader at Busch Stadium.
Martinez launched a one-out solo homer to right-center in the bottom of the fifth inning off emergency starter Brent Suter (0-1), who to that point had allowed just one hit in his first big league start.
An inning later, Martinez made it 5-0 with a sacrifice fly off Wily Peralta, finishing a two-run outburst. In the eighth, Martinez laced a 436-foot bolt into the seats in left-center for the first multi-homer game of his career.
Lance Lynn (5-3) allowed three hits over five innings while walking four and striking out eight.
The game turned on the fifth inning. Miilwaukee (33-32) loaded the bases with one out on singles by Suter and Eric Sogard, plus a walk to Eric Thames. But Hernan Perez flied out to shallow center on the first pitch and Travis Shaw flew out to center on a full-count offering.
After Martinez's first homer, St. Louis (30-32) tacked on a pair of two-out runs against Suter. Pinch-hitter Chad Huffman tripled, Matt Carpenter lined a ground-rule double to center and Dexter Fowler dumped an RBI single into right for a 3-0 lead.
Suter lasted 4 2/3 innings, yielding three runs on five hits with a walk and two strikeouts.
Kolten Wong added an RBI double in the sixth for the Cardinals, who won their fourth straight game. Tyler Lyons pitched the last three innings to earn his first save.
The contest was a makeup game from a May 3 postponement. A crowd of 40,083 was announced, with perhaps 20,000 using their tickets on a 94-degree afternoon.
NOTES: St. Louis granted INF Jhonny Peralta, the National League's starting shortstop in the All-Star Game in 2015, his unconditional release. Peralta was designated for assignment on Friday after hitting .204 with no RBIs in 54 at-bats. ... Milwaukee recalled RHP Brandon Woodruff from Triple-A Colorado Springs to start the first game on Tuesday and designated for assignment RHP Rob Scahill. But Woodruff was scratched less than 20 minutes before first pitch with right hamstring tightness and replaced by LHP Brent Suter... The Cardinals recalled RHP Sam Tuivailala from Triple-A Memphis and optioned INF Paul DeJong to Memphis. ... Brewers 3B Travis Shaw was reinstated from the family medical emergency list and OF Brett Phillips was optioned to Colorado Springs.