St. Louis Cardinals: Carlos Martinez dominant in win

Cardinals rally for another win

Trailing 1-0 heading into the eighth, the St. Louis Cardinals plated a pair of runs in the frame to come from behind to top the Los Angeles Dodgers for the second-straight contest, this time by a 2-1 final.

With two men on and one out in the top of the eighth, second baseman Kolten Wong hit a high chopper to Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, who fielded the ball, but had nowhere to throw, tying the game 1-1.

Matt Carpenter followed with a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Jason Heyward from third and setting up the eventual win for Mike Matheny‘s ball club.

St. Louis (37-18) now sits 19 games above .500, thanks largely in-part to the work of its starting rotation. Friday night was no different as right-hander Carlos Martinez struck out a career-high 11 in seven frames of one-run ball en route to his sixth win of the season.

Randy Choate and Kevin Siegrist handled duties in the eighth and hard-throwing closer Trevor Rosenthal nailed down his 18th save of the season, striking out a pair in a perfect ninth.

Martinez’s counterpart, lefty Brett Anderson, pitched well for Los Angeles (31-24), allowing just two earned on four hits in 7 2/3 innings of work, but the Dodgers’ offense wasn’t at its best on Friday.

The home team tallied just four hits on the night, striking out 14 times in the process. Rookie Joc Pederson drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the second, accounting for the only Dodgers run in the process.

Next: Cards' Wacha off to white-hot start to 2015 season